June 9…. Somebody stole my truck!

After being shocked awake way before the crack of dawn by a phone call from back home, we decided to get up and go watch the sunrise at the beach and eat breakfast out. But, we learned afterwards, this area is completely fogged in every morning this time of year, so no sunrise.

We did get to see the beach at low tide though, and we found a beautiful area filled with rocks and tide pools. Sea anemones, shrimp, crabs, all kinds of life, and ROCKS!

Susy the rock hound went crazy again, wandering all over the area. I even found a few treasures of my own. 😄

After gathering another large pile of rocks, we had our breakfast and returned home for a nap. Because we can. 😁

So the afternoon began with some errands, and then we went to Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, and went on a hike amongst the giant redwood trees. Enormous! Gigantic! Stupendous! It’s hard to describe these things in words. Beautiful groves, surrounded by huge ferns, the forest was almost silent as we walked.

After about an hour of walking , we had looped back to the beginning of the trail and as we came back to the road, we found something missing.

THE TRUCK WAS GONE!

What the heck! We both started trying to think how this could have happened…. Yes I locked it. Yes I still had the keys. Why on earth might it have been towed, we were out on a dusty forest road in the middle of nowhere, how could the truck possibly be taken? Oh, now what are we gonna do? It’s miles back to civilization.

Ok, so after a few minutes (felt like hours) of that, I’m looking more closely at the spot on the side of the road where we had parked and started to realize it didn’t look quite right. This was not the place we had started the trail!!

The trail was supposed to be a loop, but apparently we had branched off and gotten back to a different trailhead. Doh!

After a bit of skillful navigation on my part, knowing that the sun sets in the west and moss grows on the north side of the trees, knowing that game trails can lead you to water, not to mention that I could hear the river in the near distance, I simply followed the road back a mile or so to the “other” trailhead and there she was, waiting right where I left her. Crisis averted!

Probably a good thing too that Google maps was working and I could see where I was and where I had left the truck. Don’t tell Susy, she thinks my forest navigation skills are epic. 😉