Have you ever met someone whose soul seems intertwined with the very essence of the place they call home? Ray Olson is that person for Humboldt County. Guided by his unwavering passion for environmental conservation and public service, Ray takes us on a heartfelt voyage from his modest beginnings in the Central Valley to a life rich with purpose in the verdant expanses of Humboldt. This episode is more than just a reflection on personal triumph; it's a mosaic of history, nature, and the power of community, seen through the eyes of a man deeply connected to both the land and the people.
Shift gears with us as we discuss the unexpected turns life can take, such as Ray's transition from a bustling arts and education advocate to a filmmaker and storyteller amidst the stillness of a global pandemic. The quiet of lockdowns reawakened his appreciation for the county's natural splendor, leading to a newfound mission: using community TV to uplift and unite. Ray's story is a poignant reminder that even in times of upheaval, beauty and purpose can be cultivated, transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and connection.
Finally, this episode serves as an open invitation to discover the unique charm that community access television and programming provide. Humboldt County is not merely a backdrop; it's a character in its own right, offering tales of historical intrigue and promising developments that beckon residents and visitors alike to explore and engage. Join us as Ray Olson shares not just the legacy he aims to leave but also inspires us to consider the imprints we each wish to make on the world around us.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Have you ever met someone whose soul seems intertwined with the very essence of the place they call home? Ray Olson is that person for Humboldt County. Guided by his unwavering passion for environmental conservation and public service, Ray takes us on a heartfelt voyage from his modest beginnings in the Central Valley to a life rich with purpose in the verdant expanses of Humboldt. This episode is more than just a reflection on personal triumph; it's a mosaic of history, nature, and the power of community, seen through the eyes of a man deeply connected to both the land and the people.
Shift gears with us as we discuss the unexpected turns life can take, such as Ray's transition from a bustling arts and education advocate to a filmmaker and storyteller amidst the stillness of a global pandemic. The quiet of lockdowns reawakened his appreciation for the county's natural splendor, leading to a newfound mission: using community TV to uplift and unite. Ray's story is a poignant reminder that even in times of upheaval, beauty and purpose can be cultivated, transforming challenges into opportunities for growth and connection.
Finally, this episode serves as an open invitation to discover the unique charm that community access television and programming provide. Humboldt County is not merely a backdrop; it's a character in its own right, offering tales of historical intrigue and promising developments that beckon residents and visitors alike to explore and engage. Join us as Ray Olson shares not just the legacy he aims to leave but also inspires us to consider the imprints we each wish to make on the world around us.
Find us on Facebook at 100% Humboldt.
Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt with my new best friend, Ray Olson. Welcome to the show, Ray. Thanks for having me, Scott, hey, it's great to have you. So tell us the Ray Olson story from birth to Ohio Street today.
Speaker 2:All right. Well, I mean I'm not gonna go into that elaborate detail, but, yeah, my connections to Humboldt County are is that my family's home was in the Central Valley but during the summers, parts of the summer, our family would come and stay up in a ranch up in Del Norte County. Ever since I was a little baby, they were family friends. And then, of course, I love this area. Whenever I would spend the school year in the Central Valley, I always pined away for up here in Del Norte County, Humboldt County. Where in the valley were you? It was around a Manteca area. Oh, to flatten dry. Yeah, I mean, every time we'd leave here and go back there for the winter, I always used to miss it up here. So I've always felt like this was my real home up here. And then when I turned 19, 18 or 19, I moved up to Arcada and went to school at HSU. Took me about eight years to get through because I had to earn my own way through college. Eight years, Well, yeah, I'd run out of money, I know, I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah and you know, or if my, and then during the summer, a lot of times I could work hard all summer, get enough money to continue, but I sometimes had run out so I'd have to take off a term and go get a job. I mean roofing was a great job because I can make a lot of money. They'd pay you by the square that you laid, really quick.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so anyway, because of that it took me eight years. But you know what, looking back, I'm glad it turned out that way because I had a lot of great experiences in between classes, real-world experiences. So after I graduated from HSU, graduates are all faced with this you want to live up here, right, you want to survive in Humboldt, but if you also. But you have a choice between following your career or, you know, a less challenging job, maybe here. So I chose my career and so, sadly, I couldn't live for the next 30 years in Humboldt, although I'd come here as often as I could. I have family in the area.
Speaker 2:Where'd you go? I worked all over the state local governments, public service, managing environmental programs how about that? I'm setting up recycling programs, stormwater pollution prevention programs and every chance I got I would come up here. And, like I said, I have family I can stay with up here. And finally, after a 30-year career in public service, I work everywhere, from Tuolumne County to Ventura, to Yosemite National Park, stannislaus County and I kept getting promoting up in my career. I was able to take a retirement from the public retirement system about 10 years ago and then I was able to finally move back up here.
Speaker 1:By a place. Oh yeah yeah, 10 years ago is about right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it took me. But the nice thing is I always had a goal of moving here and so I saved every bit I could and I lived a frugal life so that I could afford to live.
Speaker 1:I'm here in the house.
Speaker 2:It's a retire yeah, up here, yeah, so fortunately I'm thrilled to be back what I've always considered home, back to when I was a little kid.
Speaker 1:It's cool, that's a great story so many people want. They're born here and I gotta go back to Humboldt and I gotta live there and it's nothing going on. It rains. It's like you're the opposite. You had to work your tail off and figure it out and come back because it was a goal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that sounds it up, yeah.
Speaker 1:So with the recycling and all, do you know Wesley Chesbro?
Speaker 2:Yes, in fact, when I was a student here, wesley was our class president. I believe it was around that time, and I've met Wesley since then, so and he was real involved. I was one of the I don't mean this in a braggart way, but I was one of the pioneers in the burgeoning and the recycling movement in the 1989, and Wesley was a real key mover, along with Maggie Gainer and others, and in fact I was hired in the city of Lancaster several years. My job was to build an entire recycling, waste reduction, recycling program from scratch. Oh, I had a ball in my career. I mean, yeah, it was hard work, but I loved every minute of it and I feel like I was really contributing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he explained how that thing got off the ground. He was part of the waste management board or whatever you would call him yes.
Speaker 2:waste management yes.
Speaker 1:And that he kicked all that off. So yeah. Thank you. Recycling friends yeah, it's a big deal now all over the state.
Speaker 2:It is. And now all your Maggie Gainer say that what we should do is put more emphasis on reducing waste in the first place. Yeah, and she's always said that, and recycling is sort of like the bandaid when all else has failed. So the emphasis has shifted from recycle, recycle, recycle, which is still a part of the program, to do things to reduce the amount of waste in the first place. And we did a lot of that One. I was running programs, we did environmental shopping methods and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah composting would be another way.
Speaker 2:Composting? Yes, worm, if you can't. Yeah, there's so much information and a person just has to take time to learn all that, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you came back, and so what did you do? 10, it was 2010,. Is that what you said?
