Perhaps we should have paid more attention to the sign that said “No Trailers beyond this point” but I really did not want to unhitch our small little trailer from the back of our van and find a place to park it. We were heading up a little driveway so that we could drive our van through a carved out Redwood tree in the Redwoods State Park, a supposedly quick stop on the long drive down to our boat in California.
Instead we decided ignore the sign and proceed forward. As we moved forward the drive to the tree got very steep and the weight of our cargo in the trailer became too much for the slick wet driveway. I was rather surprised when the tires started to spin out from under us only 10 feet from reaching the top of the climb to the tree. We were so close and I could already see the uniquely carved out redwood tree. That’s when fear gripped me. Backing down a windy drive with a trailer was not my idea of the fun afternoon detour I had anticipated. After all, I remembered driving through this same tree as an 11 year old 30 years earlier.
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As I tried again to go up the drive with no momentum to push me forward, it was obvious that backwards was the only direction for us to go. As we started to back up however the trailer on the swinging hitch behind us began to swing off of the road and into the shrubs and steep hillside on the passenger side of the vehicle. The only way to correct this was for me to re-adjust by driving the van off the same side of the road, but I over corrected and this pushed the trailer out to the other side of the paved road which had a steep embankment going down to shrubs and a creek below. The trailer was stuck with the trailer at a right angle to the van that was halfway off of the narrow driveway. The trailer was also at a right angle to the short driveway up to the tree. I was able to push the trailer far enough off the road even if my van was still blocking the other lane of traffic.
It was at this point that we decided that our best option was to unhitch the heavy trailer and pick it up on our way back down. There was both good news and bad news at this point on this $5 tourist attraction detour. The good news was that it was winter time and the drive-through tree was no lineup of cars waiting to drive up to the tree. The bad news was that we were still on a steep hill and unhitching a heavy trailer would be rather dangerous unless we could keep it from rolling down the hill as soon as we unhitched it. We scoured the area and found some slippery 2 inch branches that we tried to wedge under the tires but this did not look overly reliable. Given the opportunity the trailer may roll right over them or slide them downwards and into the bumper of our van. We had a bit of time and so I sent Dailin down to the creek down the embankment to look for some wedge like rocks. I was happy when he cam back to the van with two perfectly selected rocks to wedge behind the two trailer tires. Jaeden then helped me lift the trailer and set it on the ground behind the van. I was absolutely relieved when the trailer did not budge an inch and stayed right where we wanted it.
I needed to turn the van around and so I decided to continue on to finish what we had come for. Although Kirsten was more anxious to move the trailer out of the way, I piled the kids on top of the van and we headed for the carved out tree. It was probably the most anxious yet worthwhile $5 I spent on the entire drive down to California. Driving through a tree is fun but with the excitement of the process of getting to the tree, the adventure had a whole new meaning for us! True, I was not so excited as the events were taking place, but after all of the frustration was over, it made for a crazy story.
After two drives through the tree (we forgot to take a photograph the first time) we headed down the road, hitched our trailer back on and continued on our long drive down highway 101 to San Francisco!