Redwood National Park 23. - 25.5. 09

Three-day weekend is always good chance to get out from the Bay area. This time we chose Redwood National Park, which is in North California = long drive! We - about 11 of us - left around 11 am on Saturday and since we were stopped by quite bad traffic on the way there, we arrived at Eureka KOA - camping, around 7 pm. The weather wasn't great, it was cloudy and cold. We build tents, made fire and dinner and since it started to rain, we went to sleep quite early. On Sunday we drove about 45 miles north to Redwood National Park. The hike we chose supposed to be about 16 miles long (of course we weren't planning on doing it all :-) ), but after quite short distance we got to a river without a bridge. We tried to cross it (some of us actually did), but because 4 people stayed behind, we decided to go back. It was still early so we drove to another nice and short hike - Fern Canyon and then we relaxed a little bit on a beach.
On Monday, little bit worried about the traffic on the way back, we stopped only at Humbold Redwood State park for short walk around big redwoods. Then we visited Confusion hill for walk through Gravity house and then drove through a tree. Traffic on the way back wasn't too bad, so we got home around 8 pm.
PHOTOS


Tridenni vikend je vzdy dobry dovod dostat se z Bay area. Tentokrat jsme si vybrali Redwood NP, ktery je v severni Kalifornii, takze daleka cesta! Jelo nas 11 a vyrazili jsme kolem 11 rano v sobotu a jelikoz jsme narazili na dopravni zacpu, tak jsme do kempu u Eureka dorazili kolem 7 vecer. Pocasi nebylo nic moc - pod mrakem a zima. Postavili jsme stany, udelali ohen a veceri a jelikoz zacalo i prset, sli jsme spat relativne brzo. V nedeli jsme jeli asi 45 mil severne do Redwood Narodniho parku. Vyslap, ktery jsme zvolili mel byt 16 mili dlouhy (samozrejme jsme neplanovali jej zvladnout cely :-) ), ale po kratke vzdalenosti jsme narazili na reku bez mostu. Zkusili jsme ji prebrodit (a nekdo to dokonce i zvladnul), ale protoze 4 lidi to nezvladli, rozhodli jsme se jit zpatky. Protoze bylo jeste brzo, jeli jsme na dalsi kratky vyslap do Fern Canyon a pak jsme relaxovali na plazi.
V pondeli, jsme se trochu bali jaka bude cesta zpatky, a tak jsme se zastavili jen v Humboldt Redwood SP na kratkou prochazku kolem vysokych redwoodu. Pak jsme jeste navstivili Confusion hill a prosli se domem, kde to vypadalo, ze gravitacni sila pusobi uplne jinak a nakonec jsme se projeli stromem. Doprava na ceste zpatky nebyla velka a tak jsme dorazili zpet kolem 8 vecer.
FOTKY

Rafting - North Fork American River 9. - 10.5. 09

This was the most difficult, but also the most exciting rafting I have ever been to. I managed to organize group of 12 friends and friends of friends to go for rafting to North Fork of American River. We left on Saturday and camped at the Whitewater Voyages campsite, which is nice place by the American River, about 40 miles pass Sacramento. The difficulty of the river was IV + and since the level of water was high we could expect some action! We had two rafts and in the first 10 minutes one of the rafts managed to flip. Nobody was hurt so now we can just laugh at all the pictures that was taken! The other excitement later was when different company flipped on different rapid and managed to loose everybody including the guide from the boat. We helped them to transfer some of their "swimmers" and collect paddles. After lunch the rest of the way was relatively calm. On the way back home (and actually on the way there too) we stopped at Czech Restaurant in Concord and had a few typical Czech meals, so great weekend over all!
PHOTOS



Tento rafting byl zatim nejobtiznejsi ale take nejvzrusujici ze vsech raftingu na kterych jsem byla. Podarilo se mi zorganizovat skupinu 12 kamaradu a kamaradu od kamaradu a vyjeli jsme na North Fork American River. Vyjeli jsme uz v sobotu a stanovali jsme v kampu Whitewater Voyages (spolecnost se kterou jsme jeli), coz je pekne misto u American River, asi 40 mil za Sacramentem. Obtiznost reky byla IV+ a s vysokou hladinou vody se dal ocekavat napinavy dej. Jeli jsme na dvou raftech a behem prvnich 10 minut se jeden z nasich raftu obratil. Nikdo nebyl zraneny a tak se muzeme ted uz jen smat nad fotkama. Dalsi vzruseni prislo kdyz se raft jine spolecnosti obratil a ztratil vsechny vcetne kormedilnika. Pomohli jsme jim vsechny lidi ve vode a padla posbirat. Po obede zbytek cesty byl relativne klidny. Na ceste zpatky (a vlastne i po ceste tam) jsme se zastavili v Ceske restauraci v Condordu a meli jsme nekolik typickych ceskych jidel (tlacenka, smazeny syr, ptacky, svickova), tak ze skvely vikend!
FOTKY