Shively

Having left Eureka late and taken the ACA detour through the quaint town of Ferndale it was getting late by the time we started onto the Avenue of the Giants. We pulled off the road to look for a campsite on the Eel River just as Marc and Jessie floated into sight on the maiden voyage of their new kayaks. We didn't even know the ~50 house "town" of Shively existed but soon we had been invited to stay with them and we got to know what Shively hospitality was all about. On our way along Shively Flat Road, we met Marilyn Webb, the matriarch and one of the oldest residents of Shively - who told us some of the town's history, including the flood of 1964 which destroyed a good part of the town. Marc and Jessie are in the process of renovating Jessie's grandpa's old house so didn't have a kitchen but offered us craft and not-so-craft beer while telling us about their own family histories in the town. Jessie's grandpa had bought the land after viewing it from the train back in the 1950s and went on to cultivate acres of veggies using non-irrigation farming techniques, in addition to many varieties of fruit including over a dozen types of apples. Our first stop after beer was to the garden where Jessie and Marc grabbed bags of veggies for us to use in our dinner. After a shower, laundry and a comfy sleep in their RV/trailer we decided we would stay another day to take in more of the Shively goodness and get to hang out with Jessie, Marc, and the kids: 11-year old Troy and 1-year old Bear (named after his late great-grandfather).Read more