Day 65 – 7:30 a.m., 54 degrees & sunny, BUT the furnace is out again at home. We need to stick around by the phone for awhile. At least we have electricity at the campground today. While waiting to get the call to let yet another serviceman into our house, we listened to the weather radio. The changeable weather; now we have a gale warning in effect thru tomorrow night, gusts up to 40 mph inland beginning tonight – looks like we’ll need to leave today because we can’t drive the RV in those conditions. We’d better head out today while the weather is good. While waiting on word from the house regarding the furnace, we packed up. Surprise girls, you get to travel again.
75 miles
The skies were darkening & the wind was starting to increase. We got the call we were waiting for, and locked the front door to the house after the worker left. So far they’ve visited three times & replaced three parts. Each time, the furnace promptly returned to temperature, then hours later, stopping to heat the house. Between $400 & $500. We’ll see how it goes. We’re thinking it might be time for a new furnace, but we’re in northern CA, not exactly equipped to shop for a new large appliance.
Big Lagoon Beach & County Park, 510 Big Lagoon Park Road, Trinidad, CA 95570, (707) 590-2083, http://www.humboldtgov.org/Facilities/Facility/Details/Big-Lagoon-2. 7 miles north of Trinidad, this Park is right on Big Lagoon which is separated from the Pacific Ocean by a fairly narrow strip of land/sand dune. Big Lagoon County Park campground is small and designed mostly for tents; there are maybe four campsites big enough for good-sized RV’s. Two of those sites offer water & electric hook-ups, no sewer hook-ups, & no dump station; the rest of the sites are dry camping. $25 per night for regular campsites plus an additional $10 per night for the two hook-up sites. $2.00 per night senior discount. The Day Use Area is nearby and excellent with parking places with both Ocean & Lagoon access. It’s a beautiful beach, and there’s a boat launch at the Lagoon where lots of migrating ducks & geese stop over to rest. We had site #21 (with hook-ups) & it was fine, but we had problems with the electricity blowing out on three separate occasions. They’re really not set up for the electric loads. They always got it re-set within a few hours, but you’re paying for the electricity & it could be an inconvenience. The campground is convenient for trips to Patrick’s Point State Park and the Trinidad area including Moonstone Beach. We would stay there again if in the area.
Our plan, after dumping & filling up on Propane, was to drive beyond Eureka into the hills, first to Van Duzen County Park, and then to Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park if the electric & water campsites weren’t big enough for both our vehicles. We went to Trinidad for Propane, then drove to the dump station at the rest stop off Highway 101. Finished with our errands at 12:30 p.m. & finally hit the road – 53 degrees, raining & a little windy. We were glad to get out of Eureka & be heading east into the hills on Route 36. With redwood trees close to the edge of the winding road, and with the rain & wind, we had to go slowly. We arrived at Van Duzen County Park close to 2 p.m. Several days ago, the last time we were here, it had been almost dark and the electric & water sites appeared to be too short & too narrow to accommodate both vehicles. We also hadn’t taken a good look at the campground. We unhooked the Honda & drove in to assess the campsites. We really hadn’t appreciated how lovely this Park was. There was no need to go further to the State Park.
We chose site #8, electric & water hook-ups, no sewer & no dump station (we’re getting used to that). Out of the 7 sites with hook-ups, site #8 was a little longer & a little wider. We could fit both vehicles. Later the incredibly nice ranger/campground host told us we could park the Honda in another site if we wanted to, no charge. We’d already settled in, but it was nice to know we had that option.
The whole campground is nestled in a beautiful grove of redwood trees. We have a huge redwood tree right in front of the RV and one slightly smaller to the side, ferns & other trees all around. We took a walk throughout the entire campground after we’d had lunch & unpacked. There appeared to be no other campers here. There are larger RV sites, several right on the Van Duzen River. Two of them are way back off the campground road, offering complete privacy. However, none of these campsites have power or water. Once we have the inverter up & running, we should be able to better camp without hook-ups and may move to one of these sites. Meanwhile, we are perfectly happy with our current campsite.
When we came into the campground, we were greeted by the forest ranger who was very mellow & smiling from ear-to-ear. We’d said we had been camping at Big Lagoon County Park and asked how the electricity hook-ups were in this Park because we’d had some trouble with the power at Big Lagoon. He said that since we’d had trouble at the previous campground, we should only pay $25 at this campground. We thanked him for his kind offer but we felt there was no need to pay less here. We ran into him again when we were finishing our walk & asked him if it would be a problem for us to change campsites part way thru our stay. He said no, he only gets a few campers at a time this time of the year, etc. We told him how we were blown away with the beauty of the Park, and now we knew why he was always smiling. He said welcome to my world. This is one happy campground host/forest ranger. He’s a lucky guy to live in this environment.