Speaker 2:No, it was 10 years ago. I retired and then I came back 14,. Okay, yeah, and what have you been doing with yourself? Well, I actually got very active right when I got back. I enrolled at HSU. It was HSU then taking classes and before I knew it I was a member of the local orchestra, the all seasons orchestra. I was cast in plays, I was doing some local films. I mean, I was a really busy guy, wow.
Speaker 1:So much for retirement.
Speaker 2:Oh no, I mean, I don't consider it retirement, it was just a shift in life. So I've always been kind of a go-getter and I was just doing so many things. But you know what, on March I remember the day, march 2020, everything came doing a abrupt stop. Weirdest thing ever I know, I know, that was wild man yeah.
Speaker 1:We were at a Ricky Skaggs concert at the Mandolin bluegrass guy over in Redding at the Cascade Theater and he goes I'll be signing CDs at the back and usually I'd hug y'all but something's on the road, people are getting sick, so I'm not hugging people, but come on back and get a CD. And that was a Sunday night and I think we were shut down Tuesday or Wednesday.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And their concert tour is over of course that must have been like the week of that March 20th, I think it was.
Speaker 1:Correct, it was right days before.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they already sense there was people dropping like flies on the road and people getting sick everywhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a wild experience. I was actually casting a play at HSU Paul Himbolt and we'd had done a dress rehearsal Thursday night I think it was March 19th and ready to start doing performances. It was Treasure Island and they got it. They contacted us next morning and said everything's canceled.
Speaker 1:Done. Go home, yeah, Buy a lot of toilet paper. Folks, it's stuck up. Yeah, it's funny because I think this will be the norm going forward. Hey, remember when 9-11. I know you know March 21st or whatever the date, and you go, wow, what were you doing? And so it's funny discussion. So you came back and immersed yourself in Humbolt and got involved.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And so what got you involved in journalism and theater, but the video and the TV shows and all of that. So how'd you cycle to that?
Speaker 2:Well, that actually is connected to the pandemic shutdown. Okay, so here in March, all of a sudden my whole schedule is completely empty, which, you know, I always find things to do. So I thought, great, I've always wanted to spend more time seeking out places in Humbolt County, so I just really got into going out in nature and exploring all these places and more depth and getting to learning it. And then I think, around that summer I started thinking you know, why not go ahead and see if I could figure out how to film this stuff and then start.
Speaker 2:And then I found out about Community Access TV and then start making programming, because I had just read that the CDC Center for Disease Control had said they had recommended that people get outdoors because there was a lot of mental illness going on during the summer. People were getting cabin fever, getting weird, yeah. So I thought, okay, here's the way I can contribute to this pandemic. I'll make some. I'll see if I can make some videos and post them on Community Access TV and maybe that'll inspire one or two people to get outdoors Right and relieve the mental stress of the pandemic. So that's kind of where it started.
Speaker 1:Were you part of Access Humbolt up to that point.
Speaker 2:No, no, I wasn't. I knew about Access Humbolt, but I never thought I'd be able to ever have the technical abilities to run a camera and to edit. I mean, it just seems so far beyond me. But then, all of a sudden, I had this time, so I just I got a little GoPro camera for a few hundred dollars. Sure, I got an editing program for I don't know $69 for a lifetime and I just went out and watched hours and hours of YouTube videos on how to do it.
Speaker 1:And this figured it out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, figured how to use the equipment and then I started playing it for Access Humbolt and they liked the content, so I just kind of launched from there. That was what.
Speaker 1:Four years ago. I want to hear all about that, but first that's what Nick did, our producer here. He, during the pandemic, became the podcast guru of Western Hemisphere.
Speaker 2:While I heard yeah, I know that's congratulations, Nick.
Speaker 1:I know, I'm not sure what I did. I think I just I couldn't stay at home very long. I just get jacked up. So let's go back. Where did you go to high school? Where'd you grow up? In Mantica? Yeah, I grew up in Mantica, yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Well, like I said, the winters, and then we'd spend part of the summer up in Del Norte.
Speaker 2:What part of Del Norte. It's in Crescent City. It was a ranch. That's on Enderds Beach. Oh yeah, enderds Beach Road. There used to be a ranch there. It's now a state park. Yeah, so it was about 18, the state park service took it over and made it into a state park. Oh wow, it's a cozy family. Well, there's a. It goes back three generations. My great grandfather was a professor of engineering in the San Francisco Bay Area and these, the three brothers who lived on the ranch, went to college in the Bay Area to learn about engineering, and my great grandfather was a professor. So they befriended them and he would come up here and so, anyway, that family connection, friendship between their family and ours, oh well, and continued down through my father and then our whole family Come and visit. Yeah, we would go up there, and as we grew older we'd help out on the ranch.
Speaker 1:And that's Southside of Crescent City, right yeah, South South of Crescent City, correct, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:When you come down the grade, there's where the casino is on the right. There's a left turn and it goes up to a lookout called the Enderdspece. That was all the Posey Ranch.
Speaker 1:That was a whole ranch.
Speaker 2:That was a ranch and the Poseys kept some cabins there. Oh, and it was Wood Stove Cab and it was pretty rustic and that's where we would stay.
Speaker 1:That's a whole big beach, though that goes all the way over.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we used to walk down. We had a trail down to the beach and we used to. Every day we'd go down fishing, catch our own fish. Sounds cool, you know, dig up clams. It was a pretty ideal. My brother and I still we still feel a lot of connection to that area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a beautiful area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, it is Well. This area is beautiful too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, joni, and I discovered that during COVID as well. We would go up to, you know, camel Rock or Huda Point and split up in the van, go for a walk, bring back, come for a picnic, some Dick Taylor chocolate, whatever. That area is right here, by the way. Just, I always have to reference the map. Yes, it's right in this area.
Speaker 1:The other thing I always reference and it's funny you'd bring it up, because it's almost comical that everybody references Humboldt State and then the correction, the humorous tongue and cheek correction, which is true, it's Cal Poly Humboldt, and you got to kind of say it in a certain way, and I had a lady that goes well, you haven't earned that yet. I don't even know what that means, but Cal Poly Humboldt. Yeah yeah, so what did you study at?
Speaker 2:Cal Poly Natural resource interpretation and management. So it was a great major because you could take the full breath of natural resource classes, everything from oceanography to botany to ornithology, so it was a nice overall.
Speaker 1:Tough major too right.
Speaker 2:Well, the undergrad classes are tough, are especially tough chemistry, zoology, right, and in fact I had to retake zoology. That was the hardest class I've ever taken in my life. But you know the value for me of going through college. When I got thrown out in the work world, they would throw these projects at me. I thought we're way beyond my technical ability and experience. I always thought, God, if I was able to get through zoology, I could do this Right.
