There are a couple of projects to look forward to around the Eel River that could be part of an epic piece of unpowered travel. First, the state of California has a Rails-to-Trails project they are calling the Great Redwood Trail. Second, the Wildlands Conservancy has a project to conserve the wild portions of the largely private river canyon in a project they are calling the Eel River Emerald Necklace.
Map showing the Great Redwood Trail and Eel River Emerald Necklace projects in southern Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino Counties.
The Great Redwood Trail is to follow the Northwestern Pacific Railroad "connecting San Francisco and Humboldt Bays". It is the dark red line running up the map. It includes some hundredish miles along the main Eel River, the most interesting part being between where US-101 leaves the main stem in Humboldt Redwoods State Park to where the two routes rejoin. This section of the tracks was the most expensive railroad line to maintain in its day. The challenges will remain, even for a generally dirt multiuse trail along the old right-of-way. This route includes a number of bridges and tunnel that will need to be evaluated, repaired, modified, replaced. There's actually quite a lot of short tunnels that were utilized for the line, but also one a mile long.
The Eel River Emerald Necklace, besides preserving lands that will allow wildlife to connect between the various ecosystems, will provide for "free passive recreation". Those spaces that are already aquired are shown (roughly) as green blobs. The short portion through Trinity County is well represented, plus there is one last preserve at the mouth of the river. These are particularly aimed at providing rafters and kayakers with pull out points for camping while coming down the river.
And between the two projects, there is quite a grand adventure. Take off south, hiking uphill along the river. At the top, drop in in raft or kayak and ride the water back down, right to the mouth. Some things just can't be seen from above, and some just can't really be seen from the water, but together, it can be quite a complete experience of the river!
Found me a new trick for editing the map, which is really nice for confirming that other people also see the paths I see. The Strava Global Heat Map . They seem to be getting quite a few to participate and, while the heat may not be strong, it often extends into backcountry routes. You can get it as a background for editing Open Street Map via Strava-iD . The background here is not as detailed as can be found on the heat map if you are logged in and may be an older data set. I'm not sure. I am sure that it is useful. For instance, I found that my path and the marked path for climbing Medicine Bow on the popular eastern side did not match up. They were very much of the same shape, which is always a warning bell that some GPS might have transposed itself sideways. Both paths seemed to be following a line that could be a trail, but frankly the pictures aren't that great for that spot. Which is correct? Mine was the only GPS trace uploaded to Open Street Map, so that layer wasn...
Once upon a time, while having some amazing Zion National Park rocks to look at, I took a moment to observe the flowers. There was one quite pretty penstemon getting pollinated by a bee. Except there was something wrong. The whole of the scene was very very still. The bee hung in front of the flower without so much as a wing flap. Where was physics? The natural laws were not being obeyed. A frozen tableau in Zion. I looked closer and found I wasn't seeing all of the bee. At first I saw something like two fangs and the negative space resolved itself into a large spider. The integrity of physics was restored, but flowers had just become very dangerous places. The things you find when out and about! But it does make a bit of sense. You hear that watering holes are one of the most dangerous places for wandering animals. This would just be the bee equivalent. I then returned home to those nice, safe flowers I'd known. A very familiar blue-dick hosting danger. Sp...
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