Day 5, Elk Prairie Campground to Warmshowers host, Trinidad, 35 miles

 Today was meant to be a short day. Thank goodness because it has turned into a rain day. It started soon after dawn. I could hear a slow patter on the rain fly. My hiker biker neighbor, Emma, had a Warmshowers host lined up in Eureka. As I started out, I thought I should just check. 

Of course there's not always a signal. But in Orick, I pulled up the Warmshowers site and saw there was a host in Trinidad just south of Su Meg SP, where I'd planned to stay. Trying to do things on the fly with my phone and funky eyes is not easy. My phone had my password saved and I got into the site, but to look for a host takes a monthly subscription. No problem. I put in my details, then . . . password hell from Google. I could not complete the $2.99 subscription. I was already so wet and chilled. 

I kept going. Uphill with RVs and trucks spraying me. At least while cycling I was staying warm. I didn't know how long I'd be able to get a signal and let it stay up as I rode (instead of airplane mode). I had a semi-plan. 

A friend in Okemos (in my phone as Thomas Warmshowers) helped me find Carol who wasn't answering. Meanwhile, I make it to Sue-Meg and have the option of getting a hiker biker site and sleeping cold and wet. Or trying to find a host. Yes, I'm in the Redwoods and it's beautiful, but I'm also cold and wet. 

I parked by the bathrooms under an overhang, where I spied Emma ride by with her poncho. I shouted her name and she spun over. "Something's wrong with my brakes." Oh my God. They were disintegrating. 

She used my phone to call her host and find a bike shop down the coast. Meanwhile, I heated up food. We sat and ate and figured things out. Her host called back and Carol called me. Yes!! 

Emma and I said our goodbyes again. She on her was to Arcata to a bike shop (freaking out for her) and me to wait and hang out here at Su Meg Visitor Center for Carol to come back from appt. The visitor center is brand new and the guy told me I could wait inside on a bench and brought over a space heater.

Up til now I'd seen big trees, but nothing too awesome. Maybe it was the rain or my attitude, or . . . I'd been away from the coast for a full day and was inland, in forest. The SP had a lot of information about the indigenous population, from whom the park was named after. There seems to be a reawakening within the park system to acknowledge people on whose land the park rests upon. (Complicated, as the tribes/people had their own ideas about land ownership and conservancy.) Anyway, reminders of how the coast and redwoods changed hands as one people group after another moved in. Indigenous/Spanish/Mexican/gold miners--Eureka!/more white people, finally, rich white people building big houses with excellent views. While waiting at Su Meg, I toured a restored replica village of how life over 250 years ago might have looked. My tiny house soul could relate.