Into The Wilderness!

A Bit of Pacific coast
Tuesday morning, we left Ukiah bright and early. It's a great scenic drive, passing by fairly spectacular ocean views. We stopped on an overlook so I could scan the rocks and beaches below the freeway to look for shorebirds. There were little groups of Pigeon Guillemots floating on the ocean foam.


A Small Beach
Soon we were up the coast headed for our next destination, Fort Bragg.

There was no visiable agenda for Fort Bragg. We spent the first afternoon walking about, visiting the little shops and enjoying the small "downtown" area. Loved the walking, but that evening, after checking into the Beachcomber motel, it was time for my big thrill - I, like Snoopy, love Super time!

That first evening we ate at a place, uniquely called "Rest Au Rant". Get it? Rest-au-rant...? Nevermind. The menu was pricey so I stuck with a sample of clam chowder and a hamburger priced so I wouldn't need to take out a loan. Our second night at Fort Bragg we dined at the North Coast Brewing Company, famous for it's beer sampling.


Pick a beer! Any beer - Slurrrrp!
There were some awesomely tasty brews to sample. My favorite brewskys were Brother Thelonius Belgium style ale and Rasputin Ale, but we also tried Le Merle, Red Seal Ale and Scrimshaw. Each was unique and delish in its own right. What'd we eat? I forget! *hick*

Our second day at Fort Bragg we took a slow walking tour of Mendocino, a small coastal town, sort-of-famous for that 60s rock hit of the same name and that scenes from Hitchcock's "The Birds" was filmed in Mendocino. For me its fame lies in it was one of the places Diane's mother Eunice took me when I flew up for a visit with Diane and her sisters, back in the day, 1970 to be exact.


Mendocino Victorian house
These days Mendocino is a picturesque little town you can walk every street of in under an hour, if you don't succumb to visiting all the little tourist shops to buy toys, muffins or modern jewelry - you know, like Diane and I did.


This looks like any little shop in Anchorage Alaska
I love walking around Mendocino because it's like a trip down memory lane, the year, 1970, Diane, her Mom, sisters and I, having a walk around a neo-hippy town, giving the love hand sign to all and sundry. Peace man!

Soon enough the time in Mendocino, at the Mendocino Botanical Gardens (uh... gift shop & ice cream parlor only...) were over. We repacked our bags in Fort Bragg and were off to meet Diane's sister Aveeda & the gang. They were camping in Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Getting to the campground meant driving north on Highway 101, then veering onto a tiny, westward dirt road, through coastal redwood forests where the fog hung like the lichens on redwood limbs.


Drive in to the Campsite at Sinkyou
The length of the the route was intermittently strewn with wildflowers. Me staring at wildflowers, while driving a few feet from a ledge leading down to the Pacific Ocean...


Lovely sharp cliffs below the road...
Isn't the safest situation to find one's self in - the sudden distraction of one new wildflower for me, might mean a speedy decent for Diane, down below to the salt watered wet rocks below.


Farewell-to-Spring wildflowers

Wild Foxgloves
After a slow, wildflower photography session, finally we could spot the end of the road; a safe decent to a valley inlet by the sea.


Below the fog lay a broad meadow and an estuary at the ocean's edge.

Same view, below the fog
We were finally down the mountain and checking the message board where the Paper Plate of Destiny gave us instructions to ferret out the Knutson/Mock party.

Paper plated directions lay in wait for us

Our directions were straight and over 'The Bridge'...


Straight over the wooden bridge
Then a sharp left past a winsome grave marker on the roadside...


Here Lies Katherine Rose...

A slightly wrong turn and a left, and we were soon at home & chatting with the Knutson/Mock Clan.


Some of the Knutson/Mock Band
And once we found the Knutson/Mock band I becamse reaquainted with Diane's sister Aveeda, who also went to high school with me, Aveeda's daughter, Anestezia and boyfriend Geoff, , sister Heidi and hubby Drew. Last but certainly not least, Diane's little niecelette 5 year old Ivy.

Aveeda has a wonderfully HUMONGOUS family tent, so all I had to do was put up my camp bed and I was in like a wilderness Flint. Soon I had my camera & binocs in hand and was off exploring the nearby meadow at the sea.

On reflection, I was a little shocked by just how primative the campground was - only one outhouse on the horizon - but then concluded, it was time for this woman to get back to her roots, surviving in a semi-domesticated wilderness area.


