Day 23

It's drearily foggy when we wake up in Crescent City, but things start to clear as we drive toward the Redwoods National Park. We only have a few hours to spend in the Redwoods before heading toward Emily's dad's place in Susanville, so we drive the length of the park and double back to take a 2-mile hiking trail.

The Redwoods look exactly like the rainforest in "FernGully." Everything is green, mossy, and massive. It's refreshing to take a hike in constant shade, with the canopy of giant trees protecting us from the sun. Also, my skin gets a lucky break from being slathered in SPF 100+, which is nice.

Halfway through, we leave the trail to explore a waterfall. We take turns jumping from rock to rock, being careful not to slip on the moss-covered surfaces. A little while later, I point to a banana slug in the middle of the trail, and Emily picks the little guy up. Banana slugs are the second largest species of the land-based slugs in the world; they're also the official mascot of the University of California at Santa Cruz. Most importantly, they excrete large amounts of slime when confronted by predators, which is what happens when Emily decides to make friends with our sluggish fellow hiker. Seconds after putting the slug in her hand, she exclaims, "Ah! He's goo'ing on me!" and puts the slug back down. A thick, glue-like ooze covers her fingers, and Emily spends the rest of our hike trying to wipe it off on tree trunks, leaves, and stones.

Driving back down the coast, we take a break in Arcata. It's a quirky Cali college town with vegetarian restaurants, record stores, and an impressive amount of marijuana harvesting and consumption. We park beside the town square and spend a few minutes calling local hotels to see if there are any vacancies. In the meantime, several dreadlocked rastafarians wearing backpacks waddle past our car, and the man parked beside us lights a joint before pulling out of his parking spot and driving away. Ballsy.

We eat vegan food at the Wildflower Cafe, stop at a record store to pick up the latest Ryan Adams disc, and start heading east toward Susanville. Emily falls asleep while I play my new CD and negotiate the dizzying roads that wind through the mountains. Susanville is too far away to reach in one night, so we bunk up in Redding.

- Andrew