A very dull morning with streets and walks wet from a light, drizzling rain greeted our dismayed vision as we hastily glanced from the hotel windows on rising. The hotel people had duly warned us that they hadn’t a corner left for us for the coming night and we counted it very likely that every hotel and lodging house in Eureka was just as “full up,” as the English say. Furthermore, there was no assurance if it once began to rain that it would let up for a week, for week-long rains are to be expected in Humboldt County in season. And from all we could learn, a long-continued rain meant no thoroughfare for heavy cars through the mountains to the south.  
SAND DUNES ON THE NORTH COAST
From painting by N. Hagerup
We had a little official information concerning the road over which we must pass, for a bulletin of the California Highway Commission declared, “Eureka can be reached during the summer months only under the most strenuous conditions by means of the road from San Francisco over the summit of the Bell Springs Mountain, elevation 4100 feet above the sea level.217 After the first rains the road is impassable for motors and even horse-drawn vehicles, traffic on the route being limited to saddle and pack animals. At Dyerville an ascent of 3937 feet begins up and down grades as high as thirty per cent to the summit, a distance of forty-six miles. The descent, up and down grades exceeding twenty per cent, occupies a distance of twelve miles and ends at the foot of ‘Rattlesnake Grade,’ 2686 feet below. The high altitudes on the route afford magnificent views of the surrounding country in all directions, though the average tourist would no doubt gladly forego the scenic advantages of the Bell Springs Mountain to travel a less strenuous route. The terror of the Bell Springs Mountain, however, in the near future will exist only in memory; the pioneer road of Northern California will be superseded by the Coast Line of the new highway system.”
But all this cheerful prospect for the future could not shorten the Bell Springs road one foot or reduce its frightful grades a single inch so far as we were concerned. It lay before us with all its terror and mystery and it was an even gamble whether the heavy clouds would break away or the drizzle settle down into a steady rain. We tried to realize what a thirty per cent grade was really like; we had passed twenty and possibly twenty-five per cent slopes on our trip.218 “But a thirty per cent grade,” said the dismayed lady member of the expedition, “that’s one third of straight up. Will any car do that?” She was assured that most cars could accomplish this feat if working well and under favorable conditions, but in a rain—the possible consequences were not pleasant to contemplate.
We descended to breakfast in a mood of gloomy indecision. It seemed imperative for us to leave Eureka in any event. We had instructed our driver to be ready at eight o’clock and he was on hand with his usual promptness.
“Will she do a thirty per cent grade?” I asked jokingly, knowing his unwavering faith in the Pierce.
“She’ll do anything she can get traction on,” he said, “but in the mud—” So his thought was the same as our own, but what was the use pursuing an unpleasant subject?
“We’ve four wheel chains, in any event,” I said and the big car glided forth as calmly as if an unbroken boulevard stretched to the metropolis.
As I look back at it now, I must admit that we committed an act of egregious folly in setting out on this trip in face of what looked like an all-day rain. If it had been an all-day rain we might have been marooned many days in these mighty hills, if, indeed, we had not met219 with deadly disaster of some sort. Even as it was, we had occasion for real anxiety more than once, as will appear in due course of my story. We felt that if the outlook grew more threatening we could stop at Fortuna, another small wooden town twenty miles distant, where fair accommodations may be had.
The twenty miles proved over the best of roads through a level, well-improved country, and when we drove down the main street of the village we were rejoiced to see that the sky had lightened somewhat and the rain almost ceased. A garage man still farther reassured us. “Going to clear off,” he declared in response to our query on weather probabilities as our gasoline tank was being filled to the limit. “O, yes, it would be an ugly job if it should rain, but it ain’t going to rain,” which cheerful assurance we accepted and following his directions proceeded on a road which, besides its real danger in wet weather, proved to afford no decent accommodations for over fifty miles.
Just beyond Fortuna we passed a large, deep pool in the Eel River which is said to afford unequalled sport for fishermen, King Solomon, steel-head, and mountain trout being taken in large numbers even by inexperienced anglers. A number of summer cottages have been built here220 and the place shows increasing popularity as a summer resort.
We found the new state highway usable between Alton, four miles farther on, and Dyerville, thus enabling us to avoid the hills via Rio Dell and Pepperwood, which have some heavy grades ranging up to twenty-five per cent. The new road was pretty rough and soft in places, as no surfacing had yet been done. A fine new bridge across the Eel was building near Alton, but it was not yet open and a very tortuous detour through deep sand was necessary. Beyond the river we continued for many miles through closely standing redwoods—great columnar trees which would have excited our wonder and admiration to a greater degree had we not seen the more imposing forests of the north.