Speaker 2:If I was able to figure that out, I could figure this out. I'll tell you another funny story the way I'd save money for these classes. You buy these books that they were super expensive. I'd go to the Tin Can mailman Go find them. Well, I couldn't find the exact ones, but I had a zoology class or a biology. I would just buy a different biology or zoology text book In addition, yeah, yeah, and it'd be a lot cheaper, it'd be like a few dollars.
Speaker 2:And then, whenever the lectures would cover area, rather than reading that recommended reading, I would find the same information.
Speaker 1:Same thing, they didn't reinvent zoology, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, but anyway I got. Maybe that's why I didn't pass. Well, I got a D in zoology. You had to get a C, so maybe that's why I didn't. But I worked my butt off in that class. So a lot of those core classes, but yeah, I know it's good experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not too smart. I came up as an ocean major and discovered that you have to have chemistry and physics, yes, and calculus, yes, as a basis. I know, and I was. I majored in the Bong team. I was like, not that guy and Farrell Child from San Diego, sorry to. So, hey, kid, why don't you go do recreation administration? Yeah, that's me. Oh, you took recreation. Yeah, my kids go. Dad, did you major in recess? I go, how dare you? And yes, I kind of did. But you raise a question. That is where how many college students are in fields that were not their major, and I think it's a pretty high stats like three quarters don't wind up in their career that matched their.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which is fine. You know, I used to do a lot of hiring in my jobs and they just had to have a degree to get through certain to be able to that I could even interview them, so it didn't matter.
Speaker 1:So you knew they could figure out zoology, they could figure out your program.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, we used to hire. We used to hire. One of the things I looked for was communication skills and the ability to write well. And that was so hard to find? Yeah, so if it was an art major, but they could write really well, they could carry on a conversation, interact really well with the public without alienate them, and that public service spirit with them and a passion for environmental work, that's the kind of candidate I was looking at. You didn't have to have a degree, a technical degree.
Speaker 1:And able to articulate that.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, I like it.
Speaker 1:I think that's all about emotional intelligence. It's funny because I started public speaking in my late 30s, early 40s and Toastmasters and I had no idea how a microphone. What do I do here? It's. I don't, and so I. It's funny how some skills come later in life and we're never too late to learn a new thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you just have to do it a lot. You know you have to. Any skill is something you have to repeat, like with these casts you're doing. I would assume the more you do them, the more fluid they get in there a little more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm gonna refer to my map again. No, there's certain things, you're right. It just becomes more fun and more fluid and genuine and there's a flow and a rhythm. Hopefully we're not too jacked up. So I see a lot of your video on I haven't of late, but I haven't been watching a lot of TV, but I've seen a lot of the trails, the walks, the historicity of some of the places you go and tell me how many are there? What's your position? What's your job position in that? How would you describe your duties? If it was a job, I didn't realize it's probably more of a mission and a passion than anything else. But how would you? How many videos? Where have you gone? That's really cool. And a couple stories.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I do it all volunteer. I don't receive any pay. I mainly make these videos for community access television, which I really am a big supporter of. Community access television. Again, no pay of any kind. But I also put them on social media because they're just broad. As you know, they're broadcasting on channel 12, but it's nice to have a repository where anybody could see them anytime. And I do no monetization whatsoever of any of the channels. No sponsors, no financing, because I don't want any money for me involved. I wanna be able to do something that I do just for the sheer love and adventure of it, and that's what this is all about for me. That's cool. Who gets to do?
Speaker 1:that, that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I pretty much choose the topics because I know whatever I pick I'm gonna be spending a lot of time with. So I pick something that I know will really engage me, that I probably don't know a lot about, that I wanna learn more about, and then I do all the research and then I kind of write a script out and then I film it and then I edit it and then I have a little handful of volunteers. It helps me out with different parts. Like Jake, he does drone footage. He joins me for drone footage. So I just have a little small group of volunteers.
Speaker 1:And Moonlight MacCumber. Is that his name? Her, that's Gal, that's my wife oh, that's your wife.
Speaker 2:okay, okay, she does music right. She helps with the editing A lot of times. What I'll do is I'll do all the editing and then I'll show it to her and then she'll help polish it. I got you. So she takes it up to, I guess, in a grading sense, c level, up to more of a B or an A level. So she adds some nice polish and she's an editor so she makes sure it's grammatically correct. She has much, much higher standards than I have.
Speaker 1:That's good, that's good, it's a team, yeah, and you have a lot of music beds from local artists right.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I did work at first with a lot of musical.
Speaker 2:I tried to work with musical artists but it was a real struggle. A lot of them just didn't have time, they had to or they couldn't get to me the right format and they just didn't have the time to work with me and there's a limited venue. So I now pay out of my own pocket for a music subscription service called Epidemic Sound, and what I like about them is the pay that I give goes to struggling artists. Not all of it, but a good portion of, they say, 50% of my pay. My fee goes to help these artists. So all the music they're not, they're sort of what I guess you call struggling musicians that are trying to make a name for themselves and they get a little bit of extra money from my subscription fee to the service. And I gotta say I'm not trying to sell it or anything, but it's made the music part of it so much easier than it used to be when I used to have to go through all these free music sites and everything else you could listen to 40 things and pull one thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it would take me hours and hours. Now with this program I could do things a lot quicker and find music that fits. And, yeah, I enjoy, and I really enjoy that part of it.
Speaker 1:I have so much fun figured out what music oh yeah, so that whole editing so you could pull down. This is Lampier Dunes music. This'll go good with the beach.
Speaker 2:Well, I get different playlists and then every just about every time I do have my moonlight always says your music's too loud, you need to take it down so you can hear what people say. So that usually is what happens.
Speaker 1:That's what Johnny's always turn it down. Turn down the TV, it's too loud. Okay, I have my hearing aids on, but okay, whatever. So I was thinking it'd be fun, just a spontaneous journey here, if I was to point to the map and you would maybe guide me. So you've done a bunch of things like here in Manila, the Malal Dunes and that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, malal Dunes, what a beautiful place, really cool place newer BLM trail.
Speaker 1:Are they BLM? I think they are.
Speaker 2:They're managed by BLM, but I'm not real sure of the arrangement. But you have BLM, you have Friends of the Dunes and that was actually the very first show I did during the pandem.
Speaker 1:Really okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that was my very first one with a GoPro camera. That's cool, the mic on the GoPro no external mic. I mean it was like bare bones, basic equipment.
Speaker 1:but yeah, and you'll bear with me, I know that Samoa Dunes. You did the thing with the pill boxes and Julie, our friend Julie, yes, yeah she's really nice. She used to karate with her kids. She did Years ago. Yeah, she's black belt. Oh, really she's super nice.
Speaker 2:I didn't know she was a black belt.
Speaker 1:What's her name? Julie Clark, yeah we like her. Wow, yeah, Julie's.
