Selecting appropriate campsites 101.

There are a number of common criteria that I use to select a good campsite.

Some of the obvious ones go without saying.

View – ocean, river, desert, lake, 400 year old tree stump, that kind of thing.

Solitude – should be quiet, not including waves pounding on the shore, little or no traffic noise, no yahoos partying close by (unless at the Merritt Mountain Music Festival).

Flat – or at least close to it in at least one aspect, and won’t turn to mud if it rains.

Free of neighbours – in case one wants to run the generator or have an outdoor shower.

These are some of the common criteria, and I’m sure we can think of lots more. But this camp site broke some new ground. What is the meaning, if any, of a dead cow’s head stuck in a kids stroller? I admit to pausing on that one for a bit, but the spot had riverside, good access, quiet (till the sawmill started up in the morning for a wakeup call). And I made sure the cows head affair was downwind – and hadn’t disappeared by morning! Sorry; no pics of the cow head in the stroller.

There was also a strange looking turbine anchored on a floating stand in the middle of Redwood Creek,

(Click on any photo for a larger view)

just where it flows out of Redwoods National Park.

In the morning I drove into Orick which was very close by, and checked my camp location on Google Earth. Close by, there was this symbol and I pulled up the info – which said that someone had documented seeing bigfoot track – only 89 meters from my parking spot. Cool, if you believe such things. Perhaps there is a link with the cows head?

Bigfoot tracks spotted only 89 meters from my camp spot on Redwood Ck, near Orick!

My camp at 41.2989 -124.042

Bigfoot track report here!

Location of bigfoot tracks!

41.298459 -124.040724

Anyway, Google Earth also showed a possible camp spot that had both ocean and river views without the bonus sawmill. So I drove out to the ocean and found a very nice spot – with a bunch of lounging seals across the river, a marten cruising by, and a river otter cavorting on the near bank, but not long enough to get the video going. But there was a great, long, deserted, beautiful beach that I strolled and picked up some fishing floats and looked at some washed up lobster traps.

Also in this area was some chunks of firewood that could have been straight out of Monty Python. Even though cut into lengths for firewood, this piece is saying, “We’re not DEAD, yet”! You have to add the Monty Python emphasis yourself.

I don’t know if it is California, or what, but there are an awful lot of homeless types wandering around, in the small towns as well as the larger cities. But most of them seem intent on earning a living by collecting bottles and dumpster diving. And so, like Mexico, I have had no trouble finding worthy vagabonds to donate my empty cans to.

And the kids down here really do have problems keeping their pants up. I think we should really take up a collection of belts and suspenders to help them out. With one hand holding up their pants full time, and the other on the cell phone, I don’t know how they even manage to open a door. Or eat.

But perhaps that is just the fashion down here. I was driving along today, looking at a large number of females on one side of the road, when I spotted their apparent father watching me from the other side. I took a picture of him to show you. He did not look impressed with me at all!

When I looked closely at the gals, and I’m sure they were all pre-teens, I could see that without exception they had some type of large gaudy ear ornaments, and huge ugly rings in their otherwise relatively cute noses! At least the cows head in the stroller was not so decorated – not that I spent much time looking!

Oh, I almost forgot. The river turbine.

I chatted with a nearby local, who did not resemble BigFoot at all as a matter of fact, and he told me that it was a sort of minnow trap, set up by the local fisheries department to monitor the salmon fry coming downstream toward the ocean, which was only another kilometre – and where the seals were waiting for the snacks to be delivered. And the otter.

So there you have it. That's how I spent my day. How was yours?