I Take the Bus to Trinidad

I wandered through the Cal Poly Humboldt campus to catch the bus to Trinidad and on the way I found a hobbit hole.

This may have been the most rural bus route I had ever experienced. It dropped me off in the town of Trinidad. I took a short walk through town and took a hike around Trinidad Head

It was sunny and windy.

Part of the hike went through this thicket.

Here’s the town of Trinidad

And some atmospheric pictures.

The lighthouse is still in operation (as, presumably, are these crab pots).

After my hike, I ate at the Seascape Restaurant where I had a really good smoked salmon cheese sandwich and some chowder. While there, I listened to the slightly awkward conversation of four people, one of whom was interviewing for a position in the Art Department at Cal Poly Humboldt. I wonder if he got the job?

Also, I’m pretty sure this was the beach Matt and I visited in 2019, though I never called that beach by name.

Elk Rock Garden at the Bishop’s Close

Back in the day, Peter Kerr built this house on his estate and spent a lot of time creating an amazing garden. When he died in 1957, his daughters gave it to the Episcopal Diocese with the stipulation that the public could visit the grounds.

The Diocese has decided to sell the property, which means that if I wanted to see Elk Rock Garden (I’d been meaning to visit for 20 years) I’d better get going. The problem? It’s open Monday through Friday during the same hours I work.

My first plan was to visit on Martin Luther King Day in January, but that weekend became to busy. So President’s Day was my best bet.

The fancy house:

We haven’t had any February fake-out this year, so the garden is just beginning to wake up. There were a lot of budding things.

Here is the view from the upper edge of the property. I think the original parcel went all the way to the river.

An area for services.

The caretaker’s cottage. I spied a cat tree inside.

February isn’t quite peak moss month, but it’s close.

The seal on the gate.

Looking back at the house from the gardens.

I’m glad I got the opportunity to visit this garden. Hopefully the next owner will take delight in the gardens, or even keep them public.

City Strides

Someone at work mentioned the City Strides website, and I investigated and found it was just the kind of thing I would love, so I signed up. Once you register with the website and hook up your movement tracker, it maps the streets you’ve run or walked. It also tells you the percentage of the city that you have run. As you can see, I have a lot of running and walking in the streets that are about a half mile from my home. It drops off steeply after that though. I think I’m maybe at 2% for all of Portland’s streets.

That thick line that goes all the way to Ainsworth is the Neighborhood 5K route that I did monthly in 2021. I also walked it a lot on weeknights after work during winter 2022. Now that I have City Strides I can branch out and try and collect more of these streets.

Fully Loaded in the Costco Parking Lot

Among the many things I hate about going to Costco is parking. I usually park very close to the end of the parking lot. And that gives me a nice long walk and a close-up look at interesting things in the lot such as this RV that was primed for adventure.

At least one of those bikes is an ebike, and it looks like there are at least five (and maybe as many as seven?) types of boards that go in the water. That’s a lot of cash, just riding on the back of the vehicle.