Speaker 2:I just filmed with her just a few days ago. I filmed a green screen with her. She's doing her docent character for the lighthouse the Trinidad Lighthouse. Oh, that's neat, so I'm gonna project her image in front of the lighthouse like a ghostly image. So I just filmed that with her like three days ago.
Speaker 1:So she does that work at the lighthouse when they do the tours.
Speaker 2:She well, you know she wrote a book about lighthouses and I just found this out the royalties from that book. She donates all of it to the Trinidad Lighthouse.
Speaker 1:Julie Clark shout out to Julie. Yeah, yeah, Julie's great, oh, very nice.
Speaker 2:And she's filmed two different shows with me Falk and then the old lighthouse, the ruins of the lighthouse and the Smoa Dunes, which I never knew were there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were watching that. Did you ever know that? Cause Joni does a lot of hiking and has been out there. She rides her bike sometimes from McKinleyville down there, and so, yeah, that was kind of a discovery.
Speaker 2:Well, julie, after I'd filmed Falk with Julie, my first show, she said, ray, let me show you some other interesting things. She took me down and showed me this area, these ruins, what was it 1860s or so when they built this thing? And there's these, the walls and bricks are all laying around in this BLM area. So Julie showed that and then she agreed to tell the whole story.
Speaker 1:Is that up the trail that is?
Speaker 2:Well, it's at the bunkers. You park in the same areas of bunkers but you head on a South trail of the bunkers instead of going north to the bunkers and the bunkers. She showed me the bunkers no-transcript, nobody. She didn't know a lot of the history and I checked with a lot of local historians what's the story with these bunkers? And most people say, well, it was World War II. They didn't really know, and it took me a year of asking around. I finally found that historian his name was Jeffrey at the Maritime Museum. That knew all about him. So I was able to finally feel that Were they World War II? They were World War II, but they were all sealed up. They're all welded shut so you can't see them. They've been welded shut for decades. So Jake had the idea. We hooked up a GoPro to a pole and we stuck it through these little vents that Jake found, and so I was able to get footage Of what's inside?
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably the first time anybody's been able to see inside these bunkers. For Kind of creepy and cool it was, it was we had a blast.
Speaker 1:That's fun, yeah, yeah. And then Arcata, redwood Park, of course. First of all, bunkers down here in Samoa, up in Arcata's Redwood Park. There's a whole Redwood Park up behind Arcata. On the way up as students we always looked up at the trees and saw this carving of. There's like a Bambi carving, and then there's two or three right and then there's a guy and everybody else went. I wonder who did that. And then you went and discovered that whole story.
Speaker 2:I used to see those same carvings when I was going to college here in the 80s.
Speaker 1:What else hiked up there and goop around yeah?
Speaker 2:And so I. Finally, when I, a couple of years ago, I thought I'm gonna figure out who did those carvings, I asked everybody, I asked even Kevin Hoover, who knows everything about everything around here in Arcata, he didn't know, nobody knew that. I asked, so I thought, well, I'm gonna get it. I found a local woodcarver who would help me sort of decipher how good of a carving job is. What do they use, what kind of tools to learn when I could. So I did that and we showed it to him in his studio, this woodcarver, and he talked about oh well, he must have used this kind of tools.
Speaker 1:Real quick describe what it is, cause most people it's in a stump, right, it's in a stump, it's about 30 feet up, so you can't get to it.
Speaker 2:It's protected from vandalism and this is a tree that's probably as big as this table.
Speaker 2:It's an old growth, redwood stump, they're huge, they're huge. And there's two deer. And then there's a little bear, a wood bear, carved on top. There's a little sunshine face on it and it has, like these hooded figures, two looking at each other. It's kind of interesting symbolism, which I learned later on. What was behind all the symbol? So, getting back to the story, so I ran this on Community Access TV and then, out of the blue, I was contacted by this woman who said Ray, that was my husband who carved those back in the 1970s.
Speaker 1:Wow, this random went into this.
Speaker 2:Well, it was weird, because it was a relative of hers in San Francisco or something, had seen it and sent it to her, and so she reached out to me and I met with her and we and I did a whole interview with her. She local, she was in McKinleyville. She didn't want to be on camera, so we set it up, so she didn't have to be on camera. I just have her voice. And she told the whole story, which I don't want to spend the time going on there.
Speaker 2:But the basic short story was it was a really interesting fellow who had an interesting background and he was an employee at Humboldt City University at the time. He carved him on his own time, he got permission to do so and there the symbolism was he had some struggles with his mom growing up. So the sculptures were all figures with the child and the mother. It was a mother and a fawn, it was a two figures, it was a mother and a daughter. So for him I guess it was a way to sort of maybe heal some of the that conflict he had with a mother growing up. Well, he'd passed away 30 years ago, I think she said. So it was a really it was great, and so the Las Kos Outpost, who now runs the videos that I make. They said Rails and cracks the case of the mysterious wood carvings.
Speaker 1:Thanks, thanks, sims. Good headlining Hank, that's cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was a really fun one. That's one of the things I love about doing those. Sometimes I run a show and people come out of the woodwork, reach out to me and I learn all this in depth stuff I never would have known before. You know, have you met Jerry Rode? Oh, I know Jerry filmed one of the shows with me. Oh, did he? He's the one that suggested he go. Ray, you should do one on Table Bluff.
Speaker 1:I thought Table Bluff, what's that? You know they're ill. Oh, you did the Lighthouse Ranch.
Speaker 2:No, no, it was the Table Bluff Cemetery.
Speaker 1:Oh, the cemetery. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I met him for coffee, and Barry Evans did it with us too, and I well, barry, did one with me on Lolita Tunnel. I'd never been to the Lolita Tunnel.
Speaker 1:It's cool, isn't it? Right under the cemetery, or close by.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it was a perfect segue, because we did one in the tunnel and then later on I did one with Barry again and Jerry, and we're 50 feet above the tunnel. The cemetery.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the cemetery, and it turned out to be a fascinating episode and I got to hear from, you know, the historian, jerry Rode, all about Table Bluff, wow. So one of the benefits of doing this volunteer work is I get to meet and spend time with these like incredible, knowledgeable historians and people in the county, and they'll spend time with me and, you know, they get to film it. So, yeah, I'm having a great time, me too.
Speaker 1:I get to, but it's his job. It's like Nick is the fourth wall over there. You know what? He's hard to see because we had no work time.
Speaker 2:We had to put a. Oh, now I can see you.
Speaker 1:You can see his teeth. He's got a big smile.
Speaker 2:That's good. I'm glad you're smiling.
Speaker 1:No, you're right, I mean, somebody called me an archivist and I think it's your historical archivist, and I want to get Jerry on the show at some point because I think he is sort of the resident historian in many ways, is he not?
Speaker 2:He works hard at it, jerry. You know he's yes, he's very devoted to it.
Speaker 1:Hey Jerry, we're inviting you around and he's a great guy.
