Fort Bragg, California
June 1, 2021
Yesterday I drove more than I have in a while. From Ocean Cove to Guerneville then back to Ocean Cove and continuing on the PCH to Fort Bragg. This must be the largest town on the coast for a good ways — there’s even a McDonalds here. And a Starbucks -- I am in its parking lot freeloading on its wifi.
Random thoughts from the day:
Today’s drive was as scenic as the whole drive along the PCH has been. More traffic which I assume is because of Memorial Day. Also more small towns than I have experienced. I’m talking under 500 people - Elk, Little River, Point Arena, Gualala are four that come to mind.
I saw a lacrosse goal in the school yard in Elk. It had the target pockets in the upper left and right corners. It looked completely out of place (see slideshow).
I stopped at a couple of state parks between Mondosterio and here to see if they had a tent site. All sold out.
I saw approximately 10 cyclists with their camping gear on their bikes. All ages. I keep asking myself if Zi could do that. So far the answer is a question — “do you really want to do that?”
Whenever I see a Sorhby’s yard sign in front of a property I conclude it’s expensive.
It is interesting along this part of the coast — the air is cool but the sun is warm. Definitely s climate where you need a jacket with you to put on, take off, put on, take off…. (If you are counting, I used four periods there).
How about those Wahoos beating Maryland 17-16 to win the lacrosse national championship. Back to back championships. I watched the score on my SiriusXM display — too stressful to listen to the game.
I may have neglected to point out that I found a great WiFi connection in the parking lot of the Guerneville library. Big grins about discovering that.
Photos I did not take: Just east of Guerneville on Highway 116 is a large Korbel operation - tours, shipping, grape deliveries. I assume that is its HQ. East of the Korbel operation is a town named Forrestville. There is a street there named Champs De Elsys.
Whereas sleeping in your vehicle parked along the PCH is against the law down south, it seems to be permissible in Northern California.
I’m not sure how to take this but someone commented today that I had the on-the-road look. Still thinking about that one.
I’m using the Dyrt app to find campgrounds. A+.
A slideshow featuring Barbara Acklin. The lighthouse is at Point Arena. Lots of old barns on the Pacific coast. Cows and deers, too.
Some information on town I passed through:
Elk:
Elk (formerly, Greenwood and Elk River) is an unincorporated community in Mendocino County, California. It is located 22 miles south of Fort Bragg, at an elevation of 135 feet.
Elk has a population of 208. It is located on the coast at the crossroads of State Route 1 and Philo-Greenwood Road. Albion, Little River, and Mendocino lie to the north, and Manchester and Point Arena to the south. Inland are Navarro, Philo, and Boonville.
Elk was originally called "Greenwood" after early homesteaders, the Greenwood brothers,[2] sons of mountain man Caleb Greenwood and his half Crow wife, one of the rescuers of the Donner Party. When the post office was opened, in 1887,[2] there was already another Greenwood in California so it was called Elk Post Office. Eventually the name came to refer to the town. It is an outgrowth of an earlier town called Cuffy's Cove and the cemetery is located at that townsite 1 mile (2 km) north of Elk. When pioneer lumberman Lorenzo White was unable to reach a satisfactory deal with the owners of the lumber chutes at Cuffy's Cove to ship out his redwood product, he constructed a wharf out along a string of rocks in the center of what is now Elk. When he built a large steam sawmill and 3-foot (90-cm) gauge railroad, the new employment drained the town of Cuffy's Cove which was eventually abandoned. The sawmill was producing 80,000 board feet of lumber per day by 1890. The mill was sold to Goodyear Redwood Company in 1916. Elk River Company took over the sawmill when Goodyear went bankrupt in 1932. The local redwood lumber industry economy collapsed when the uninsured sawmill burned in 1936.
Another sawmill was built in about 1953 and one more in 1963. These operated until the late 1960s when the redwood and Douglas fir was mostly logged out. After some quiet times, the town has had a rebirth as a recreation destination. Many of the larger old houses are now Bed & Breakfast inns and the State has acquired the Greenwood Creek beach and the original mill site as a state park.
Point Arena:
Point Arena (formerly Punta Arenas and Puntas Arenas) is a small coastal city in Mendocino County, California, United States. Point Arena is located 32 miles west of Hopland, at an elevation of 118 feet. The population was 449 at the 2010 census, down from 474 at the 2000 census, making it one of the smallest incorporated cities in the state. The Point Arena Census county division had 3,915 residents, as of 2010.
Its main street comprises part of State Route 1, California's coastal artery. Along with a number of other Mendocino County coastal communities, Point Arena was associated with the hippie and subsequent counterculture groups. The economy is largely geared toward servicing the summertime tourist industry. The city is near the headquarters of the tribal lands of Manchester Band of Pomo Indians of the Manchester-Point Arena Rancheria and adjacent to the recently formed Point Arena Stornetta Public Lands National Monument. Hiking trails with coastal prairie and ocean views can be accessed from Point Arena City Hall. At Arena Cove Historic District and pier, huge ocean front bluffs show the power of the interface of tectonic plates.
The first European to record Point Arena was Spaniard Bartolomé Ferrer in 1543, who named it Cabo de Fortunas (Spanish for "cape of fortunes"). The cape was renamed to Punta Delgado (narrow point) in 1775 by lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (commander of the schooner Sonora), part of a royal expedition chartered by the government of Mexico to map the north coast of Alta California. Later the point, and the small harbor town south of it, were called Barra de Arena (i.e. sandbar) and finally Punta Arena (literally "sand point").
The Punta Arena post office opened in 1858, and was renamed Point Arena in 1889. The first store at Point Arena opened in 1859. Point Arena incorporated in 1908.
In 1886, Nellie Welch, an 11-year-old girl, was appointed lead operator and had full charge of the telegraph office in Point Arena. (Operators like Western Union often hired women because they were cheaper labor then the men.)
The Point Arena area is also home to the Point Arena Cable Station, although the station is technically located in nearby Manchester. Built in 1956 by AT&T Corporation, the cable station serves as the eastern terminus of several undersea cables, including the JUSCN and connections to Hawaii and Canada. In 2002, AT&T applied for a permit from the EPA to connect an existing fiber optic conduit to the cable station, since further construction would cause incidental damage to the habitat of the endangered Point Arena Mountain Beaver.
Manchester
Manchester is a census-designated place in Mendocino County, California. It is located 4 miles north of Point Arena, at an elevation of 85 feet. The population was 195 at the 2010 census. The Manchester post office opened in 1871, closed in 1876, and re-opened in 1877. The place was named after Manchester, England, an early settler's former home.
There is a state park here that was recommended to me by John in Jenner.