Ren's Footprints

The annual reggae festival at the Humboldt/Mendocino County border along Highway 101 has been a tradition of mine for over a decade. To many from Humboldt County it can be somewhat of a family reunion the way that we are able to reconnect with people we probably haven't seen since the prior year's event.

Of course, this tradition has transformed from a chance to let loose for a weekend, to a weekend full of responsibility since I started working on the film crew in 2004. Every year our crew seems to make better and better videos, which we all are proud of. This year, we were also able to entertain the crowd better with the help of two high definition projectors on the side of the stage (a major upgrade from more primitive projectors used in prior years).


The music at this year's event was as good as ever, and I was very impressed with all of the surprise guests. The High Grade All Stars' set featured Mike Marshall, the guy who sings the hook for the legendary hip-hop song "I've Got 5 On It," and, of course, they performed that song and even mixed in some local references in the lyrics. Equipto also made a guest appearance during that set, which made for the first time I've ever seen him live. Some other artists that I spotted who were not scheduled performers were Yami Bolo, and Stevie Culture.
The biggest surprise, in my opinion, was the high quality performance put on by the British band "Aswad." You may remember their brief time on the US pop charts with "Don't Turn Around," but unbeknownst to me, they never "turned pop" and put on some of the "most authentic" sounding reggae I heard all weekend. Check out this clip I was on camera for where they play some nice dub:











Probably one of the weirdest things I saw all weekend was during Rebelution's set. As I sat in our lounge backstage I saw on our TV a couch being "crowdsurfed" in the thick of the masses. It was one of those things that makes you want to rub your eyes to see if you are really seeing what you think you are. My astonishment drove me to run to the front of the stage, via the quickest route, under the stage! By the time I got to the front, the couch had been set down near the front and people were dancing on it. During intermissions you could find people lounging on it and rolling joints.

A little bit of history is being made now in Mendocino County as the Confusion Hill bluffs bypass is now open, making this Northwest California stretch of 101 a little less like an obstacle course. Probably since the day these bluffs were originally made into a road they have been sliding away, blocking this area of California from the Bay Area, and other points south. I can remember many times slides on these bluffs have obstructed my travels in and out of Humboldt County. I'm sure that many snowboarding trips are canceled in the winter due to the closures as well. I am also sure that many people have memories of simply parking on those bluffs because of how often it was under construction and subject to one-way traffic.

Anyway, yesterday I was on the way to Humboldt after celebrating the 4th of July in Santa Cruz and decided to get some pictures to preserve the memories of this cool stretch of road. I am sure you all have your own stories and memories, and I hope these pictures help you reminisce.

Monday morning in Japan I woke up around 8:30 AM on Ryan's floor dreading the long day of travel ahead of me. We had lots of time before I was to take off, so he generously made me a big breakfast. It was so big that I needed to saran-wrap the portion I couldn't eat. In the cupboards was a brand new box of saran-wrap which I attempted to open. However, as I slid my finger in a flap of the cardboard to get it to break loose, I was deeply cut by the blade used to cut the plastic. For the first time in my life I "sprayed" blood, getting it on my arm and sleeve. That, along with my neck which had gone stiff the morning before, put me in very poor traveling condition.



My flight ended up being fantastic because I was the only person in my row of two seats. Just like my last flight from Tokyo to San Francisco, where I was upgraded to "economy plus", I ended up with a great seat! I had all of my stuff sprawled out on the seat next to me, and had the comfort of two trays to use to set my complimentary bottles of Chilean wine, as well as other stuff.



All of this room ended up costing me, though, because I left my wallet on the plane when we got to San Francisco. This really frustrated me as there was $735 in my wallet, worth more than anything I own. As I tried to board the train for downtown I realized that I had nothing to pay with. I called the lost & found, and they told me to go to Northwest Airline's baggage office to talk to them about my claim. I had to take SFO's monorail to that distant part of the airport, and just before arriving I got a call on my cell phone from a jolly-voiced, flamboyant male employee of Northwest saying, "Hello Reeeeennnnnn.... I think I've got something you want....come over here sweetheart." For a moment I stopped thinking about my wallet and just thought "I am truly back in San Francisco." I then asked him how he got my number and he said he found it on the business cards I made for the sole purpose of getting into a party a month ago in Tokyo. Anyway, I went and found the man and graciously received my wallet, which was somehow $100 short. As I noticed that I stopped, and wanted to say something, but realized there was no way of proving this and I was already $635 dollars richer than I was ten minutes before that so I had to just accept that the cleaner, who originally found my wallet, probably gave him/her-self a Benjemin for their troubles. I am lucky they didn't take it all and just trash the rest in their big garbage bag.
Now with most of my cash and belongings in my possession I was ready to get on BART to go downtown. When I got there I got out and made my way to the bus depot where I took a Santa Rosa bound Golden Gate Express bus. This was a total of $14 compared to $32 on the Sonoma County Airport Express bus. With Ukiah being my final destination, I did some research and realized that one can get to Ukiah via BART and Greyhound for cheaper than one could go to Santa Rosa on the Sonoma County Airport Express (cheaper by a dollar, but you get much more distance for your money!).
Another problem arouse in San Francisco when one of the two wheels that was holding my 75 or so pounds of luggage started to malfunction. It was totally unusable by the time I got to Santa Rosa, and I still had to walk a mile to get to the place I was getting picked up at. At one point, I have no idea when, but the wheel completely fell off! This left me rolling on just one wheel, and had the opposite side of the bag dragging against the sidewalk. That suitcase is going to have to be demoted to being used a storage box from now on.
The reason I was able to settle for the low-budget bus ride to Santa Rosa was because by brother-in-law goes to law school there and was able to take me with him back to Ukiah. I relaxed for a bit before going to bed and getting some real sleep for the first time in 30 hours.



The next day I was asked to deliver a bicycle to Fort Bragg in a brand-new truck. I said, "sure," and got behind the wheel for the first time since April 2nd.



I took a break at a world-class trail/park along the coast between Albion and where Highway 1 starts going up the Navarro River. It was so nice, and a reminder why I believe California is the most beautiful place on Earth.



As you can see in a blog entry from earlier this year, the last time I was on the Mendocino coast I saw a bunch of whales. I was pretty sure that this time I saw some as well, but it ended up being a group of porpoises. They were all swilling in a group which would make the water move in a current in the direction they were going. They were even jumping out of the water, but I couldn't get a picture of any of them airborne.

Last Monday, my sister and I were driving south on Highway 101 from Redway, and decided to make a stop at a place I had been wanting to go to for a long time. There is a spot along the Eel River where you can see that 101 once carried on along some rugged, narrow bluffs. The current highway drives through the mountain where it was carved out for the road, but gates leading to the bluffs of the old highway are still visible.


Just as I imagined, this stretch of road is extremely narrow! There were even spots where it doesn’t look like a semi truck could drive on the white, shoulder line without its load hiting the rocks that stick out from the mountain. Also, years of being unmaintained has left this road to be a prime example how nature can absolutely punish roads, especially in Humboldt County. Last week I drove the entire Avenue of the Giants and was loving how in the North stretch of the road the road was green with moss.