Speaker 2:Jerry's a great guy to work with and in fact, Jerry and Barry we're going to get together. They want to do another video with me, so we're going to figure out what we're going to do with that.
Speaker 1:Now, why have you only took me to the tunnel, the Lolita, which is, by the way, it's right over here in Lolita, lolita, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Oh, it's this huge rail tunnel.
Speaker 1:It's as big as the studio. Yeah Well, what am I talking about? It's twice as big and twice as tall and it's got art. What am I telling you? For it? It's got art on all the sides. Did you guys get through to the other side? It's no. I had never been in it before. It's creepy man, you get all the way in there.
Speaker 2:I know it is creepy.
Speaker 1:I'm looking around the ground and go what am I walking in?
Speaker 2:I know it's. Yeah, we didn't make it to the end because it was full of water at the end, so finally, I think it's really flooded now after the wet winter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is right now would be flooded, but as you get towards the end of the summer you can get through there. But the trail is kind of overgrown. It's a little treacherous in parts. Yeah, and anyway, barry and I had a. Really that was the first time I met Barry and we had a great time and we filmed a couple of videos since then, and so I like working with Barry.
Speaker 1:And his wife was a big toast master back in the day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Louise, she's great too, I know her.
Speaker 1:She's great Super nice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she writes articles for the North Coast Journal. Right, they live in Mexico part time right?
Speaker 1:Yes, what a nice gig. Go down there in the winter and up here.
Speaker 2:You know those two. They're in their 80s and they are charging in just like 20 year olds. They're very impressive. They're an inspiration to all of us as we age to keep going. So are you. Is it okay to ask your age? I'm in my 60s, early 60s.
Speaker 1:I like that. I'm 27 inside, yeah, but early 60s as well.
Speaker 2:Well, I gotta say I don't feel any different than when I was in my 20s. I feel just as robust and vibrant and vital as that.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's your secret, I'm doing something I love doing.
Speaker 2:There you go and I take care of myself. You know I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Do what you love doing. I love it. So what's significant about the Lolita Cemetery above the real tunnel?
Speaker 2:Well, there's a lot of historical.
Speaker 1:It's quite old right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was. I don't remember the exact dates, it's all in my video, but it's an old cemetery and Table Bluff that Jerry had explained to me was a real critical town. It's where all the wagon train roads converged on that one town. How about that In the late?
Speaker 1:1800s, meaning more toward Table Bluff, toward the beach or just the area.
Speaker 2:Well, any wagon, all the wagon train traffic going from what's down south Fortuna area, the Ill River Valley and the Humboldt Bay, had to go up and over.
Speaker 1:Table Bluff. So that was a cathartic place to meet.
Speaker 2:It was sort of a congestion point and all the wagon roads converged in the town of Table Bluff, so it was probably the busiest place in the entire county. In the late 1800s there was a saloon there, the infamous Seth. What was Seth's last name?
Speaker 1:Kinsman.
Speaker 2:Seth Kinsman ran the saloon.
Speaker 1:There. He's a wild man, right, wasn't he like a trapper?
Speaker 2:He's buried in the Table Bluff Cemetery. Right yeah, that's okay, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he probably don't wanna talk too much about Seth Kinsman. He was kind of a sordid historical character.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he had a wild past. Yeah, Well, more than wild.
Speaker 2:I mean, it was.
Speaker 1:He's probably murderous. And yeah, right, yeah, yeah, fifth of times, yeah, for the times, yeah. For the times. Yeah. So I thought. When you said, I thought you were gonna go to the BLM property where the Lighthouse Ranch was.
Speaker 2:Where the original lighthouse. Yeah, I haven't done that. Julie suggested I do that one. I haven't done that one yet.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, yeah, there was a gospel. Outreach bought that years ago and they had. It was a basic discipleship base camp for a lot of wayward, feral hippie children who wanted to follow Jesus. Yeah, and they sent people all over the world and did a lot of good stuff and then they sold that and I think it'd be a great site. Who might have suggested places?
Speaker 2:for me. I'll tell you what you have to select too, though you have to On a video. I actually Julie, talked to me, but the thing is you have to have visuals when you do a video. So if I went out there, it's just empty land, so I'd be forced with just telling a whole story. So I usually pick subjects, like I did one, of the Milwaukee shipwreck. Well, you can still see the remnants of an old ship there buried. That's the low tide right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at the low tide, and I did one with a 1091 ship. There's a ship there that you can go in. So the Samoa bunkers, there's bunkers there. So it really helps to have a visual that I can include, rather than just an empty vacant piece of land and say well here's the history that used to be here and the table bluff I had the cemetery. So that's kind of what I have to angle for on these.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I know, Southern Humboldt has the four fireplaces.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah at the old, the women's, the League of Women's Voters, I'd set that up.
Speaker 1:The Grove there, yeah.
Speaker 2:I usually don't go too far down South because any of these I make I'll have to go back and film repeatedly, sometimes up to 10 times. Oh, really, yeah, a lot of times I'll look at my footage. I need to re-film that I need to re-film. I do put a lot of time and effort into this and so if I pick somewhere too far away I gotta make 10 trips down. That's pretty rough, yeah. So you'll notice most of the shows you were showing, the cluster they're all within less than a half hour, 20 minute drive of Arcada, where I live.
Speaker 1:So you go to Blue Lake and go to the fish hatchery. You can do that a couple of times Because it's right there.
Speaker 2:Yes, Trinidad, I'm working on one right now with the Trinidad Museum. Oh wow, so that's a 10 minute drive. That's a great little museum. Well, they contacted me and they said, Ray, would you be interested in doing an episode in Trinidad Museum? So I went there and met with them. I said, yeah, this is really interesting.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, they have a really good, a little historical society there. Yes, really, really wonderful people to them. That is a wildly historical little town and it's so much fun.
Speaker 2:I wanted to spend some time doing some stuff in Trinidad and the lighthouse. I'm going to go there one of their open Saturdays and film some of that with them.
Speaker 1:We finally got to do that. It was really worth seeing.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, you make me realize how cool this place is.
Speaker 2:It is Humble is just incredible.
Speaker 1:So when I was a quick story, I was a young insurance guy, there was a state farm guy that I was training with and, don, I came with my sport coat and I was ready to go. And he goes hey, get the canoes, we're going to take these kayaks and go to Huckton Slough. And he said three things he goes when it comes to life insurance, be the guy at the funeral, have a big check for somebody. I said okay, and he goes. Number two do something community, do a support of this beautiful Humboldt County. And number three I'll never forget, and worse, that they're paddling at 70 degrees and perfect. He goes, go out and enjoy this beautiful Humboldt County. Make it your passion and do that. I go, dude, I'm just starting a career at 53. I don't know if I'm going to have any passion for a long time, but I adapted to that and I see what my wife sees and she hikes all over the county and loves it and does a lot. Have you done anything up Sumeg, patrick's Point, prairie Creek, up that part of?
