I got on my bike my first morning at Orr and rode two miles to Montgomery Woods, hoping to have a nice long ride among the redwoods. Everything started out just fine. The trail was pretty:

 

I quickly encountered a few giant redwoods:

 

 

To give you a better idea of their size, here’s a picture of the bike leaning against a stump:

 

I soon encountered a few funny sights, like this small tree bent over the trail:

 

But the next sight was a bit disconcerting at first. My eyesight isn’t what it used to be, and I came to an abrupt halt when I saw this:

 

No problem, though, and so I went on my way.  But the trail soon got narrower:

 

And the forest got thinner:

 

Obstacles soon appeared:

 

I decided to leave the bike and continue on foot. Here’s the bike looking forlorn and fearful where I chained it to a tree:

 

By now I was starting to think that I had make a mistake and that this place couldn’t be the real Montgomery State Reserve. And then I came upon this friendly sign, and another sign on the other side of the very same tree:

 

Notice the grafitti: “Walk along creek to parking lot”. So I turned back, picked up the bike and made my back to the road where I realized that I should have payed attention to some signals. This trashed and abandoned camper:

 

And this tacky sign:

 

Notice the name of then-governor Arnold Schwarzenneger. I’ve lived abroad so long that I sometimes forget that Schwarzenegger was actually California’s governor for a number of years, the state’s chief executive. The “governator”, as he was known.

Now I realize that I definitely made some mistake. There must be another entrance somewhere. So on I go, looking for the right place.