Gualala river is a perfect place to camp in the summer. It is popular among Californians, but not so well known that it gets too crowded, even at peak season. It's about three hours north of San Fransisco, if you take the curvy, epically beautiful route 1.

The problem with the two lane route 1, however, is that if there is just one slow driver that is too obstinate to pull over and let people pass, there can be a solid twenty mile-long back up.

That day we had the unfortunate fate of running into the mother of these traffic jams. After several hours of stagnation, my friend Steve and I got out and walked for about an hour. Our little legs made progress along the road that was roughly equitable with the cars.

We even had time to stop and take in the views as we waited for our car-stranded companions to catch up.

After we got back in the car, however, we had had our fill of route 1's majesty, and boredom started to gnaw at our souls.

Once we finally got there, the river's slow winding current made for some excellent snorkeling.

After we had finally set up camp, though, there was still some extra energy to be burned off from the hours stuck in the car, which resulted in the rather Rousseauian experience of fire jumping.

The river winds snake-like into the ocean through the steep, pine tree-laden hills of northern California. If you find yourself in the area, it's a perfect place to commune with nature.