The Russian River Valley’s Gift of Presence

Last Saturday found me and my tour guests communing with ancient redwoods at Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve, just outside of the tiny Sonoma County hamlet of Guerneville along the fabled Russian River. I love my redwoods, and this is the time of year I tend to find myself walking among them, admiring their stately, jaw-dropping, cathedral-like presence.

For that matter, I would walk through redwoods any time of year but for the fact that there are so many other fine trails in the wine country to let my boots roam across. It’s just that when Old Sol turns up the summer heat, the cool and shady redwood forests of the California coast tend to be a bastion of refuge for me when other parts of California are quietly beginning to bake themselves brown.

Imagine how it might have been 140 years ago, though, when this forest had been reduced to being called Stumptown. If it hadn’t been for the efforts of the Armstrong family (for whom the Reserve is named) plus later citizens groups and the Park Service, there might not have been any old-growth redwoods for me and my guests to marvel at today. We therefore have countless people to thank for the continued presence of this living gift, people who are long gone but whose silent presence we feel strongly as we stand among these gargantuan, 2000-year-old monarchs.

Picnicking among the redwoods at Armstrong Reserve is a special thing, too. There’s a certain hush imparted by this forest floor, thickly carpeted with the leaf-fall of yesteryear; its absorption of sound seems to subdue conversation.

Photo courtesy of Sage Gunderson.

And yet the spirit of our group is present, and we dine happily beneath our cool canopy before returning upstream along the banks of the Russian to taste the spirit of locally-grown grapes. Our destination is Gary Farrell Vineyards, which is perched high on a knoll, the broad windows of its tasting room affording us a grand view of the Valley below.

The wines we taste at Gary Farrell are supremely delicious, and there is not one that we don’t like among their lineup. We’ve walked in dreaming of chards and zins and pinots, and we are not disappointed. The staff at Gary Farrell is not disappointed, either, as we leave them laden heavily with fine liquid booty.

We’re happy that we came to the Russian River Valley today.

~winehiker

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 1:21 pm and is filed under grape squeezins, winehiker's trails. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.