WOOLPOWER PRESENTS: CALIFORNIA

Mikael Kennedy and I spent a week in November field testing Woolpower baselayers as we camped our way up the California coast.

Pt. 4: Mendocino County, CA

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Mendocino County might be filled with wineries, bad art and atrocious marijuana paraphernalia, but beyond all of that idiocy, there's jaw-dropping coastline, redwoods for miles and some of the best hikes in California.

After a night of camping at Navarro River Redwoods State Park, we headed back to ocean views on Highway 1, spending a few hours on the beach in Mendocino, then hiking in the surrounding hills. We were waiting for a friend from SF to meet us at a yurt in Navarro that we would call home for the next night. We met her around 3, just as the temperature was starting to drop on the redwood-covered property. It was cold that night, but the outdoor hot tub, wool garments and wine kept us warm as we fell asleep around 10pm. (See what I did there?)The next morning, the three of us took a long, windy drive back towards San Francisco, stopping frequently to take in the views and shake our heads. It might seem cliche at this point to "DRIVE DOWN 1," but holy hell...It's always better by the ocean.

Photos by Mikael Kennedy

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About Woolpower:

Ullfrotté Original is the material developed by Woolpower AB in Östersund in the early 1970’s in collaboration with the Swedish military, scientists, doctors and survival experts. The textile is highly wear resistant and consists of fine Merino wool, polyamide/polyester and air.

The material is knit so that one side is smooth, and the other has terry loops. The lofty terry loops, in combination with the crimp in the wool fibers, creates a knitwear capable of trapping a lot of air. Up to 80% of the material actually consists of air, which means that the material has an excellent capacity to trap body heat. The more air you can keep still around the body, the more heat you can retain.

The company employs about 70 people and the entire production is in Östersund, in the northern part of Sweden. Approximately 80% of the sales are exported to about 25 countries all over the world.

 

WOOLPOWER PRESENTS: CALIFORNIA

Mikael Kennedy and I spent a week in November field testing Woolpower baselayers as we camped our way up the California coast.

Pt. 3: Steep Ravine State Park, CA

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After a quick stop in the Mission for a burrito and a failed attempt at visiting our friend, Obi, we drove over the Golden Gate bridge and up the Panoramic Highway to the Mt. Tam State Park headquarters. We paid for our Steep Ravine permit and met the world's most wonderful park ranger, a beautiful 50-ish year old woman with thick white hair and a smile that barely fit in her small office. I told her how fantastic she was, then hopped back in the car and headed for the ocean.

We drove down into Stinson, stopping at the grocery store for firewood, beer and complimentary packets of mustard for the Tofu Pups we had bought earlier in the day. (Yeah, Yeah, I know. Tofu Pups. I love them, what can I say?) The gate to the park is a quick drive down Highway 1 and I opened it with a combination that the lovely park ranger had written on a small piece of paper. We parked and carried our packs down to camp.If you've never camped (or stayed in one of the cabins) at Steep Ravine, then you really need to get your ass there. Whether you live in San Francisco or you're just visiting for a few days, rent/steal a car and drive north. I hate my friends in Oakland/San Francisco for having such easy access to the California wild, but this place really epitomizes what it means to live in the Bay Area. I can't think of a more beautiful "car camping" experience in the United States within an hour drive of a big city.This was my first time at Steep Ravine in the autumn months, so it was nice to see most of the tent sites empty. Sure, the site next to ours was occupied by a seemingly harmless Burner couple who mysteriously disappeared in the middle of the night, but that's another story for another time. I tried to read while the light was hanging on for dear life, but I was too distracted by the sound of the waves below the cliff, so o I stared at the cover of my book, pretending to read while Mikael started a fire.The night was spent drinking Modelo and making dinner, keeping warm in our Woolpower as we talked about plans for the rest of the week. We went to bed early - not surprising when the sun goes down at 5 - and slept like zombies as a light rain went in and out over our tents.When we woke up, we walked down to a misty beach just in time to see the sun crack through the clouds. I hopped around on the rocks like a school child while Mikael snapped photos from above. We ate the rest of our Big Sur persimmons on a cliff, then packed up our wet campsite and headed up Highway 1 to walk the Matt Davis Trail.Things are always better when the ocean is nearby.