Nearby, in the Meadow - Elk were shrouded in drizzly fog

A Bull, Vacuuming up the yummy grasses and forage

Bird's Foot Trefoil

In the Meadow by the Sea

Basket Cases

The sweeping redwood roof of Ukiah's Grace Hudson Museum
After touring the Seabiscuit Ranch, our next stop was lunch at the Ukiah Brewing Company, and a trip to Ukiah’s Grace Hudson Museum. I heard about the museum when I was a Docent at the State Indian Museum but this was my first chance for a visit. The Museum’s current exhibit is...

Nice exhibits all about what California's first inhabitant's ate, and how they prepared it. We watched a video showing an old Indian woman preparing California Buckeye seeds for eating. I didn't realize the preparation for buckeye, but for a few details, is the same as the preparation of acorn mush. Anyway, by the time the patient old gal in the video split the pods, boiled them by putting them in a basket & rotating hot rocks in & out the basket, then pounded the seeds in to powder, lined a spot with sand and leaves, coated... (You tired yet? I'm exhausted AND hungry!) coated the leaves with the powdered seeds poured water over it until bitter tannins were leached out.... Whew! I were ready for a nap.

One nice touch for the exhibit on food preparation was pads of removable recipes so you could take home a little bit of California Indian cookery with you.

Yeah! I get to take home some recipes!
Now where can I find a Pinon Pine tree?
The other exhibits were the Grace Hudson family and the lady's paintings of the local Pomo Indians, or ...

Gallery of paintings at the Museum
Closer look at one of Hudson's famous Pomo Children Paintings
of more interesting to me; California Indian basketry. Below here, from the top clockwise, are skins from the breasts of Western Meadowlarks (yellow feathers), salmon pink Northern Flicker (woodpecker) feathers, a tiny red topknot from an Acorn Woodpecker, and a mallard duck drake's head feathers; all used for design in Pomo feathered baskets.

Feathers and feathery skins for Pomo Baskets
Even more exciting than the beautiful feathers were the raw materials used to weave the baskets - roots of the white sedge, bull rush and spruce, branches of California hazel, willow and redbud, and even stems of various ferns that were woven to make up the unique designs on Pomo baskets. I remember in school we used to derisively call an easy class "basket weaving". I got to try my hand at Karuk and Yukut basketry once, and now I know how stupid we were about basketry back in the day. Those Indian women must have had the brain circuitry of computers to keep the designs in mind while making weaving baskets!

Basketry materials: spruce roots, hazel sticks, etc.

Basket with Quail Topknots
Honestly, just look at the basket above with its woodpecker feathering and quail topknots - wouldn't you love to be able to create a thing of that much beauty? Basket weaving class indeed! Truth be told, it's a little closer to rocket science than we could have appreciated.

Basket

Ok, now the next basket is amazing - a Pomo basket with Meadowlark feathers, with dark stripes of irridescent Mallard drake head feathers and a trim of small, ground down clam shells.

Feathered Pomo Basket with shell trimming

When done checking out the exhibits we bee-lined it to the gift shop. There we got into an hour long conversation with a really neat lady clerk named Pat. I think we three were buddies in another life, because we hit it off right away discussing about a b'jillion urgent girlie issues. Great fun, although there was one ensie wiensie downside; by the time we shut up and left the gift shop and walked over to the Sun House - it was closed for the day. Bugger!

We had to be satisified checking out the outside of the unique, six room wooden house, that Hudson and her hubby lived in back in the 1900s. I've no clue what's inside of it, but I'll be back to explore it some other day.

Sunhouse Doorway

Sunhouse
So done with touring the Seabiscuit Ranch, and perusing the Museum, Diane and I hit the safeway for savory & sweet goodies - ok, and some bitchin' local beers, and we headed back to the Spirit Ranch house where we spent a last evening, sitting on the back porch, watching the sun set over the vineyard and looking forward to tommorrow's drive.

Touring the Biscuit’s Home

When I was in Tennessee last May, the last place I wanted to see was Graceland. Oh, I know loads of people crave a visit to the home of the so-called King of Rock n’ Roll, but it wasn’t my cup o’ tea. But... you know, sometimes a King just demands his due. So today my friend Diane and I visited the home of a Superstar of yore – Seabiscuit!


