EPISODE 2
There’s a Rangjung Yeshe Gomde on the
plot where his family used to live in Leggett. And plenty of pot growing under greenhouses visible from the old Highway 101 drive-thru tree road. First the sawmills departed leaving a death knell to the small towns and then the freeway bypasses completely did them in. But the folks at the other end now rave about how it takes them only four hours to get to San Francisco when it used to take eight.
Traveling with only memories as a guide
we discover the bypass has screwed up all the old landmarks and roads. Found the location where “we lived during high school. Dad rented the spot for $25 a month next to the grocery store ‘cause we were security. He built a lean-to next to the trailer and that was my bedroom.”
All traces of the mills are gone. The small
town of Piercy shriveled up when they put the freeway in. No more gas station or store or post office. Everyone gets their mail at a bank of boxes under a tarp at the edge of town that the USPS must have installed rather than waste time or resources finding driveways or paying someone at a non-existent store. The boxes serve as a bulletin board for the community offering dharma dog sitting services and a lady’s fall herbal retreat or a notice that a farmhand is available and a big brightly colored thank you to the firefighters.
If you know where to look you can still mostly take the old road twisting and turning under the freeway
past ‘Okie town’ where the mill workers used to live in shanties. Over and around the South Fork of the Eel River where specific swimming holes are fondly remembered.
Back to the tourist traps of old: the one-log house, grandfather tree, Confusion Hill, the drive-thru tree, and
Tree House. The heartwoodinstitute.org looked new and interesting. The old ice cream shack is now the Legend of Bigfoot Museum with chainsaw-carved options in all sizes out front.
Richardson’s Grove State Park is a nice lunch break sitting on the deck of the historic and faithfully rebuilt
inn under the canopy high above. We spent a lovely hour and a half walking through the ancient grove and learning from the enthusiastic volunteer resident for this year before continuing on to bigger trees.
Next stop, the Avenue of the Giants. We detour to see the old house near Twin Trees where the old Ger-
man couple lived ‘there’ and ‘we lived down on the end’. The couple had a real telephone.
Only one school bus ran south from Garberville but it was a big one and made many stops. “That’s where I
bought that Chevy Chevelle for $3000 in 1970. And that’s where it had its first accident. Came out right there and hit the guardrail and f’d up the front end.” “That’s still a laundromat? Wow.”
In those days, fifty years ago, state construction jobs were the best jobs you could get, I’m informed as
we are stalled for a stretch on the old road for repaving. We spent a half hour in the Woman’s Clubs of California grove at Humboldt Redwoods State Park before hitting the highway for our retreat in Fortuna.
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