USA – Road Trip – Arcata – 25th/26th September

We drove slowly to Arcata and at around midday we found our way to Janine’s place in Indianola. She works and lives on the grounds of the Humboldt Community Foundation, a house donated to the charity. She gave us the option of sleeping in her studio in the forest, bearing in mind that this was a Redwood Forest! We loved it, again we wouldn’t be in the tent! The bed was a wooden table that jutted out from the wall so we made it up with our sleeping pads and bags, cosy! We enjoyed a drive back out towards Trinidad and made our way to College Cove, the most epic of bays in the area! The sea was pretty wild and it was really hot so there were people sunbathing and surfing, but not swimming!

Following on from the cove we drove to the Arcata Co-op of which Janine is a member, the food choices are fantastic if pricey but we instantly got a feel for Arcata and the type of people it attracts. Back in our new little home we explored the forest and then enjoyed a lovely salmon dinner thanks to Janine. Later on she brought out her Leica M3, a camera she used a lot during her art studies in LA, we were amazed by her mint collection of Leica lenses, flash gun, light meter and so on, the camera still had film in it too.

We got up fairly early and enjoyed coffee and breakfast with Janine. She had arranged for us to do a hike at Fern Canyon with her neighbour Genie. We left at around 11am and stopped off at a great deli inside Wildberries Marketplace, we all picked up a jam packed sandwich for the day.

The drive to Fern Canyon took about 45 minutes heading north on the 101 and then a further 14 miles or so through state park roads which took quite some time. We parked at Gold Bluffs beach and set off on a 4 hike. We weren’t sure if this was what the ladies had in mind but we were thankful of the walk and the canyon is pretty special. This is where Jurassic Park was filmed so we were surrounded by dripping fern walls, and more redwoods over-towering us. The light was fantastic for the day and we also had the opportunity to play a little more with Janine’s mint condition Leica 35mm lens! Aswell as finish off the film she had in her Leica M3.

After the walk we took the drive back to Arcata and snoozed along the way. The evening saw  us head into central Arcata and enjoy some fantastic sushi at Tomo located in the Arcata Hotel on one of the corners of the plaza. A really nice place to check out and eat at if you have the time.

(Leica M9, Summicron-M 50mm f/2.0, Leica 90mm f/2.8, Zeiss 18mm f/4 ZM processed in Lightroom 3)

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