We were up and headed north from Navarro early. We had a train to catch. It had turned windy and cold overnight, was it the forecasted storm blowing in early? We rolled into Ft. Bragg before most of the town was open. We acquired our tickets and took a chilly walk around town and then checked out the model railroad.
Several people have put a ton of time into the Mendicino Model Railroad to give us a glimpse into the past. I wonder how they decide who gets the remote controls for the day. We then jumped the train and took a short ride up Pudding Creek on the Skunk Train.
After the train it was northward again. We attempted a stop to walk a beach but the wind was absolutely howling and bitter cold so we quickly found our way to Usal Beach. The elk we enjoyed so much last trip weren’t there to greet us, but there were other wildlife encounters in our future. We found a camp and settled in. Luckily Usal sits in a way that we were sheltered from the wind and could enjoy the rest of the sunny afternoon.
After an enjoyable walk to the beach and back the sun was on its way to the horizon. We sat back and watched the day come to a close. As dark settled in, without much light left we spotted what we thought was a little fox trot by camp. Reconnaissance?
All was quiet but for the big breakers crashing on the beach, until sometime after midnight when there was a clattering outside. The last time we heard a similar sound it was a coyote rustling up the remains of our jiffy pop in Death Valley. But we had put away all our garbage and anything else a racoon might get into, we thought. I looked outside and noticed the grill had moved across the table, then a pair of eyes popped up and stared at me. I headed outside and spotted multiple pairs of eyes and started to feel surrounded. Was I being lured? I finally got a headlamp trained and sure enough, 4 foxes conspired to steal the drip pan out of the grill and one was hurriedly trying to lick it clean. I advanced and he dropped it and retreated, but that was only temporary. As soon as I started walking toward the pan he came up, grabbed it in his teeth and headed for the brush. The other three stayed spread out in tactical locations and I knew I was beat. I retreated to the camper. The next morning I searched for and found the drip pan,, clean as a whistle but not quite as good as new.
It hadn’t started to rain overnight, which we were grateful for, because we wanted to head north on Usal road. With rain that wouldn’t have been in the cards. We attempted that stretch of road in 2016 but it had rained and we had to abandon our plans and take the long way around. But time was limited before the storm set in. Would we be able to revisit Needle Rock, our favorite stop in 2016, or was an alternate plan in our future?