Speaker 2:the coast? Yes, I have. Actually I went to, I was in a Ollie, had a week long camp at a camp near Prairie Creek and I actually Wolf Creek yeah, wolf Creek and I filmed. It was four or five day camp and I filmed a bunch of stuff with that. Did you stay the whole time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you have a good time?
Speaker 2:Oh, I had a blast.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, in fact they did it two years ago and I was really looking forward to doing it again last summer. They canceled it, yeah, yeah, the last minute. There was staffing issues, so I don't know, I haven't heard. It would be great if they did it again next summer.
Speaker 1:I want to go. Yeah, we talked about it last year.
Speaker 2:Well, watch the video because you really get a taste of what it's like. I filmed because you get to go to different classes, so I filmed footage from each class, and by class I mean how to fish, you know out on the beat, how to surf it, how to identify ferns. So I got some footage from all the classes I was in and I kind of put them together and interviewed some of the people. It's really.
Speaker 1:it really gives you a taste of what it's like Is there a biking twos or cycling, or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, we took a mountain biking class.
Speaker 1:And some hiking stuff. Of course there's hiking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a lot of fun. We had a great time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I want to do that. So I was a rec major at Humboldt. Yeah, before it was Cal Poly Humboldt, and just think of the most gnarly storm you could think of in Humboldt in the winter when the trees are doing this. So we did a camp out at Wolf Creek on a night like that intense, out under giant redwoods that are just like you could hear them falling and you know the insanity of the program leader to bring us out there and to do Wolf Creek in the crazy storm. But when you're 20 or 19, you don't care because you're invincible. Nothing did happen. But Was that for a class? It was a class, it was an overnight class. The next day was beautiful, but the night before, I mean, they had closed 101 because of, you know, a 40 foot diameter redwood fell and it locked up 101. But anyway.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Wolf Creek's fun. Yeah, have you been back there since?
Speaker 1:Well, we've ridden bikes through there.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:It's kind of part of the bike route in the back way of Patrick's not Patrick's Prairie Creek.
Speaker 2:Prairie Creek right yeah that's really cool.
Speaker 1:So tell me, transition me to your involvement with Access Humboldt, and it sounds like you have kind of an active role there besides the contributor, or you're on the board or I, that's what I do for them.
Speaker 2:I mean with them is I'm a member, which, as you know, costs $25 a year, and I produce programming for them and they appreciate the programming that I produce and I'm a big supporter for community access television. It used to be just about every town or county had community access statewide and they slowly been diminishing. There's only a few left. So I'm so grateful that we have one in Humboldt County. It's programming where they don't have commercials. They let people like me play programming, because I do more than just humble outdoors. I do some weird stuff out there stuff.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about that in a minute.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so where else can you do that? You know, I mean, and if you watch things on YouTube, they have commercials now and there's monetizing. They're tracking everything you're doing and there's, you know, there's about 25, 30,000 subscribers locally for cable TV and I run into people all the time pretty regularly and they say, yeah, I see all your show and I always ask them where you see it and they all say community access TV, not YouTube, not Facebook.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, sudlink, which is optimum, which is whatever. So I worked there for 10 years. I was in sales, where At which was Cox Cable, which became Sudlink, which is our local cable. Oh, okay so you were in the business? Oh yeah, no, we had 40, 50,000 subscribers of the day. It was big. And then it's changed hands a few times, but in that time, sean McLaughlin, your director, was part of a negotiation where they negotiated not one, not two, but I believe there's five channels.
Speaker 1:Yes yes, so to your point. This is a lot of bandwidth for-.
Speaker 2:I know we are so fortunate to have that in Humboldt County and it's cool.
Speaker 1:So here's, I'm watching, you know all the city council meetings and planning commission and here comes you and it's always cool to go through there. Oh, yeah, I know that guy. Oh, that guy Jody, let me tell you about that guy. And so it's always fun to see something local, as opposed to Dan Rather or I guess it's somebody else now, but Walter Cronkite, let me go, really dated. You know some national international news that I have no connection to. So it does perform something amazing, but I like the fact that let's just do a hard stop. So 25 bucks a year gets me a membership on Humboldt Access, and how do we find them? Just-.
Speaker 2:Well, it gives you more than that. It gives you access to rent all the equipment you need, which you did. Well, that was the thing when I started the pandemic they, it was all closed so I couldn't rent anything. If it hadn't been during the pandemic, I could have taken classes, I could have learned through Access Humboldt. Tell us more about that. Well, now somebody, if they join the $25 a year, they could take classes, learn how to use the equipment. They even have editing bays. You don't even have to buy your own editing system. You could go there, edit your own footage. They have the equipment. I think it's $10. I don't know the exact amount for a week, low cost, and anybody in Humboldt County you have to be a resident of Humboldt County Can go out there and make their own programming, and I would love to see more people do that. Is it state of the art stuff, ray? It's good. It's good equipment. Yeah, really good equipment. They have wireless microphones, they have lighting systems, cameras and just training on how to use them.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna look over next week. Did you do any training with those guys? You're just organic, self-trained. Yep, okay, gotcha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's like I am, because I didn't have that resource when I was starting out, but that's wonderful. Yes, and we need people. You know, I would love to have someone do something like what I'm doing, but they go out to businesses because I'm Humboldt outdoors, but it'd be nice to have somebody do Humboldt indoors or where they go into local businesses and see what's going on there and other things like that. It's a great idea. Restaurants, restaurants, like it could be going into coffee. Coffee yes.
Speaker 1:So then you got industry where you could get in and have access to what does that company do?
Speaker 2:I tell you, like a roast. Wouldn't it be neat to see somebody do something on when they roast beans and a local coffee roastery? But it'd have to be. But there's no pave here, that's it. It'd have to be somebody who just wants it like for the love of it and real interest of it, who really wants to know that and figures out how to use the equipment I wish we had.
Speaker 1:You had the micro of Humboldt County.
Speaker 2:I don't know who that is.
Speaker 1:He's a guy that goes out and does, but he's did dirty jobs.
Speaker 2:He did another one oh dirty jobs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, someone's gotta do it. He actually did Dick Taylor when they were up at Alamquist Lumber in Arcada. Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they were really small. We need a dirty jobs person in Humboldt County. It's local programming. I like that.
Speaker 1:That's a great idea.
Speaker 2:I've seen. If you go on YouTube, you see so many of these people who travel through the state and they cover areas. They come through and they cover the areas. Well, I mean it's nice that they do that, but these aren't people who are intimately in love with Humboldt County. They come through, correct yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, I'm not disparaging them, but I would rather see locals that live here that know this area and love this area enough to live here to do these kinds of programs, and that would be the dirty jobs. It is a great job. Is anybody out there? Come to the next Access Humboldt meaning? Sign up, learn how to do it. We could use that Gosh.
