To Jenner By The Sea

November 30, 2023

The plan for the day is to get an early start again, because today’s ride is almost exactly the same distance and duration as yesterday’s. Also we’d like to arrive at our destination, Jenner, in time to get in a walk on the beach somewhere before it gets dark. Our lodging here doesn’t include breakfast, so we decide to start driving as soon as it’s light and have breakfast somewhere down the road - Arcata maybe, about ninety minutes away.

Plans change though when we wake up to a drizzly morning that dampens our resolve. We don’t start driving until after eight, hoping the weather will improve. Instead, it gets worse and it’s alternately either raining hard or foggy most of the way to breakfast. It’s difficult driving through the northern redwoods - the road is narrow in many spots with giant trees crowding the shoulders , and visibility is poor. Toward the end, there’s considerable grousing coming from the shotgun seat over the fact that it’s too long to wait for breakfast. “I’m never letting you talk me into this again” is a representative comment.

Breakfast at Toni’s in Arcata is excellent though, and such unpleasant thoughts are quickly forgotten. Its still a wet mess when we’re back on the road though, and it doesn’t really improve greatly until we’re past Willets and finally drop into the upper end of the Russian River valley. After that it’s a pleasant and dry ride as we follow the river the rest of the way to its mouth, just south of Jenner.

Not the best driving conditions. We don’t bother stopping at any of the vista points.

Weather conditions are poor, but it helps that there’s very little traffic on the road this morning. This would be the best of times to bike through the redwoods, if it wasn’t the worst of times.

When the rain stops and the fog clears as it does off and on, it’s all very beautiful.

Seems like ideal conditions for seeing herds of elk in the glens, but not today.

We’re in Jenner for these next two nights because we were looking for someplace interesting we haven’t stayed at before and I remembered Jenner from the times I biked down the California coast. The whole northern coast is scenic of course, but Jenner is exceptional for the dramatic terrain at the mouth of the Russian River, and memorable as a cyclist for the steep, narrow, shoulderless switchback climb away from it if you’re southbound. I was delighted to see that there was available lodging here, and at a not exorbitant rate.

When we arrive we get some insight into why the rate is reasonable - the place is all but shut down for the winter. The restaurant is closed for the season (which we knew when we booked), but the breakfast that’s included with the rate consists of a small brown bag handed to me when I register. It includes two apples, two oranges, two muffins, and two small containers of yoghurt. That plus self-serve coffee in the room apparently qualifies as breakfast, but it’s not really the one we’d been anticipating. Which is fine really - we’re here for the setting, which is as fine as I remembered it. And on the plus side, we can get started in the mornings s early as we want.

For dinner we drive inland five miles to Duncan’s Mills, a riverside village that offers two places to get an evening meal: the Cape Fear Cafe which we’ll try tomorrow, and the Blue Heron Restaurant and Tavern. The Tavern half of Blue Heron is packed and rowdy, but we’re the only diners in the Restaurant half. We both have grilled salmon and an uninteresting beet salad with beets that remind us of why we both hated them growing up. An OK meal, but we hope for better tomorrow at Cape Fear.

Afterwards we stop in at the surprisingly well stocked store and walk out with granola and milk. That together with the bread and peanut butter we’ve brought along will do for breakfast. The drive back, although short, is a little scary on the curvy river road in absolutely black conditions. I worry the whole way that one of those elk we were hoping to see earlier will make an appearance on the road now.

Quiet tonight. We’re not staying in the lodge itself, which is more or less closed for the winter. We’re in the Penny Island room in that house to the left.

The view from across the highway: the mouth of the Russian River. We can see it from our room too, but I’ve walked to the other side to get a clearer shot. The land on the left is not the opposite bank, btw. It’s Penny Island (which our room is named after), a fairly large island that fills most of the bay.

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Jacquie GaudetWhen Al and I drove down to Santa Rosa to do the King Ridge Gran Fondo (in 2014, when it was in October and still based in Santa Rosa), we camped one night at Crater Lake. We woke to a frost-crusted tent and packed up with freezing fingers. We didn’t find a place to eat until Klamath Falls so breakfast was very late.
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5 months ago

Scott AndersonTo Jacquie GaudetYipes! That’s. Long drop to Crater Lake before breakfast, even without freezing.
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5 months ago

Jacquie GaudetTo Scott AndersonWe were car camping. I was still working and it was during term time so I only had a few days off. Three days to drive down and two to drive back made it a whirlwind trip. My only regret is not stopping more for photos during the event.
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5 months ago