Westport - CresentCity

After heading up for the Redwoods on Thursday I met a bunch of very nice people on state park campsites and into the wild. The SP's (State Parcs) are only 5 dollars a night , very cheap, clean, hot water, showers, electricity.. There was the double couple from Seattle that was heading up for the south - Yosemite - that invited me to join them around the campfire for dinner. First I just wanted to heat up my canned meal with meatballs and vegetables into their fire. But... it only contained the 'jus' for making the meal on the frontpicture of the can.. No dinner, but the neighbours were way too friendly. Thanks ! After Weott I joined - for some distance - a 'race' on sunday but had to leave it for Eureka. On the path of the race there were some hams that stood in for the communication in between the checkpoints since no cellphone was usable in that area. I met Jim, AC6YV , Dan KE6HEC and his xyl (also a ham) , and Dan KI6HDC. Had some free fruit and juice on the way.

Eureka is a typical little city of the county Humbold. Not much to see.

Tried to look for a place on the beach north of it but no succes, rain was hanging into the air. I could setup camp onto the lawn of a local farmer in Arcata. It rained during the night but again went sunny and windy in the morning. Sunday I visited the little town of Trinidad and saw two whales, playing in the bay. Ate a whole chicken, beans and had some milk as dinner. Set up the tent in state park prairie creek Redwoods. Met a 70 year old cyclists Ron from fort Bragg who was cycling upto Seattle to meet his children. Also a couple from Seattle was cycling to San Francisco. At 5 o'clock in the morning my stomache said I needed to go.. and for four times after that I took some Imodium.. I think dinner was the cause. Charged batteries and cycled up over to state park del norte coast just south of Cresent City. Broke one of the tentpoles and fixed it with the repairkit. Does anyone knows a good tentshop in between here and Vancouver ? Made a campfire that helped me to heat up the - now real - meatball can .. My fleece and long trousers will be stinky-winky in the morning but then again.. Made several contacts on 40 meters with VE7OJ Adam in Vancouver, KE7NCO Scotty in Reno Nevada, Dave KE6YX in Oakland and Julien KK7JX in Le Grand, Oregon. Julien informed me that his friend KE1THR is doing a cycletrip from Alaska to Texas with also a qrp radio in the bagg. Would be fun if we could meet on frequency or in visu ! At the moment I'm really in a very low budget-mode : very cheap or free campsites and some 10 dollars a day for food. Already food has to be stored into special bear-proof boxes that only men with an IQ of more than 80 can open.. Saw a few wild elks on the way and very nice flowers in the Redwoods. Seems that spring is following my trial as hoped for.