On the road 2025-Langley to Sonoma County

Hello people–Cactus Kate and Bajada Bill here–on the road once again. We are enjoying the spring and cooler weather here in Sonoma County. Often when we’re here it’s blazing hot. We’ve been on the road a week so far, leaving our home in the capable hands of Ari and Juniper. They alerted us of a terrible housefly infestation in our living room. Ari dubbed themselves fly slayers after working 3+ hours on the assault. We’ve never had this problem before. What do you do? All photos by Kate, unless otherwise noted.

Here and now, I’m sitting at the Rincon Valley Regional Library in Santa Rosa CA. Let’s keep supporting our libraries! Before arriving here, I went to a hair salon. After a year of cutting my own hair with sewing scissors, I paid $90 for an expert cut at Halo Salon in Santa Rosa. Bill laughed at my ‘do,’ not used to seeing me with coiffed hair. My stylist Joleane’s been cutting hair since she was 18. She was born in 1979 and is an artist with her work. I found out about this place after admiring a woman’s excellent haircut while shopping at a small store in Mt. Shasta, where we visited last Saturday. The woman lives in Sonoma County and said she loves Halo.

We are camped at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, which is run by the non-profit Sonoma Ecology Center.

Thank the gods for this 250+ volunteer group of the Sonoma Ecology Center who keep the campground open, since State Parks defunded it in 2011. The nearby Jack London State Historic Park is also run by these wonderful volunteers. Beautiful blue-eyed Bill, a docent at Jack London State Park, told us when we visited yesterday that when the park closures loomed, locals stepped up to continue providing these jewels to the public.

Here are photos of our road trip so far.

Benton Oaks RV campground, Corvallis OR. We camped in site A27. Sad that our daughter Gigi chose not to see us. While driving toward Ashland on Friday May 16 we listened to hours of an audiobook, Eckhart Tolle’s Living the Liberated Life and Dealing with the Pain Body, which helped with our intense heartache.

Camped in site 8 at Emigrant Lake in Ashland OR. Met a woman at the Ashland Food Co-op who said Bill was a “Lancelot.” I agree–he’s a noble knight. Emigrant Lake is a great place to camp.

Mt. Shasta CA–camped at Mt. Shasta KOA, site D

Hiked along Box Canyon Trail nearby Lake Siskiyou. Were surprised at the number of old discarded rusted cars and appliances in the deep woods.

From Mt. Shasta we drove to our campground at the mostly serene campsite #8 at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. Our site is shaded by bay and oak; Sonoma Creek flows behind us. A middle-school campout of a dozen-plus students has a small group of girls who occupy the bathrooms and showers and stay in longer than they oughta. Causes a break in the flow. Knocked on the shower door to let girls know they’d been in long enough. They came out. Today they taunted a boy who knocked at the door forlornly waiting for them to exit.

We have always loved the vibe of Sonoma County and felt the ecstasy of West County’s Occidental and Freestone.

In Occidental, I enjoyed a delicious Neiman Ranch hot dog with kimchi. We sat next to a couple celebrating an anniversary. He looked like a barrel chested Kenny Rogers. His wife a Tennessee beauty who loved her hard-drinking big hearted bear of a husband. It’s a Bohemian town. Afterwards we walked in the redwoods of Armstrong Woods State Park, another state park maintained by a non-profit in the wake of 2011’s defunding. We visited an old haunt, Gold Coast Coffee in Duncan’s Mills, whose smoky coffee roasting scent filled the air, We’ve been going there since 1990.

Later on Monday, 5/19, we met our world traveling Sebastopol friends Ruth and Jack Duncan for dinner at an award-winning Nepalese restaurant called Yeti in Glen Ellen. Fun to sit outside along Sonoma Creek enjoying delicious food made with love.

We spent the following morning hiking in the woods at Jack London State Park. Our interest in the adventurer/author Jack London was rekindled. We’re reading two of his 50+ books available at the park’s museum store: Valley of the Moon, and Star Rover. The first, describes London’s love affair with North Sonoma County and the ranch he shared with his love and wife Charmain, and the latter, about a death row prisoner who time travels to escape his prison shackles.

We read Jack London most of the afternoon under the shade of our long-armed camp trees. Later, as suggested by a friendly docent at Jack London State Park, we walked at sunset along Pony Gate Trail till it intersected with Stern Trail. Here is the view at the end of the day.