At Dyerville, a wretched-looking little hamlet of half a dozen buildings, we bade farewell to the new highway. It had been completed some distance beyond this point, but a gap of thirty miles remained to be bridged before it could supersede the Bell Springs road. The new highway follows the south fork of the Eel River and gradually rises until it joins the present road at Cummings, elevation 1414 feet, sixty-nine miles from Dyerville. This will entirely avoid the Bell Springs Mountain and eliminate a climb and descent of nearly three thousand feet. Construction221 was in progress at the time of our visit and the new bond issue insures the completion of the work, which may be accomplished before my book sees the light. Tourists of the future, with rarest exceptions, will speed over the new boulevard and the Bell Springs road will fall into disuse. We shall always be glad, however—now that it is safely over—that circumstances forced us to climb the rugged mountain, since from its slopes and summit we beheld some of the wildest and most beautiful panoramas to be seen in all California.
Heavy work began immediately after we crossed the river at Dyerville. A long grade zigzagged up the slope of the mountain, closely following the Eel for several miles and affording many magnificent panoramas of the river and rugged ranges of wooded hills that guard it on either hand. Splendid pines crowded closely up to the narrow road and did much to lessen the nervous effects of the long, sharp slope at our side. At the turns of the road, however, there were frequent open spaces which allowed views of ever-increasing grandeur as we ascended; the river, far below, lay in still, green pools or dashed in foaming rapids among the lichen-covered boulders. Beyond were endless hill ranges, cloud-swept here and there, for, though the rain had ceased, the sky was still threatening.
222 A long descent brought us to the railroad; then the road swung away from the river and followed the crest of the ridge between the Eel and South Fork for the remainder of the day. Another long, heavy grade confronted us with two sharp “hairpin” turns which some facetious wayfarer has dubbed “The Devil’s Elbow,” and we recalled that we had passed a hill in the Scotch Highlands where a like honor had been paid to His Satanic Majesty. We thought the latter bad enough at the time, but it was tame when compared with the twists and grades of this far western trail. The long wheel base of our car made it necessary to back up at several of the turns, an operation which excited lively anxiety on part of our lady passenger. It was disquieting, indeed, to see the rear wheel of the car approach within a foot or two of the high bank at the side of the turn with a twenty per cent slope looming ahead, but the car responded so beautifully to the skill of the driver that she gradually became reassured.
The forest gradually dwindled and beyond Fruitland—there was little except the name on the map to indicate the existence of such a place—we came into a barren, desolate-looking region with little vegetation except scrub trees and shrubs, through which the road kept a general ascent, though there were occasional downward223 dips. At the foot of one of these we ran on to a most disconsolate party in a Ford which had been stalled for some hours for lack of gasoline. Only one car had passed and the occupants had declined assistance on the ground that they feared a shortage of the very necessary fluid themselves.
“Then I hired a horse,” said the driver, “of the man on the hill yonder and one of our ladies visited the three other houses in this little valley, but couldn’t scare up a pint of gas at any of them. I’ll pay you any price you ask for a gallon or two.”
We freely confessed that price wasn’t the consideration—we feared a shortage ourselves on some of the hills before us. Our car was gravity-fed and it might fail on a steep grade with several gallons in the tank. Still, the obligations of the Golden Rule weighed heavily upon us in such a case and we granted our friend in distress the two gallons he so earnestly prayed for. We declined the dollar he tried to force upon us on the ground that we were not helping him out for worldly gain—we only hoped we wouldn’t run short ourselves.
He assured us that it was only ten miles over a level road to Harris, where he had carelessly neglected to replenish his supply, but I fear that his predicament warped his judgment224 of distance. It proved a full twenty miles with many steep pitches which caused us no little anxiety and which continually increased, for Harris seemed constantly to recede as we cautiously proceeded over a road that varied from fair to very bad. There were many stony stretches where the car scrambled over good-sized boulders still wet from the mists that at intervals swept across the mountains. It was a wild and lonely road, with no sign of human habitation for many miles; only the long views across the rugged hills redeemed it from dreary monotony.
At one point four fine does contemplated us curiously and with little sign of fear, at a distance of perhaps sixty yards; they, too, seemed to realize that woman’s rights in California are even extended to deer—there is a heavy fine for killing a doe. We were told that these hills are alive with deer, but the exceedingly rugged nature of the country makes hunting very difficult. The road constantly grew more tortuous and arduous and we made many remarks about the tendency of Harris to recede as we advanced—we even began to wonder if we might not have passed it unaware. It was, therefore, with no small relief that we beheld Harris finally heave in sight, but our reviving spirits dropped when we saw a sign posted on225 the hotel, which is all there is of Harris, “Positively closed for the season,” and could detect no sign of life about the place. Was our expected gasoline supply to fail here with the Bell Springs Mountain now directly before us? A reconnoissance of the place, however, discovered the man in charge, who gleefully filled our tank with forty-cent gas and our apprehensions vanished into thin air.
