Mendocino Weekend

Russ Steele

Ellen and I spend the weekend camping at MacKerricher State Park with our youngest daughter Caitlin and her husband Travis Williams. We took the Airstream and they did some tent camping next to the trailer.  We had a great time cooking out and huddling around the campfire. No rain, but it was cold and a bid windy. It was slow posting as we had to use our cellphone connections.

When we arrived at MacKerricher it was a opportunity to chat with the Rangers. One of our favorites day use parks on the coast is Russian Gulch, it has some great hiking trails and during stormy weather there is blowhole, that fills with sea foam, like a giant foam covered latte. California tax payers just spent a million dollars upgrading the water system in the park, that will not get much use as the park is on the closure list at the end of next summer. 

We walked on the beach and had a picnic at the Pacific Star Winery, one of our favorite haunts.  The wines at the Pacific Star improve every year. It is a great place for whale watching, and this Saturday there was a wedding on the bluff over looking the ocean.  After tasting we bought several bottles and dug into our cheese, french bread, fruit and salami.

The only downer was the theft of our generator on Saturday night.  We used our Yamaha EF1000 it to charge the trailer, cellphone and computer batteries. We called the Rangers and they came of file a report, and discovered that three generators and a wallet were stolen that night.  In thirty years of National and State Park camping this was the first time we have has something stolen from a camp site.  A change of times.