Last night I met a hobo at my campsite. He groaned and asked for food. I told him I had none, but then I remembered that I had a nature valley bar that had melted and then solidified into a crescent shape at the bottom of my backpack. I dug it out and gave it to him. After devouring the thing, the man looked at me and started asking me about my car and whether I could give him a ride to a local casino. He had walked several miles to the campsite from Crescent City. I somehow got out of the conversation without offending him.
Then today, I got mistaken for a hobo. I ordered a small coffee at a Starbucks and the barista looked at me, my dusty shoes, the uncombed hair, and the patchy beard. She looked appalled and I could tell when she said, "I've got this one honey" what she really meant.
I have no idea what this has to do with anything. One of the reasons I looked so dusty was because I visited Redwood National Forest earlier today. The forest bed is covered in powdered dirt that is thrown up by visitors's SUVs, caking most of the forest flora and fauna. I decided I would do the Scout trail in the northern part of Redwood National Park- Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park.
The trail, a brisk 6 mile roundtrip, takes you past some amazingly dense redwoods. It is slightly different from Prairie Creek Redwood Park, on the southern part of the park, which I had the pleasure of touring about a year ago. Their tall trees trail were truly spectacular.
But this trail was slightly different because a brief ascent at the end reaches the beautiful Fern Falls- greeting visitors with small fish and a bunch of water bugs.
I'll end with a redwood joke.
How did the government know that the tree was a communist spy? He was a redwood. He was arrested for treeson.
