Prairie Creek, Day Two

Pancakes and Italian sausage for breakfast. Tastes even better outside in fresh air watching the wildlife.
We're registered for another night in the same spot. We forgot to top off our drinking water so a trip to the grocery store is needed, first thing.
We're 4-5 mile from the coast but the weather here on the prairie is a bit warmer than usual. It was mid 80's yesterday.
Lou's working on getting well by relaxing.


About 3:30 Don walked out Miners Ridge Trail to beach (4.1 miles). Boy, these trees are tall!


Upon arrival at Davidson Road I saw an older woman standing in the road. I then see the reason. Hubby is in his big old pickup ready to cross the stream, with the wife providing directions. He then proceeded straight through, which was the deepest point to cross. Interesting method.
It reminded me of our visit a couple of years ago at this same crossing. We were driving out to Fern Canyon. There had been a lot of rain that year and some recently. When we arrived at the crossing, there were a bunch of vehicles, all SUV's parked on our side of the creek. We did a quick survey of the crossing as we approached and moved to the extreme left side of the road and drove right through. The stream in the middle of the road was wide and about 18 inches deep. Where we crossed it was about 10 feet wide and 6 inches deep. As we made it to the far side behind us it looked like a Le Mans race starting as all the city slicker SUV drivers jumped into their vehicles and proceeded across as we had. They evidently thought they had gone as far as they could until they saw our lowly little Volvo make it through.
Don then proceeded up Davidson road to Fern Canyon (1 mile).


An Elk near the beech.


About 6:20 heading back to camp on the James Irvine Trail. The James Irvine Trail is possibly the most beautiful of the redwood trails going through wonderful groves of redwoods, with ferns covering everything that's not a tree. The trail parallels several streams along it's path. Arriving back at camp about 8:10. On the right above, a water fall just off the James Irvine Trail.


Always looking for the true meaning, on the left above is a picture of burls on a redwood tree. On the right a picture of Tigger, the bottom burl. Sometimes i freighten myself.

After a quick bite, Dawn and Don went to a ranger talk on fungi and their relationship to the rest of the forest. Ranger Steve made possibly the best ranger presentation we've seen on a subject that wouldn't normally attract interest.

Prairie Creek Redwoods SP

We moved to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park. We don't travel with reservations so we're here on a day-to-day basis. We have a nice site on the prairie camp loop. #6. The prairie camp loop doesn't have trees so it's good for the satellite. The campsite normally costs $20 per night, lower than the last state park we were at where it was $25. With Lou's discount, it's only $10 a night which is great for such a wonderful campground. Note, the wildlife near our camp.

Today's another lounge around the camp day. They're tough to take. There didn't seem to be any wind so i got out the plane. Of course by the time i was ready, the wind picked up enough to make attempting to fly difficult. The plan passed to

goes up test. The stays up test wasn't passed. And of course, there were the usual rough landings. I'm glad I'm not in the plane and it's just a little RC plane. Till next time?

We had a nice campfire list night. We've been carrying an extra

bundle of firewood since January. One of the nice things about getting out is the clear skys at night. There were an awful lot of stars in the sky last night.

Where Is Everyone?

One thing we've noticed around here and all the way up here. There aren't many tourists around. The economy must be hurting. Is it the gas prices or just the generally dismal state of the country's economy? A couple of years ago this campground would be full each night. Lots of room now. The Cookhouse always had a wait, now there's no wait and the place is half empty. Same thing every where else we've been. When we were looking around Ferndale, we were one of only a couple of groups visiting the shops. That has to hurt. I hope things improve before they disappear.

Arcata

We had breakfast at the Cookhouse. Great pancakes!

We then went up to Arcata to look around. Dawn explored the book stores and picked up a couple of favorites.

Ferndale

Lou's not feeling well so we stayed at home (Ferndale Fairground) a lot today.


Dawn and Don walked to downtown Ferndale to explore for a break. Main Street in Ferndale on left. Our campsite on right.



The Kinetic Art Museum. We watched the cows and sheep in the field opposite the RV a lot. Dawn flew her kite. And Lou coughed and gagged and worked her Soduko puzzles a lot.

Eureka

Lou and Dawn stopped by a couple of thrift stores while Don took a walk-about the streets of Eureka looking a sporting goods and cars. Don trys to look at things he knows he can't buy, so he doesn't. Lou and Dawn look a things that are such bargains that there's no reason not to buy them, so they do. Different tracks.

We then went by the market, Lou and Dawn to Ray's, a local supermarket and Dawn to Mi Pueblo, a mexican market. Lou was in search of a chicken for chicken broth. She has a cold and wants to coat the little bugs with chicken fat so they slip out.

On return to camp the chicken went in a pot and we all lounged around the rest of the day. Not exciting but enjoyable all the same, for us.

Scotia and Loleta

We went down to Scotia to tour the Pacific Lumber Company sawmill, a regular visit when we're passing through. Too bad, the tour is closed for remodeling. Should reopen in January? Hopefully. We really enjoy the tour of the mill and the factory. We looked around town since we were there. Scotia was the last company owned town in the country until 2005 when they started to sell off the houses to the occupants.


The ponds and canals around the mill used to be used for floating logs, now they float ducks and geese.

We all explored the housing areas in town.


We also stopped by another regular haunt, the Loleta Cheese Factory. We did a lot of tasting and picked out some nice cheeses and some fresh cheese curds.


Time to fly their kites.