River Rattin’ It

Let me start with a little history about the Smith River State Recreation Area.  The Smith River is considered one of the best fishing regions in the U.S., with trophy sized steelhead trout, Chinook salmon and other game fish species. It is also the longest National Wild and Scenic River in the U.S.  Rafting is popular in the summer months and most hiking trails are accessible year-round. The region receives over 90 inches of rainfall annually, with the greatest amounts in the winter.

On Friday, we took a late afternoon drive to one of the roadside river access areas and spent a couple of hours just enjoying the amazing beauty and serenity the river had to offer.  No one was near us and the two dogs had a great time exploring although Sherwood had a difficult time with the rocks.  You may or may not know that our Brittany, Sherwood, has a birth defect and his hip socket is square instead of round.  The older he gets, the gimpier he gets.  He falls a lot, especially on uneven or slick surfaces, and the rocks at Smith River presented both of those hazards.

Here are some photos of the Smith River from our limited viewpoint.  We had river bends at both ends so our river view was cut short.

This next picture gives you a look at how clear and clean the water in the river looks.  You can see all the way to the bottom of the river, all the way to the other side.

This is Gary and me sitting on the river’s edge, enjoying the warmth of the sun and the luxury of just doing nothing!  And I pondered that today.  THIS is my life!  Not that I always want to do nothing.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  But for now, we are simply enjoying the gift we have been given to travel and enjoy God’s beautiful creation.

Finally, below is a video of the Smith River.  One of my most favorite sounds ever is the sound of a river, or creek, as it splashes over the rocks.  Truly, from my perspective, it is one of the most peaceful and tranquil sounds.  This Scripture verse that comes to mind is:   The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD is over many waters (Psalms 29:3).

One last photo of our river adventure.  Here I am trying to get my legs to not look like Caspar the friendly ghost!  That’s my hat covering my face in case you were wondering where my head is!

The next day in the early afternoon, we drove back to Crescent City to explore the coast a little more.  Our first stop was Pebble Beach … not THE Pebble Beach, but a beach in Crescent City!  Here is a short video I took as I spanned the beach.  It was rather windy which accounts for all the noise and you can barely hear me talking in the background!

Here's some trivia for you, and I bet you don't know this!  The California coast boasts 34 lighthouses from Point Loma in San Diego to St. George Reef, just past Battery Point.  I had no idea that California had so many lighthouses.    Check out the lighthouse locations at the following link:  http://www.lighthousefriends.com/ca.html.  The Oregon coast, on the other hand, has a total of 11 lighthouses.  The picture below is of Battery Point Lighthouse the second to the last one before heading into Oregon.

The park we stayed at, Hiouchi RV Park, had a church (Hiouchi Community Fellowship) that held their services in the park on a grassy area near the offices.  It was a very relaxed atmosphere … bring  your own lawn chair and feel free to pick it up whenever you feel like moving it into the shade if you’re too hot or into the sun if you’re too cold!  The land the RV park is on is owned by the Yurok Indian Tribe who is very happy to have the church on their premises.  So happy in fact that they said they could build a church building on some of the extra land in the RV park! This small, but mighty fellowship has a desire to "plant seeds of financial and spiritual restitution for the sovereign nation of the Elk Valley Rancheria".  It is the fourth point in their five points of ministry. 

The first service we attended, Gary spent time beforehand talking to Pastor Steve and after the service he had everyone pray for us to launch us on our journey.  That was very awesome and very special.  It is a small, but mighty fellowship and the people are very nice.  A number of Christians in the RV Park also attended the services making the congregation a mixture of both their local members and transient RVers (like us).  We also attended their Thursday night fellowship at a member’s home in the town of Gasquet and were just as blessed.

Monday we pack up and head into Oregon to travel up the coast and then to Portland.  We’ve been here nine days and I feel like I’m growing roots!  We really enjoyed the cooler weather and we met some wonderful people.  One couple, Ann & Marvin, who live in Durango, gave us their number so we can call them when we get there.  We hope to meet people from all over and create a network of new friends throughout the country.  How amazing is that?