Seabiscuit aka 'The Biscuit', the 4-legged Superstar!
The morning walking tour took place at Ridgewood Ranch, that turned out to be just along side of HWY 101 – which leads north to the Avenue of the Giants. I’ve driven past the ranch without knowing it at least a half b’jillion times. From now on I’ll know to nod respectfully as I zip pastthe Ranch on my way to Crescent City. Now for some Biscuit History.


The Biscuit kicking arse at Santa Anita
The Ridgewood Ranch is currently owned by a religious sect that is working hard to restore the ranch and its buildings to its former glory. In the Biscuit’s day the ranch was 16,000 acres, but now the ranch is down to 5,000 acres. I’m hoping the National Park System buys into the original 16K acres and makes it a National Historic Site. Hey, it’s the least we can do for the Biscuit, a horse that kept up America's spirit during the Depression years leading up to WWII.

The biscuit tour starts in a large dining room, which is decorated with loads of Biscuit memorabilia.


The Howard's Racing colors along with typical eensie racing saddle

Diane reading some of the multitude of
scrapbooks of Ridgewood Ranch in its prime
After everyone’s had a good look around, the tour starts with a 15 minute ‘home movie’ filmed by one of the Howards, the family that owned Seabiscuit. Then the walking tour begins. The tour was lead by Tracy Livingstone, whose the enthusiast behind the scenes - he collected all the photos and such. He has also 'rescued' loads of Biscuit artifacts, many shown below.


Tour leader Tracy Livingstone, who lives on the Ranch
Of course the tour began with a look at Seabiscuit himself – this statue just a tad smaller than Seabiscuit in life.


Seabiscuit's Statue - one of three made in his likeness

The pedestal says it all… I got all choked up
on the first bit of the tour
Next we toured the original Howard’s Home, which was in place when the Howard’s bought the Ranch. Loads to see but I’ll cut to the bits that interested me. If you want to see more you’ll just have to go there for yourself.


Hearth inside the Howard's home
I was tickled to see the center fireplace mantle is an homage to the last Elsie Allen, a now world famous Pomo basket weaver. Elsie was influential in reviving California Indian basket weaving.


Elsie Allan - another legend connected to the ranch
At the base of the fireplace is ‘The Last Rut’. The ranch has Fallow Deer herds – a gift to the Howards from the Hearst Castle folks. A pair of rutting Fallow stags got barbed wire tangled in their antlers and... uh… it didn’t go to well for them.


The Last Rut
The carriage house, which in it’s day was stuffed to the rafters with shiny new Buicks (Mr. Howard ran the Buick Company) isn’t renovated yet, but word up is PBS's This Old House may be interested in doing the honors.


100 yr old Carriage House

Side of carriage house - even the old rose arbor is 100 yrs old
In its day, the Howard’s ranch was host to the likes of Bing Crosby, Clark Gable, Carol Lombard and loads of other 40s movie stars. We saw the pool with its mens & ladies bath houses, where it is rumored Shirley Temple learned to swim.

I saved most of my enthusiasm though for Seabiscuit’s Barn – renovated with the help of the local Willet’s Rotary Club. Go BISCUIT!


Seabiscuit's Barn
Seabiscuit’s barn is awesome! It has four corner stalls all shined up for four of Ridgewood’s primo racing stallions. There was a room for the horse handlers to sleep and of course storage and tack rooms. The only thing the place is currently missing is that lovely scent of hay and horses.


Happy at the Biscuit's Stall

The Biscuit's personal private pasture back-in-the-day – the paddocks are gone

Next we were off to visit the Mare’s Barn

Mare's barn isn’t renovated yet
The stall doors all bear the Howard's Ranch racing emblem. The two color motif was adopted out of respect for Seabiscuit when the great horse died at the age of 14. The great horse had an oversized heart and lungs, which is probably how he could run so hard and had such stamina. The over-sized organs may well have lead to his death at such a relatively young age. Pampered horses can reach the age of 25 and more.


breezeways keep the Mare's barn cool, even on a hot day like our tour day
Our last visit on the tour was to see the few horses that remain on the ranch.


This chestnut filly is a real princess, carrying the blood of
Man O' War, War Admiral, Seabiscuit and Secretariat

Weather Vane on the Biscuit's Barn
I've only relayed perhaps 5% of what I learned of Ridgewood Ranch's history or Seabiscuit. And as for showing all the pictures I took? Don't get me started. And the day was only half over. We still had the Grace Hudson Museum and Sun House to tour back in Ukiah. I'm tired just thinking on it!