The Condors Have Reconsidered

The Kinetic Grand Championship returns this weekend, bringing its particular brand of mechanical absurdity to the streets and shores. Saturday through Monday, contraptions that defy both physics and good sense will attempt the course from Arcata to Ferndale. Meanwhile, Eureka's Friday Night Market reopens in Old Town on May 22nd.

Three days of human-powered sculpture racing through sand, water, and mud. Saturday begins on the Arcata Plaza, where engineering meets optimism in forms that defy both physics and description. The Manila dunes on day one separate the ambitious from the prepared.

The California condors have been making themselves known at Dolason Prairie this week, appearing in pairs with the casual authority of birds who have decided extinction was an unfounded rumor. Two were spotted Thursday morning circling the prairie with wingspans that make the resident ravens look like sparrows with ambition. Their return to Humboldt County after more than a century suggests the restoration effort is working. Birders have been gathering at dawn, binoculars raised, watching enormous black wings wheel over the prairie in a sight Humboldt County had not seen for more than a century.

The Rockefeller Loop Trail in the Avenue of the Giants offers what might be the county's most idyllic introduction to old-growth redwoods. The flat loop wanders for just under a mile past specimens that make the word ‘tree’ feel somewhat insufficient. The Rockefeller Tree itself stands near the trail's midpoint, one of the tallest coast redwoods alive today. The trail requires no particular fitness, only the willingness to stop repeatedly and look upward. In summer, the Eel River moves turquoise and cold beside the opening stretch of trail, adding a level of scenery that feels almost excessive.

Heavy metal moves through the speakers, oracle cards and books line the windowsills, and the dark interior feels less like a coffee shop than a carefully curated refuge. Drinks arrive with names like “Mist in the Trees” and “Lil Baddie Fladdie,” while an impressive amount of care goes into the entirely plant-based menu. Lady Humboldt appreciates an establishment that understands atmosphere is part of the recipe.

This week in 1917, the Redwood Highway was declared open for automobile traffic between Eureka and San Francisco, though the journey required "several days of difficult driving" according to contemporary accounts. The first motorists discovered that the road had opinions about their progress, particularly near Richardson Grove. Nearly a century later, the highway maintains a similar editorial stance.