Photos by Mikael Kennedy

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About Woolpower:

Ullfrotté Original is the material developed by Woolpower AB in Östersund in the early 1970’s in collaboration with the Swedish military, scientists, doctors and survival experts. The textile is highly wear resistant and consists of fine Merino wool, polyamide/polyester and air.

The material is knit so that one side is smooth, and the other has terry loops. The lofty terry loops, in combination with the crimp in the wool fibers, creates a knitwear capable of trapping a lot of air. Up to 80% of the material actually consists of air, which means that the material has an excellent capacity to trap body heat. The more air you can keep still around the body, the more heat you can retain.

The company employs about 70 people and the entire production is in Östersund, in the northern part of Sweden. Approximately 80% of the sales are exported to about 25 countries all over the world.

WOOLPOWER PRESENTS: CALIFORNIA

Mikael Kennedy and I spent a week in November field testing Woolpower baselayers as we camped our way up the California coast.

Pt. 2: Boronda Trail, Big Sur, CA

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And the sabbath rang slowlyIn the pebbles of the holy streams.

- Dylan Thomas, Fern Hill

I climbed down the ladder from my lofted bed and took a Sunday morning stumble to a never ending view of the Pacific Ocean.  It's impossible not to get a little emotional when staring at such things - especially at 7am - so I decided to stoke my sentimentality and play Kate Wolf from my pocket while I rested in the tall grass. Mikael had arrived after dark the night before, and when I returned to the bus, he was slowly taking in the surroundings as the sunlight peaked through the eucalyptus.We loaded a few things into Fletcher's truck and departed Partington Ridge around 10am, driving north on Highway 1 for breakfast at Deetjen's. The hostess lead us to a table next to the fireplace, welcoming me with a "sweetie" and a quick touch on the back more therapeutic than the finest massage or therapy session. It set the tone for the day and if I really wanted to get into it, I could use it as a metaphor for California, but I won't go there. Not yet.After asking the waitress for a couple of matchbooks (I make sure to get a few every time I'm there. I don't need them but they're beautiful and look good sitting under the fusebox in my apartment.), we paid the bill and lingered in front of the hot fire. It wasn't especially cold inside or out, but when there's a fire in Deetjen's and you've had too much caffeine, you talk. And talk. And talk.When we finally decided it was time to leave, we changed our clothes at the car and drove a few minutes south to start hiking. We parked right on 1, walked across the road and began our ascent up Boronda Trail. The lower hills are covered with pampas grass, a stoic golden lady that sits under the hot sun, cleverly waving to the crowds driving down the highway. They lovingly stare back, not knowing that pampas is an invasive species in the Big Sur hills.As we reached the stand of oaks that our hosts, Fletcher and Noel, had referenced at breakfast, our group became four wanderers, each of us breaking off from one another to be alone and sit in the sun. I decided to keep walking, stopping when I could see the oaks from above and the ocean below.I'm not sure if it was ten minutes or two hours later, but eventually, the rest of the group caught up and we continued walking. I spent the next leg of the trail picking those good ol' black sage leaves, rubbing them in my fingers and breathing in deep. Black Sage is one of the best smells there is and it helped to cover up the aromatic turpentine weed that the wind was picking up as we kept climbing.We finally reached Timber Top camp around 4pm, several hours after we had started. The top was anti-climatic, which wasn't surprising after spending the last few hours oooh-ing and ahhh-ing at every turn. There's no view up there, just a campground with a few benches and plenty of NO FIRE signs. We ate persimmons and almonds, then started the long descent back to the car. By the time we finished, it was getting cold and dark, so we drove up the highway for a couple of beers at the deli before walking next door to dinner at the Big Sur Bakery.A few glasses of wine and even more pieces of pumpkin bread later, we headed to Esalen, our final stop of the day. Sunday is discounted for locals, so Fletcher and Noel brought Mikael and I as their guests. The air was warm and thick as we walked down to the baths, and as we undressed and submerged ourselves in silence, the full moon hovered above us, shining light on the waves that provided the surrounding soundtrack. I put my head down and finished the day the same way I started it, watching and listening to the Pacific Ocean wrestle with the California Coast.

