Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park

Thursday: (05/17) Granola and banana for breakfast. I was off early toward Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park for a hike. Our foggy drizzly, rainy weather continues but this isn’t supposed to be bad and gets better as the day progresses. Every day we wake to it being 50 degrees and it usually warms up to possibly 56 degrees. It was 50 miles up to the park. I arrived just before 0900 and spoke to the ranger about trail conditions before heading off on Miners Ridge Trail to the beach. Great trail condition. I walked out to the beach from the trailhead by the bluffs. A couple of busloads of students were grouped up ready to walk up to Fern Canyon. The road is under construction from the campground where Miners Ridge Trail meets the beach up to Fern Canyon. I had to step aside for a dump truck and a grader. I also enjoyed finding a hidden mud hole dipping one shoe to the top. Fern Canyon was noisy with the busload of fellow hikers. The footbridges were still not installed so to see the canyon, people had to hop on stones and logs. There was a good flow to the creek. About halfway up there was no longer a way to keep the shoes dry so wading began. I was possibly driven on by the students. I made it to the end of the canyon and hiked up to James Irvin Trail for my return. I finished up about 1500 for the 12-mile hike. On the drive home, I stopped to check out the campground at Big Lagoon. Pretty tight for our RV. Lou made grilled veggies with corn cakes for dinner.