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Today Candace and I took the hike over to Shingle Falls, which is located in the Spenceville Wildlife Area outside of Marysville. It’s a nice pleasant hike to the waterfall and while we didn’t scramble down to the bottom of the falls, it sure did look inviting. We saw a huge black snake with rings and he and I scared each other equally I think. On the way back, we stopped along the river and Candace dipped her tootsies for a bit.
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 6.29 miles • Total Time: 4:04 • Moving Time: 2.21 • Moving Average: 2.7 mph • Overall Average: 1.5 mph
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FOR THE GLORY!! Today is the finale of the Kinetic Grand Championship race and I’ve made my way to Ferndale to enjoy the festivities at the finish line. Ferndale is a charming little city with many Victorian-style buildings in excellent shape. I make my way to the main street and set up my chair on the sidewalk along with a couple hundred other folks, there’s not near as many people here today as there was for the kickoff, but it’s a beautiful sunshiny day. The racers straggle in throughout the afternoon and we’re all just having fun sitting and talking. During a stretch of no in-coming sculptures, I wandered over to the Kinetic Sculpture Museum and check out some retired sculptures from past races. 4:32pm marks the end of the race and most racers have crossed the finish line by then. After mingling and checking out the sculptures one last time, I take a ride over to the coast and find a section of the Lost Coast Trail and I do a bit of off-road exploring. Ahh, the end of a Glorious Memorial Day Weekend.
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Yesterday was a gloriously full and long day and I decided to sleep in and laze about this morning instead of going down to the cold waterfront and watching the 2nd day start of the Kinetic Grand Championship race. So, to start off my lazy day, I drove over to Palmer’s Point, the southern point of Patrick’s Point State Park. It’s a seal hangout spot and I enjoyed watching them for a bit. I drove to Eureka, listening to KHUM Radio, thinking I might catch up with the race somewhere along the line, but other than the water launching, there isn’t really any spot to sit and watch them, they are racing along the roads and highway today. There was an car accident that they tried to blame on the race, but no sculpture was involved–some yutz decided to just stop dead in the middle of the highway to look at a scuplture and he got rear-ended, which is not the racer’s fault. I didn’t see any of it, but the radio gave excellent play-by-play reporting of the incident. I saw a half-hidden sign for Fort Humboldt State Historic Park, and you know me, I love the historical parks, so off I go. Fort Humboldt was a remote military post established in the 1850’s to help keep peace between settlers, gold miners, and native Indians and to provide protection as needed. The most famous person stationed there was Ulysses S. Grant, famed Union General of the Civil War and our 18th President. Of course, he was stationed there long before he became famous and it is here that he actually resigned his military commission and returned to civilian life until the Civil War. It’s a lovely park, there is a museum, plenty of open space where families were having fun picnics and an outdoor logging museum on the grounds. I thoroughly enjoyed my walk around and chats with friendly people.
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The Kinetic Grand Championship is a 3-day, 42-mile bicycle race over land, sand, mud and water. Many refer to the Kinetic Grand Championship as the “Triathlon of the Art World.”
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FOR THE GLORY!! Today is the start of the 40th anniversary of the Kinetic Grand Championship race and I’m actually here on time for it this year! I was here two years ago and didn’t know much about the race and so I only caught a few bits of it (and then lost my photo memory card!). But this year I know more of how it works and plan on seeing more of it. I’ve scanned in the Spectators Guide and you can view it here in PDF format so that you can have a peek at the rules of wackiness for this race. I arrived at the Arcata Plaza (the town square) around 10am and found a spot on the curb to watch the vehicle inspections and brake tests. Each entrant must pass inspection before the noon whistle signals the race start. The judges blow a whistle and the racers must prove that they can exit the vehicle in a speedy manner (in case it sinks in the bay!). The Teddy Bear Judge makes sure there is the required teddy bear on board. The police make sure the required reflectors and such are attached so that they can be on the public roadway. The racers then peddle as fast as they can towards the Brake Judge and when he blows his whistle, they must stop within a required distance. And if they can’t pass all of these inspections, it is fully expected and encouraged that they will bribe the judges appropriately… LOL! Next is the pageantry portion, each team performs for the judges in a wacky way. Poems were spoken, songs where sung, dancing was erratic and for those teams with limited pageantry ability, bribes were given. The noon whistle blows and the racers, led by this year’s Rutabaga Queen Jermajesty, begin a mad dash around the plaza and after several go arounds, they begin heading 10 miles down the road to the Manila Sand Dunes. I enjoyed the street circus and party atmosphere for awhile and then drive down to the sand dunes. At the sand dunes, there is a band playing while the racers modify their wheels to be sand-worthy. When ready, they power their way over the sand dunes to the ocean; that’s as far as I followed them. The next attraction on the race course is Dead Man’s Drop when they come off the beach, but I didn’t really know where that was located, so I missed that portion. I then went onto Eureka and waiting at the old town plaza square for the racers to arrive. Lots of smiles, lots of fun and lots of “For the Glory” shouts!
KHUM Radio provides total live action coverage of the race, so it’s a must to have your radio tuned to them. And to really capture the flavor of this event, listen live to this eclectic radio station’s live stream while looking at the pictures. 