 Photos by Mikael Kennedy

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About Woolpower:

Ullfrotté Original is the material developed by Woolpower AB in Östersund in the early 1970’s in collaboration with the Swedish military, scientists, doctors and survival experts. The textile is highly wear resistant and consists of fine Merino wool, polyamide/polyester and air.

The material is knit so that one side is smooth, and the other has terry loops. The lofty terry loops, in combination with the crimp in the wool fibers, creates a knitwear capable of trapping a lot of air. Up to 80% of the material actually consists of air, which means that the material has an excellent capacity to trap body heat. The more air you can keep still around the body, the more heat you can retain.

The company employs about 70 people and the entire production is in Östersund, in the northern part of Sweden. Approximately 80% of the sales are exported to about 25 countries all over the world.

WOOLPOWER PRESENTS: CALIFORNIA

Mikael Kennedy and I spent a week in November field testing Woolpower baselayers as we camped our way up the California coast.

Pt. 1: Partington Ridge, Big Sur, CA

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After a few days of seeing friends in the Bay and slowly walking around the Presidio, I took a painless shuttle bus from San Francisco to Monterey. Noel, whom I met two summers ago while on a backpacking trip down the John Muir Trail with the kind folks from Juniper Ridge, picked me up and drove us back an hour south to her home on Partington Ridge in Big Sur.

Upon arriving, Noel's husband, Fletcher, who was also on the JMT trip, showed me to their guest house - an old converted Dodge bus - that would serve as my living quarters for the next few days. I settled in, then walked back down to the house for a beer, a bowl of homemade vegetarian curry and a large basket full of Fletcher-grown persimmons. We talked and caught up for several hours, and as the clock neared 11:15, I stumbled back to my humble abode and fell asleep.

I woke up early and spent most of the morning admiring Noel and Fletcher's home. (It's featured in the ubiquitous Handmade Houses that I guarantee you one of your friends has in their bookcase.) I had been trying to make it to the ridge since the moment I met them at a campsite in Tuolumne Meadows, and had there not been a rockslide last winter, this wouldn't have been my first visit.

When I could ooh and ahh no more, we left and spent the rest of the day hiking to the Lookout Tower on Cone Peak, the second highest point in the Santa Lucia Mountains. Fletcher was on a quest to find a small amount of sap from a rare local fir, and after a long day of looking, just as we finally reached the short spur that lead to the tower, he found it.

I spent a few moments alone at the peak, quietly laughing before we all hiked back down to the car under the light of a nearly full moon. We warmed ourselves in the truck then drove south on Highway 1 to the Los Padres National Forest campground. From there, we parked, put on headlamps and hiked a mile or two to a friend's off-the-grid cabin, nestled back on a trail through the redwoods. The evening concluded with an indoor fire, more vegetarian curry (total coincidence) and an early sleep as last moments of solar power kept the stereo going.

We woke up at sunrise and put our boots on, first slowly walking by the site where our host, Tom, had spotted a mountain lion at the beginning of the month. He lead us up the steep trail behind his house, climbing above the redwoods to take in a few moments of sun and ocean views before hiking back down to meet Mikael on Partington Ridge.

    Photos by Mikael Kennedy

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About Woolpower:

Ullfrotté Original is the material developed by Woolpower AB in Östersund in the early 1970’s in collaboration with the Swedish military, scientists, doctors and survival experts. The textile is highly wear resistant and consists of fine Merino wool, polyamide/polyester and air.The material is knit so that one side is smooth, and the other has terry loops. The lofty terry loops, in combination with the crimp in the wool fibers, creates a knitwear capable of trapping a lot of air. Up to 80% of the material actually consists of air, which means that the material has an excellent capacity to trap body heat. The more air you can keep still around the body, the more heat you can retain.The company employs about 70 people and the entire production is in Östersund, in the northern part of Sweden. Approximately 80% of the sales are exported to about 25 countries all over the world.