Van Damme State Park

October 8th, 

We had planned a rest day today but with the wind being so windy, we decided to move on.  Bryan and Maggie left early, whereas Rigel was quite sore from the day before and I wanted to paint the amazing view that I woke up to.  It was a gorgeous cliff and beach that I had the pleasure to poke my head out of the tent too.  And I proceeded to paint it from the comfort of my sleeping bag.  So we took our time, made breakfast and left around noon.  

In the afternon we headed south, hitting the major town (pop 7000) of Fort Bragg.  Along the way, the road made some CRAZY dips and dives. Highway 1 in California really tries to hug the coast, and wherever creeks empty into the ocean a valley occurs.  Rather than making a large bridge across the gorge, the road hugs the gorge inland dropping sharply in elevation until a short bridge (in the form of a culvert) can be achieved. This makes for wild drops and extreme corners that steal all your momentum and then steep uphills with an onshore headwind.  Brutal. Exhilerating.

Did some shopping in Fort Bragg for groceries and then headed to our campground of Russian Gulch.  Campground was closed, and we found a note from Bryan and Maggie saying they continued on the extra 4 miles south of Mendocino to Van Damme State Park to camp.  We got there around 6pm, made dinner and set up camp and went to bed.

Gorgeous trees that arched over to make a wonderful canopy/tunnel over the road on the flats. Delightful.