Del Norte
We met our guides for the day, Jim Barrett and Aaron Jacobs, at the shoreline of Lake Earl. With them was Tim Williamson from California Fish and Game, a grizzled bear of a man, and the pilot/captain of our ferry across the lake via an air boat. Taking us 3-5 at a time and making sure we wore ear protectors, he ferried us in this 17-foot craft powered by a 350-cubic-inch Chevrolet engine generating 365 horsepower. It may not have been environmentally correct, but the result was electrifying! The last group of passengers was deposited, not on the beach but ON the beach, some 20 feet off the water’s edge. That’s what you can do when your boat has a Teflon coating on the hull.
Our guides then took us through the Tolowa Dunes State Park to Dead Lake situated near the end of the Crescent City Airport. After crossing the outlet for Dead Lake we made our way to the beach for our lunch break. Then it was on to a silent moment at Point St. George.
Jim Barrett’s opening words for us summed up our feelings: he said that he appreciated those who accepted things as they are, not for how they could be changed.
After going across the bluff tops, our walk then took us through fields of wind swept grasses and Douglas iris. We entered Crescent City hiking alternately on beach and bluff top, passing the monument to those lost in the 1865 wreck of the Brother Jonathan and on to Battery Point Park.