Not all roads lead to the hostel UPDATED

UPDATE to story below: The fire has been contained and the road is open to 2 lanes of traffic.  Here’s the update:
http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9481.

 

A small fire about 40 minutes or so northeast of the hostel has closed highway 199 between Hiouchi and Gasquet (see link below).  This is the main roads connecting people coming from Portland on the I-5 to Highway 101, which passes outside our door.  For those of you coming from the north in the next few days, we recommend cutting over to the coast and coming straight down the 101.  We have also received reports that 299 is experiencing periodic closures due to fires.  This road is about an hour south of the hostel, and connect 101 with the I-5 near Redding.  If you are coming from San Francisco, we always recommend coming up the 101, and not cutting over from the I-5, but now it may be a necessity to come that way.

CalTrans does operate a handy phone # which provides updates on the latest for each highway.  We recommend keeping this # handy: 1-800-427-7623 (within California) or 916-445-7623 (outside of California).   When prompted, state the name of the road (such as “199” or “299”) and they will tell you the latest updates and closures for that road.

Here is the story of the fire : http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=9469.

 

8:37 a.m.

“Is there someone called John staying here?” asked the little girl in a pink sweater.

“Hmmm…lemme check. Why, did you find something with the name ‘John’ on it?”

“Uh huh.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed, in that way adults exclaim things to little girls in pink sweaters. “Did you find something you want to return to him?”

“Noooooooo……” She blinked. “His name’s on a box of Lucky Charms and it’s been here for about, at least, 3 days.”

Oh. I should have spotted her talent sooner. A born hosteller.

I scrolled the list of names. “Well, you’re in luck. John left. Looks like his Lucky Charms now belong to the hostel.”

“No, it belongs to the Free Food Shelf,” she corrected me, her 7-year-old head bobbing in a nod. “And to me.” She grinned again, adjusted her glasses, and was off to the kitchen to claim her prize.

 

 

Of slugs and rivers…and chocolate!

Here at the Redwood Hostel, we offer several goodies for sale, including our own line of chocolates.  Okay, they’re actually made by Sandy and Michael, the great people of Drakes Glen Creations, but they do let us design our own labels.

For our latest two chocolate bars, we are honoring two famous local attractions–the ubiquitous banana slugs that make their way across many of the trails out here; and the Klamath River, second largest river in California, the mouth of which meets the Pacific about 5 miles south of the hostel.

The former bar includes a pleasing mix of caramel in a milk chocolate bar, while the latter is a take on cookies n’ crumbs–chocolate cookie bits in a white chocolate bar.  Two great tastes.  And you get only get ’em at Redwood Hostel.  (With these specific labels, that is.)