Miller Creek (Crescent City)
South of Crescent City I came to the Miller Creek Campground 2.5 miles inland from highway 101. It would not be on the ocean, but I thought it might provide some solitude. The campground was in a heavily wooded valley with huge trees and small flowing creeks. I picked 3 sites all of which had only one possible neighbor and seemed to be farthest away from any other campers. The place was absolutely quiet with only a half dozen of the 120 sites filled. I began to feel I could stay there a few days and spend some time in the peace and quiet thinking. My first choice was available when Iwent to register and I head back to the campground to unpack.
No sooner had I backed into my site than a VW bus with a pop up overhead camper came by and looked closely at the sites next to mine. "No, no, no," I said internally, "just keep going." They left. I started to set up my tent. Fifteen minutes later they were backing their van in to the one and only spot near mine and popping their canopy to make it dominate my view from the fire. I was very angry and said so (to no one in particular.) I had enough. The day was a disaster. There is no solitude available on this earth anymore. Why out of 120 identical available sites would anyone pick the site next to the single guy who obviously wanted to be left alone. A woman with a shaved head on the sides and two pre-pubescent girls hhopped out and immediately the peace and quiet was broken with the mindless chatter of human socialization.
I hopped in the car, revved the engine, and headed for Crescent City for some comfort food. At the Safeway I angrily bought two bags of trail mix, two bags of potato chips, and two cans of tuna all of which were on sale two-for-one. I regret buying the chips because I believe they will restore any weight I have lost to this point and then some. I stopped at the KFC drive through then waited 5 minutes for my order as the female attendants dreamily flirted with the gentleman in front of me who was impressing them with the loudness of his stereo in his convertible BMW. I am sure the price of that car was a small price to pay for him to catch the eye of those small town girls with hair that not only smells like, but I am surte tastes like chicken.
Back at camp I brought out the headphonesand the Go-Gos to block the incessant chatter from next door (now joined by the patriarch of the family) and proceeded to read some PKD, express my anger towards my neighbor in my journal, and plan my trip Miller Creek had been ruined. After finishing a PKD story I put on my hiking outfit and headed for a trail at 6:30pm. As I toured the campsite I noticed that although the camp was starting to fill up, my other two campsites were still available and still had no one next to them.
The trail was a short relativ ely flat 1.2 mile loop around the campsite. It was just what I needed. It was peaceful and quiet. Except for a very cordial and brief conversation with an elderly couple on thye trail it provided me with the solitude I needed. Back at camp around 8pm I started the fire and started on my next web pages. The chatter was gone. The neighbors retired early. But still their popup camper dominated my landscape.
I retired in peace around 11pm. I woke in the night to what I thought sounded like raindrops or falling leaves. I could not tell which. Since this was the first night I decided not to put the rain cover on the tent, I suspected the former. I hoped this was not a sign of weather to come. Up to this point I had gorgeous weather. I had assumed it would continue indefinitely. Only time would tell.