A Day of Disappointment
We hit the road at 6 a.m. to travel up north to ride the
Skunk Train. My research had us salivating over the opportunity to ride an old
steam locomotive through the Redwoods. We had experienced a similar train adventure in Colorado several years ago
and were exited to do it again. Imagine our disappointment (and that of most of
the passengers) when we realized we were instead riding in a 1925 carriage
train that looked more like a big old bus on rails than it did a train. Their
no refund policy had us all paying a pretty penny for a four hour ride on a
stuffy old “bus” with only a few windows that actually opened. We felt like we
were on a prison bus/train. The scenery was far less than spectacular, however
the lady conductor was quick to point out the points of interest as we came
across them… a wooden beam where the mail bag was hung that they could reach
out and grab as the train passed… an 800 year old redwood tree that you could
only catch a ten second glimpse of from our side window, the KOA campground where the residents were
surely paid to wave and smile as we passed by… and there were others, but
those were certainly the highlights. Beware of a train called SKUNK.
We decided that we were close enough to the actual Redwoods
that we would continue driving north to travel on the Avenue of the Giants. We
took a detour to drive through a 2000 year old redwood tree that was a fun
diversion even though it was a real tourist trap. Pics to be posted someday.
Our flashy red Ford (that we want to take home with us) was commercial perfect.
Ford should buy the pic from us. We arrived at the Ave of Giants about 5:00 pm,
a slow windy road that delivers a magical trip through the forest. This did not disappoint. However, the
fact that we only had time to drive it and not hike it was a major
disappointment. I found myself snapping pictures from the car hoping to capture
a bit of the majesty and beauty of those simply amazing trees as the light
filtered through them. It was hard to leave them but we had a long ways to go
before we reached our bed.
We discovered that a day of riding is more tiring than a day
of hiking and we went to bed exhausted, hoping for a better day tomorrow.
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