Travels with Twinkles: Klamath River continued

September 20 - 22, 2013;

We went to the hilltop on Friday to get a good phone signal for the MIFI card to update the blog and look for our next campground. The signal at the campground is very weak. We then drove to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park to do a hike on the Ossagon Trail, which started off wonderful, it's a really lush old growth forest. Along the way we started seeing lots of Elk scat and tracks, making us more than a little nervous, so I had to walk ahead ? Then it started getting darker and darker and then about a mile in, it started raining, not good. It started as a light drizzle which quickly turned into a downpour, very bad. Of course, we had no rain gear, so we did a turn around and headed back getting soaking wet in the process. The forecast is calling for more rain off and on for the next two days.

First we saw this, then lots of tracks and then we started
nervous. They are huge and aggressive this time of year

The trees were covered with lichens

Friday evening, everyone is anxiously watching the river rise, thinking of the Colorado River flooding and the fact that this place has a history of similar floods. The river has been high this week due to the sand bar blockage at the rivers mouth. The rain today along with the full moon and rough ocean has flooded the campground boat dock area. You now need a boat to get to the boats ! This campground is in the floodplain of the river and also in the Tsunami zone, not a comforting thought ?

View of our campground from the highway bridge

A roadside marker honoring a steer, Captain Courageous, who
floated downstream, survived and lived another 19 years

The rain stopped, the sun came out and I went to the "Trees of Mystery" tourist trap down the road. They advertise an Indian museum which I wanted to see. It turned out to be way larger than I thought, a serious collection of artifacts and very good ! They also have a great gift shop if you need any stuff and huge Paul Bunyan and Babe statues that everyone needs a photo in front of. This place has been around for a long time, it is quite a famous tourist attraction. They have a ski lift ride into the Redwood forest through the tree tops to an observation deck and assorted unusual trees and wood carvings.

The natives knew how to dress !

Indian artifacts in Trees of Mystery museum

Paul Bunyan and Babe at Trees of Mystery

I then took a 2 mile walk on the Yurok Loop trail and the Coastal Trail from the Lagoon Creek picnic area. The Yurok loop trail was the actual Yurok Indian village of O'men. I tried to imagine all the ancient footsteps that have tread on this trail. The Coastal Trail runs intermittently all along the Pacific coast from Oregon to Mexico, I don't think there is such a thing as a bad section. The pounding surf, bright sun, blue sky, big white clouds combined to make an invigorating walk.

The clouds were cooperating today

Coastal beach strewn with driftwood

A hidden little tidal pool near the Coastal Trail

Flowers against a piece of driftwood

View from the Coastal Trail

Sea Stacks off the coast

A found a number of these snails in trees with large
beautiful shells

The pounding surf below

The gentle waves on the beach

The essence of Green

I have been trying to read some of the classic books, the ones I didn't read when I should have or needed them ? Just finished reading Jack Kerouac's "On the road", I thought it might be appropriate for our nomadic lifestyle. I didn't care for it in the beginning, but it grew on me, the further I read, the better it became and by the end I wan't more. The ending was personally very touching for me. How can you not like an excerpt from the book that reads;

"The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars"

We are reluctantly leaving the California coast today, making a turn east to the "Valley of the Rogue State Park" in Gold Hill, Oregon about 120 miles away.