Speaker 1:There's so many, just my head's already going. Wow, that would be a good one to go check out that.
Speaker 2:And I could vouch. I am having the time of my life doing this, so, but there is a learning curve and you have to get through the learning curve and I'm still learning, but for me, that was a big part of the fun of it.
Speaker 1:Knowing your joy shows when you're running down a trail, going nuts and hey, look at this this is amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 1:It's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:And the research end of it too, and before I even start filming, I go to the special. I spent a lot of time researching talking to people on the phone, so it's a great learning experience for me too. So, there's a lot of benefits to it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so the homework piece is a big piece for you too. Absolutely. How many videos do you think you've shot roughly that?
Speaker 2:are finished sort of videos. Well, they humbled outdoors. I probably have 30, 30 to 40 different episodes there. They run between 12 and 18 minutes and then my other stuff that I make, probably another 20 or 30.
Speaker 1:So I usually I'm pretty active, and you and your brother? Is that the guy with the top hat?
Speaker 2:Yeah, my-. Is he your real brother? Yeah, it's my brother. My brother goes up here and-.
Speaker 1:What's his name? John John Well-. Is he the cane guy that does the cane classes?
Speaker 2:No, that's Doc.
Speaker 1:Stoll.
Speaker 2:That was a guy. I got my all-.
Speaker 1:That's right. You did a story with him and tried that. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I just called him up and I said would you wanna do a video? He did a class called cane spinning.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I thought, well, I wanna find out that it's a thing. So we met at Trinidad and never met him before, and we spent half a day filming. I had a ball with Doc. In fact I still get. I got one guy posted that said you need to get Doc Stoll back on here. Your channel's going downhill because you don't have Doc Stoll on our Gotta, get Doc back. I know he's been like the most charismatic person besides Barry Evans, that whenever I have Barry Evans it's like everybody wants to see it.
Speaker 1:Well, Barry's British and he's got the British thing.
Speaker 2:Well, the knowledge too, oh yes, he does. So but Doc Stoll man, he knows a lot of people and I should have Doc Stoll. We should do something else together.
Speaker 1:The cane I wonder if you could tie the cane into something I don't know.
Speaker 2:Well, it tied in really well because it was about cane flow, about the flow of nature, and we walked on a trail, so we were able to talk about the trail, and part of this is also to encourage people to get out themselves and see these areas and to know a little bit about the history of it when they go out, to make it even a more enriching and rewarding experience. That's part of why we're doing these.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you prep somebody to come out to go looking specifically for some markers.
Speaker 2:Well, also, they see it. You know, I did talk to some people I know that have been around for 30 years and they say, hey, Ray, we saw your show on the bunkers. God, we haven't been out there for 20 years. And they said we went out there and looked at it. So it's partly to inspire long-time locals who haven't got out to these areas. So I go, yeah, look at that in the video. I should go out there again and go out there and, you know, explore it. I love that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think the message is still valid, even more so today. Post COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Get off your couch, hit the road, jack. Grab your cane, grab whatever you're walking, sticks your tenies. Yeah, and go get out. Go get some fresh air. It's not gonna kill you, yeah. And uh-huh, you know cigarettes on the couch could kill you, so, hey. So tell me more about your brother. You guys have done some kind of wild stuff.
Speaker 2:Well, my brother was filming with his GoPro years before I started and he would do sort of these funny little shows and so I joined him once in a while. He films a totally different style than what I film, but I have fun. It's a fun thing for us. We're close, we have a lot of fun together. That's cool. So we filmed these fun little things where we play different characters. Is he your older or kid brother? He's younger, okay, so we just. It's a great shared activity that my brother and I have a lot of fun doing together. He does all the filming and editing for those shows that he's in.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it's kind of a break for me because I don't have to do any of the filming or editing.
Speaker 1:Right, you're just there for the fun.
Speaker 2:I'm there for the fun with my brother and they're less scripted. A lot of it's just improv. So we have a good time and we have a friend named Steve Ovidnik. I know Steve. O, you know, steve O, steve O's cool Hi.
Speaker 1:Steve O. Steve O's been in a few of our films Space base. No, as a character he is hilarious, but he is a bass player.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, he's in a band. Yeah, he is. He was a nice band and Steve O's one. He still is. He still is very active on the local music scene and he's been. He's great when the three of us get together, my brother, steve O and me oh my God, we just we did one where he was a kid, carson, who had come back to life because he was in prison. Who was he really? Built the Carson mansion and he came to reek, he's hilarious. He came back to reek vengeance on. Eureka yeah.
Speaker 1:Was that the one in?
Speaker 2:Ferndale.
Speaker 1:Well, we did another one with him. We did a separate one in Ferndale, where he was a statue that we brought back to life.
Speaker 2:And Kit Carson yeah, so he's Kit Carson. So he's all mad because he said you said that William Carson built the mansion, but it was really me, kit Carson. So he reeks have my brother did all his special effects, so he reeks havoc on downtown Eureka. And then finally we there's a whole storyline and we finally calm him down and then he's cool again.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I guess it begs the question. The Carson mansion is probably the quintessential landmark of history, and maybe in the North state, but in some ways is that something that you would ever tackle or have you?
Speaker 2:Or Not really. I mean, if I was Maybe have reasons that you wouldn't.
Speaker 1:It's just it's too obvious. I mean, there's certain people that I wouldn't have on the show cause everybody already's heard from them, right.
Speaker 2:Well, I would be agree. I've always been. I've been inside before. And it would be it would be interesting to do a tour, but I don't know if that's something they would wanna do when they. I would be really interested in having somebody take me on a tour to show me things on the outside and talk about it Tell you the story, yeah. Tell the stories about it, but you know I've never approached anybody about that I? Know they're kind of restrictive on who goes in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'd be surprised If they let me in yesterday. They'll let you in.
Speaker 2:Well, I went in one time up when, I was in a choir group and we went and sang in there or something. I can't remember that, but yeah, that's what it was, and.
Speaker 1:I sat in a meeting yesterday, so I worked for State Farm and we had a regional meeting in there, one of the and just as a member, whatever. And I'm sitting around looking at the wood and I'm going my goodness, this cat figured it all out and every room's different and the architecture is really interesting. So maybe after the show I'll introduce you to Tim.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Tim, he's a real cool guy and he might I don't know, We'll talk.
Speaker 2:I would certainly consider it. I think it would be interesting, but I'm sure yeah.
Speaker 1:So humbled overall. Then your perspective on the county. What do you like, what do you not like? What do you wanna see change? What do you think the opportunities are, just generally, from Ray's point of view, what do you hope for down the road, for kids, grandkids?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, what we have right now in Humble is very unique and very. We have a really strong quality of life. I've heard the term blue zone use and I know we're faced with this prospect of really increasing population. So you know I'm a little leery of that.
Speaker 1:Quick start what is a blue zone? I?
