Wish all of you a Happy Halloween! We treated ourselves to a big dinner and some great dessert - Dutch got extra treats! We did pass a farmer this afternoon who just happened to be harvesting his pumpkins on Halloween. A little late for the Halloween market, but his five acre field was literally covered with pumpkins so I assume they were on their way to the pumpkin pie mix factory. Since this morning, we have only traveled 364 miles and 8,926.9 for the trip but we had a great drive. We are back to the Pacific Ocean and just happened to stop in the community that lost a number of lives during the 1964 Alaskan earthquake from the tidal wave generated in Alaska.

If you learn nothing else from this trip, if you ever have to cross California from east to west or west to east, follow the route that we took today. We have made this trip several times, but this is the first time we took this route and it was spectacular. We were in constant beautiful scenery, heavily treed with a variety of trees but predominantly Ponderosa Pine, Sugar Pine and Oak trees. It was mountainous most of the way which only added to the trip. To keep Brother Bill out of trouble, I would not recommend it for 18 wheelers.

Pulling out of Quincy this morning it was foggy and 40 degrees but within an hour we lost the fog and the high temperature of the day was 75 degrees until we hit the coast, then it was fogged in all the way to Crescent City. On Highway 101, in a fog with visibility of about fifty feet is not a fun drive, however, I discovered a new use for Suzie! I drove the last one hundred miles on instruments! Just watch Suzie's screen and she would let us know when the corners were coming up, it was very useful. However, we did discover a place for a top secret military base, hide it in the Redwoods - the forest canopy is so thick a satellite image can not get through. We lost contact with Suzie several times, the first time it has happened this trip except when we were in a mile long tunnel in Zion National Park.

We entered Lassen Volcanic National Park under sunny skies, did not get to use my lifetime pass as all the rangers had quit for the winter. We entered the park from the south end and exited out the west side, a total of 34 miles of driving a narrow, cliff hanging highway. The drive was great, it was the first time that I have had a National Park to myself! We saw a total of five cars on our entire trip through the park. Topping the divide, the elevation of the pass was the highest point we will hit on this trip, the highway is at about 10,200 level. It was great that we had the road to ourselves, coming around a corner, Terry saw a bear on a little slope just a few feet from the road. It was a good size grizzly, not to concerned about us so we stopped in the middle of the road, rolled down the window and took videos of him. Since he was on my side of the road, I had to run the video camera so we did not get any still shots of him. It made Terry's day, she finally got to see her bear.

Leaving the park, we continued through the mountains and under Interstate 5 at Redding, California knowing that we could make Portland yet today or continue exploring and take the slow road. It was not a decision that was difficult to make. Leaving it behind us, we continued through the mountains, the fall colors are past their prime but still very colorful. As we got closer to the coast, we dropped into the Trinity River Valley, my heart leaped with the first sight of it. Just a touch wider than the Anchor River, crystal clear with nice runs and some deep holes. Great looking river and there were a good number of fishermen on the river, fishing fall Steelhead! The highway paralleled the Trinity River through the canyon for about 35 miles, so many spots to fish and a good number of federal, state, and private campgrounds. Getting back into the truck after checking out one likely "hole", I noticed the temperature was 58 degrees! Fishing Steelhead at 58 degrees? I may have to get a new rod, my rods are not use to temperatures like that. I will return to the Trinity to spend a few days and fish it, after I do a little research but I am sure it is also a tributary of the Klamath River, a world class Steelhead River. The next couple of days, we will passing a large numbers of rivers that are known for their Steelhead fishing. I may fall in love again!

The plan for tomorrow is to back track about 30 miles and pick up some of the things that we missed traveling in the fog that we wanted to see, if it is still foggy - we will head north after snooping around Cresent City. Looks like an interesting place to live. Our friends, Mat and Cindy that have a summer home in Anchor Point lives just a few miles from here in Branden, Oregon so we will stop by to see them sometime tomorrow. A great day, saw some beautiful country, a bear, a deer and got instrument rated on my driving, life gets no better. See you up the road as we creep north.