Smith River National Rec. Area

We left Saturday for the Oregon-California border with a couple of our friends (originally Tim's friends now turned my friends, too).




















To see the views, we took a little bit of a longer way up the 5 to the 299 to the 101 and ended up going through an area that is currently on fire. At one point, we drove past a burning hillside that started to crumble a little. The smoke in the area was so thick, I actually felt a little sick and very claustrophobic. I just kept saying, "I feel slightly uncomfortable with this situation," which may have been the understatement of the year.

We got there around 7pm to meet up with friends of friends, set up camp, had a campfire (surprisingly allowed still) and ate. The next day we found a swimmin' hole. Unfortunately, I didn't really think there might be swimming involved in the trip, and didn't bring my suit. This was especially disappointing given that there were rapids that made this awesome whirlpool that you could get sucked into and then have it spit you out back into the whirlpool. It looked super fun.

Although Turkey is generally somewhat uncomfortable in nature (it took forever to get him to lay down on the rocky beach), he did enjoy the river and the company of his new girlfriend, Sadie (sorry Scarlet).















After, we went on a short, but difficult hike. I'm blaming the heat - not the fact that I'm out of shape - for how out of breath I was. We kept going up and up and up and despite our fatigue we didn't stop. We were certain that just around the next bend the end would appear and there would be a spectacular clearing with a sight unlike any other. When we got to the end of the trail, we were all gravely disappointed with the fact that there was no sight to be seen.














We went into town to look for a place that sold local fish which apparently does not exist because it all gets shipped out. We stopped by the ocean while in town.


We all thought we would sleep well that night because of our busy day. And, we would have, if it weren't for the abusive, alcoholic couple in the campsite next to us fighting all night. But alas, that's another story...

Tim and I decided to take the fasted way home the next day. We stopped in Ashland on the way. I'd been there once before and was reminded of how great it was - lots of dirty hippies, good food, cute shops and very dog-friendly.