Speaker 2:don't know Well. A blue zone are areas where people really thrive in their health and longevity and quality of life, based on where they live. And, as usually and a lot of those, we tick a lot of the boxes, as Humble County currently is. So anyway, I don't have any direct control on how the county evolves, I'm kind of an observer. I've found that the change to Cal Poly, humble is actually really interesting. That'll be interesting to see. I know the wind terminal if that goes through the fish farm. You know we have some really interesting things happening here, developments, and I guess I'm just sort of interesting to see how that all and all the trails that are coming in.
Speaker 1:you know, south South Eureka, oh yeah that's going to be exciting.
Speaker 2:When that trail I'm going to ride my bike into Eureka from Arcade and once that's in, yeah, that's coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, have you done a show on the trail system, or I don't. It's not history, it's kind of new history.
Speaker 2:Well, my shows aren't just about history. They're also about sites and everything else, but once it, once they complete that trail, yeah, I might do something on that.
Speaker 1:Hooks into the Great Redwood Trail.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I thought that was a pretty exciting development. Oh my gosh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So what's Reese? What does Reese? Reese Hughes? Yeah, I know, yeah, he's on the show and he's talking about that. He's stoked, he goes. We probably may not see the completion of it, but it's coming and. I think that's got great, great hit, great possibility to you know. Would you like to ride to Willets with me today?
Speaker 2:Sure, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, and it would be a lot safer than one-on-one, I'm thinking. So, as we wind up here, tell me a little bit about what you'd like your legacy to look like. What are we going to say at your funeral?
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know. I'm not that much into legacies, but I don't know. I don't know if there'd be any grand legacy. I think when my time comes I'll just kind of go out quietly. I will have to say this If my legacy ended, like tomorrow or next week I've had a grand life and whenever it does end, it's been a wonderful experience and I was so glad that Humboldt County has been such an integral part of my life and Del Norte County has been such an integral part of my life. I've traveled around the world and I got to say Humboldt and Del Norte to me are the most beautiful places in this entire world of all the different areas I've seen.
Speaker 1:That's a big statement, yeah.
Speaker 2:And I say that very sincerely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in fact I don't travel anymore.
Speaker 2:Since I moved up here permanently I have not had any. I used to be a world. I used to love traveling all over, but now, since I've moved up here, I don't have any desire to go anywhere else. I just want it's like I have so much area to explore just right here in Humboldt.
Speaker 1:County.
Speaker 2:Still yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my wife keeps telling me there's so many more trails to walk and go explore and camp or what you know, hike and go see.
Speaker 2:And history too. I mean I keep learning new things about our county. It's really all of us who live here really to fill. The gratitude of that is part of living here.
Speaker 1:I think. So where do you go when you go out to eat? I realize I've seen you shop at the co-op we met several months ago, my favorite place to eat on is campus. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm a student through the extended studies program. I've been taking film classes, and so I'm able to access their dining options. Oh, that's cool. I love eating at the campus.
Speaker 2:They got Las Bagels up there and they have that and they also have the J and other and the marketplace so I'm able to eat there because I'm like I said I'm taking. I took four units last year. I was on the Lumberjack. I was a four-unit class so I'm able to take classes. They have a program there. If you're six year over, you could take up to six units of extended education for $64.
Speaker 1:Really For the whole, and then you got to buy your books. Yes, yeah, but that's a tuition, for it Is four units. Is that one film class or is that a pair?
Speaker 2:No, that's a four-unit film class and the Lumberjack. When I was on the Lumberjack group I made videos for them. That was four units.
Speaker 1:Lumberjack is their newspaper, uh-huh yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I'm probably going to enroll in another film class in the fall. I'm working with some student film, student film projects this term, so I'm working a lot with the college.
Speaker 1:I like that. It's something like a fun thing to do.
Speaker 2:Oh, the students are so much fun to work with.
Speaker 1:I have a wonderful time. Oh, students are great.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So tell me more about Ollie real quick. The extended ed so you did Wolf Creek, but have you done some of their other classes? Yes, have you offered classes, seems like you'd be a no I haven't, I haven't done that Also a cool program.
Speaker 2:Always great. Yeah, I mean, there's so many options and you're right, it's available for people who want to teach classes. They're always seeking instructors. Yeah, so it's another great program we're very fortunate to have here in this area.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to let you bring it in here. I'll save the best for last. Who is Ray Olson and what do you want? So, ollie, I'll just kind of wind up on that. So who are you? Who's Ray Olson?
Speaker 2:I'm just a local community volunteer who tries to give back to Humboldt, the people of Humboldt and the community of Humboldt. That's who I am. Nice Public service, that's what I'm all about. I've always had been about public service. And what do I want? I want to continue to give back in to the community in a meaningful way that also resonates with my interests and my passions. Love it. So that kind of sums it up.
Speaker 1:And you've answered succinctly. I love it. A lot of people get stumped. They go world peace they don't have. I love your answer. Tell us, let's do the shameless plug real quick, so you're on YouTube. Yeah, your channel so if I wanted to, if we wanted to click on it.
Speaker 2:Well, the easiest, everybody knows Lost Coast Outpost.
Speaker 1:Okay, just go to Locco.
Speaker 2:Yeah, go to Locco and type in Humboldt Outdoors and they have all the videos there. That's usually the easiest way to Is it lostcoastoutpostcom, ororg?
Speaker 1:No, it'scom. People will find it yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just everybody knows Everybody watches Lost Coast Outposts and they have all my Humboldt Outdoor videos on there.
Speaker 1:Oh, so you're all archived on. They're all archived on the Lost Coast Outposts. What a great thing, man.
Speaker 2:Well, they do it. I mean, there's no money exchange between us. They just do it because they like the shows, they like to get them out Well.
Speaker 1:it plays right into their mission too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I like the Lost Coast Outposts.
Speaker 1:It's freely available to anybody, and you have a separate YouTube channel though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have that. Well, their links actually take you back to the YouTube If you go to Lost Coast Outpost. Sometimes people do searches on YouTube and I don't know.
Speaker 1:It's kind of a rinky, it's kind of weird.
Speaker 2:We're a rinky-dink channel so you may not come up in a search, but everybody, if you go to Lost Coast Outposts, click on and then it takes you back. But again, I don't monetize so I'm not looking for views.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you don't care yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean I want to give back and I'm not looking for the numbers. Yeah, I'm not out there in social media. I need more views. I need more views. In fact, usually by the time I post the video, I'm pretty much done with it. The fun for me is creating them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the journey, yeah, the journey. Ray, what a pleasure. Thanks for coming. Yeah, it was great, great conversation and anything else, parting shots, anything you'd like to.
Speaker 2:No well, thank you to you for producing Program for Access Humboldt. It's a real community resource, and you and I are both parts of it. So great, yeah, and you are too Thanks.
Speaker 1:Thanks, brother, appreciate it. Hey, thanks for coming. Have a great day.