June 13: Humboldt County
South Spit of Humboldt Harbor to Table Bluff Beach. 5.2 miles
At noon the group assembled at the Adorni Center in downtown Eureka following our overnight home stays. With everyone washed and all our clothing laundered, we were hardly recognizable to each other. After saying our goodbyes and giving our thanks to our gracious hosts, we were off in Mel’s mobile. Our ride took us to the south spit of Humboldt Harbor. Looking northerly we could see the spot where the Madaket picked us up the day before. Without our support van or without having arranged a boat to carry us across the mouth of the bay, we would have been forced to detour around Humboldt Bay and through Eureka to get to this spot.
Our guides for the day were Archie and Sue Mossman, both retired professors at Humboldt State University; Archie in biology and Sue in animal anatomy, physiology and histology. The hike was straight forward: follow the surfline to Table Bluff Beach. For the first time we had the wind coming at us from the southwest, not pushing us along from the northwest. Fortunately it was only a light breeze.
We soon became enveloped in a fog giving the sea a grey slate quality. I lagged behind, and the group at large soon disappeared ahead. Physically I was walking in my own bubble of reality, a defined radius of perception with me at its center. It did not take much to extend that thought to the realization that we all walk in our own little bubbles of reality, limited by the fogs of our own perceptions and prejudices. Soon, like a balding man, the fog began to thin above allowing light to sparkle in the waves along the shore.
Archie took us to observe a dead sea lion that he had seen 3 days before and gave us an excellent course in track identification; bush rabbits, jack rabbits, grey fox, feral cat, dogs, mice, birds: all had left their mark in the sand.
After arriving at Table Bluff, we took the half-hour’s ride to Ferndale and our campsite at the Ferndale Fair Grounds, just outside the first turn of the race track. (Jon Brefogle;
photos: Linda Hanes)