While we were engaged in this transaction, a Ford car paused and began to disgorge its contents under a group of trees near by—said contents consisting of six people and two dogs, and an endless array of camping and other impedimenta was strapped to the machine at every available projection, almost concealing it from view. An old-fashioned, tin-covered trunk was fastened at the rear and several grips were piled about the engine hood. The wonder of it was that the flimsy-looking car could stand up under it all, even though two of the passengers were rather small children and the dogs not very large. The party proceeded at once to build a fire; a warm dinner and hot coffee were evidently on the program—which reminded us that we had neglected to provide ourselves with our usual lunch on leaving Eureka. The man who supplied gasoline assured us that we would find an excellent hotel still open at Bell Springs, twelve226 miles farther on; we ought to reach it in an hour, he thought.
“O, yes, some pretty stiff going, to be sure, but nothing to worry that wagon of yours, I guess,” he said.
It proved a steep, stony, winding, wicked dozen miles with one thirty per cent pitch, according to our road maps, all of which drawbacks were mightily accentuated in our minds when the rain commenced again shortly after we left Harris. Tire chains were brought into requisition and after a steady grind of an hour and a quarter, enlivened by no end of nervous thrills, we paused with steaming radiator in front of the attractive-looking Bell Springs Inn. It was about two o’clock and twenty-three miles from Laytonville, where we proposed, rather dubiously, to stop for the night.
“Here’s our only chance for luncheon,” I announced—a matter which a very early and very light breakfast at Eureka no doubt served to keep in my mind.
“I don’t want any lunch,” came from the rear seat. “I want to get out of these terrible hills just as quickly as we possibly can. Whatever induced you to choose this awful road? You always seem to find the worst possible.” To all of which no adequate answer came to my mind.
With a lingering look at the hotel, I gave227 the word to proceed, not without considerable misgiving, for it was still raining and the information which we had of the road was far from reassuring. True, it was down hill most of the way, but my experience was that it is easier to climb a muddy grade than to descend one. The descent began shortly after leaving the hotel and for some miles we proceeded with extreme caution down narrow switchbacks with sharp turns, some of which required backing. The scenery was magnificent, rugged slopes covered with gigantic pines which often came up to the roadside—but I confess that we did not pay enough attention to the scenery to warrant much descriptive writing. The road grew muddier with the incessant rain and as we came to the steep pitches of Rattlesnake Grade, the car showed an unmistakable tendency to skid, despite the chains on the rear wheels. Few things are so likely to make one’s heart sink as the feeling that a heavy car is not entirely under control on a steep grade, barely wider than the wheels, with a sharp turn on the verge of a precipice every few rods. We stopped and applied chains to the front wheels as well, but even then a tendency to slide on the grades was still noticeable and extreme caution was necessary. And yet the showers had only “greased” the road; I do228 not believe any car could negotiate these grades in a heavy rain.
Fortune, however, favored us for once, since the rain ceased just as we were wondering if we might not have to spend a supperless night on the road—which we certainly should have been compelled to do had conditions grown much worse. There was a rustic hotel at Cummings, at the foot of Rattlesnake Grade, but in order to carry out our plans for the following day, we felt it advisable to push on to Laytonville, though we realized that night would overtake us before we arrived. We had consumed nearly three hours in covering the twelve miles from Bell Springs, but we hoped to make better time over the thirteen miles still remaining—which we did, as the road was quite dry, though excruciatingly stony and rough. There was one heavy grade, but in the main we followed a canyon with a gradual descent. The road was so narrow that we found great difficulty in passing a belated car which we met, and so rough that a snail’s pace was enforced much of the way.
The canyon was heavily wooded; vines and shrubbery, rich with autumn colorings, grew in rank profusion. Despite the lateness of the season, there were occasional blooms. We saw dogwood and wild rosebushes bearing both blossoms and bright red berries. Huckleberries were common,229 as were also the pale red clusters of the honeysuckle, and manzanitas. The air was fragrant with the odor of balsam pine and we felt that it would be a delightful run had we not been tired, cold, and hungry. But very tired, cold, and hungry we were and the last few miles done in the dark before we reached Laytonville were long ones, indeed. It was a time when ............