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We are working with First 5 Humboldt to develop a hiking guide for kids and families. We would love to feature your photos of these landscapes and people visiting these places!
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Rees Hughes shares some of his favorite hikes from his book, Hiking Humboldt Volume 2. This was recorded in a ZOOM Webinar during sheltering in place for COVID-19.
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This area of California contains some of the largest redwoods on Earth and holds extensive old-growth forests, protected as a national park in 1968. This particular walk, using the Zig Zag Trails and Prairie Creek Trail, is entirely in old growth. It offers an enigmatic temporal departure into a rare forest type. In addition to redwoods, other conifer specimens like Douglas-fir, western hemlock, and Sitka spruce are coupled with clandestine western redcedar and Port-Orford cedar—be sure to look carefully and learn your conifers well. Watch for grand firs that occur infrequently along the road, particularly at the south end of Elk Prairie.
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Description: It is amazing that, just a stone’s throw from Arcata Redwood Company’s Mill B, these old-growth redwood groves would survive. Much of the credit must go to the efforts of the Save the Redwoods League. A number of the leaders and benefactors are memorialized on the plaques on this walk. This trail passes 10-foot Trillium Falls and spends more time in the forest before gradually dropping back toward the wetlands along Prairie Creek. These wetlands are one of the most dependable locations for viewing Roosevelt elk. As interpretative displays in the Elk Meadow Day Use Area illustrate, from 1948 until restoration in the 1990s this was the location of Arcata Redwood Company’s Mill B and its massive 8-acre asphalt-covered log deck.
Continue ReadingIn mid-November 2019, the city of Eureka completed the Eureka Waterfront Trail by connecting a one-block section on 1st Street. This now allows bikers and walkers to hike from Tydd Street to Herrick Avenue — all on paved Trail!
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Learn about current and future opportunities with the Volunteer Trail Steward program and Humboldt Trails with this interview with Rees Hughes. For 10 years now Volunteer Trail Stewards have made it possible for the county and municipalities to expand our trail system. Maintenance and upkeep is always a concern, but volunteers have kept costs so low expansion is possible.
More opportunities available at Humboldt Trails.
Chris Valle-Riestra is an exceptional volunteer and trail steward–with a particular fondness for the Klamath Mountains. He has been spearheading trailwork in the Orleans Ranger District for many years and knows the trails well .
The most extensive accessible trail system in Humboldt County is in the Elk Prairie/Big Tree areas of Prairie Creek Redwood State Park and Redwood National Park. This trail system offers many ways to mix and match the trails that network this area. Included in the route are magnificent old growth redwoods, picturesque Prairie Creek, the open grasslands of Elk Prairie, a nature trail, and miles of accessible trail.
Description: Located on a bend in the Van Duzen River, Owen R. Cheatham Grove is a majestic patch of old growth redwoods spared by the founder of what would become the Georgia-Pacific Plywood and Lumber Company. The short hike loops through the grove. From the west side of the parking area two trails lead across the riverbed to the Van Duzen River. Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park offers a small network of trails on the north and south side of the Van Duzen River. A summer bridge crosses the Van Duzen to 1.5 miles of additional trails on the south side. The north side trails include a nature trail with interpretive signs, a meandering walk up and down the hillside east of Grizzly Creek, and a stretch of trail west of Grizzly Creek.
The natural and intentional landscaping has matured into something quite special at the Potawot Health Village in Arcata, California. A sinuous series of wetlands have been created, native grasses and other plants reintroduced, and an extensive food garden and orchard established. While none of the trails are particularly long, they can be combined for a pleasant walk. By parking on Janes Road or in the Mad River Hospital parking lot and walking on the marked shoulder of the entrance parkway into Potawot the walk can be extended. A self-guided nature tour is available with numbered stops on the trails. Seating and a picnic table are spaced around the grounds.
Getting there: Drive 10 miles north on US 101 and take Exit 716B (Giuntoli exit), proceeding on Giuntoli Lane to the west (follow the roundabout to the third exit). The route passes over 101, rounds a traffic circle and continues on west, veering left (south) and becoming Janes Road. From the initial turn onto Giuntoli Lane to the signed entrance to Potawot is about one mile. Turn left into the entrance parkway for 0.3 mile to parking. Several access points to the trail complex exist south of the parking lot and entrance parkway.
Here are a few highlights from the world of Backcountry Press in 2017.
Happy Trails and other adventures in 2018 and thanks for your support.
Wildflowers of the Trinity Alps Released
Podcast with Ken DeCamp
The Eclipse
Obi Kaufmann’s Favorite Books 2017
Mapping California’s Rarest Conifer
Ready to find your new favorite place to go for a walk?Hear tales from the trail as Rees talks about Humboldt County walks and shares images to inspire (and inform!) your next hike. All walks featured appear in the book Hiking Humboldt Volume 2: 101 Shorter Day Hikes, Urban and Road Walks.
These include walking the 0.4 mile long Loleta Tunnel, exploring Lacks Creek and Schoolhouse Peak/Lyons Ranch, walking the Ft. Seward Road or the Dyerville Loop Road, finding fossils on the Centerville Beach to Fleener Creek Loop, and more.
This is a free event. Please be in touch with questions: hughes@humboldt.edu
1. whittled stick
2. weather radio
3. nerdy mechanical pencil
4. Hiking Humboldt Vol. 2: 101 Shorter Day Hikes, Urban and Road Walks
5. external hard drive
6. power tools
7. bigfoot action figure
8. meat rub
9. heart rock
10. beach scores
11. Joe
12. custom Lego vehicle
13. crocheted woolen beer coozie
14. old tools
15. sentimental photo of dadding
16. kid art
17. badass binos
18. foolproof corkscrew
One of our main goals here at Backcountry Press is to work with business partners as close to home as possible. With recent shifts in on demand printing, were able to print both Hiking Humboldt Volume 1 and Volume 2 on recycled paper right here in Eureka at Times Printing.
From their website:
Times Printing has a long and rich history in Humboldt County. A fourth generation, family owned and operated business, the company has enjoyed serving the region since 1854.
Before being renamed Times Printing in 1939, the company was known as the Times Publishing Company. Originally the print shop for the area’s first newspaper, the Humboldt Times, Times Publishing Company printed the newspaper and other jobs such as books, business cards and letterhead. In 1946 Arthur Smith bought Times Printing, thus cutting its ties to the Humboldt Times and becoming an independent company.
Primeval forests harboring the world’s tallest trees. Sea cliffs, pristine beaches, and towering coastal sand dunes. Mountain prairies, meadows, and vistas. Rivers, lakes, lagoons, and bays. Bears, elk, seals, otters, and birds galore. And solitude – lots and lots of solitude. Humboldt County offers all this and much more to the intrepid hiker. Hiking Humboldt volumes 1 and 2 will take you to every publicly accessible corner of the county.
