It’s Sunday morning and I like to start the day with some creative things. When I was at the Barnes and Nobles about two weeks ago I bought a book about calligraphy and some brush pens. I figure that this morning is a good time to practice a bit with that. I also update my travel bullet journal and practice my drawing skills. These creative things are a bit out of my comfort zone in sense that I still have to learn it all, but I really enjoy doing it. Time goes by very quickly and it’s already eleven o’clock when I start driving to Redwoods National Park.
Just before noon I arrive at the visitor and get a permit to drive to Giant Trees trail. I ask why you need a permit and the lady tells me that’s because it is about an hour driving to get there and they want to sure there is enough parking space for the people visiting. I also ask her about the bear warning sign I saw yesterday. She assures me that it’s safe to hike here, you just have to make enough noise when you’re in the forest. The bears are in general scared for people and so normally they don’t not attack. In case you ever walk into a bear, here is what you need to do:
– Don’t run away, because then the bear will think you’re something to play with.
– Slowly walk backwards and keep facing the bear.
– If the bear attacks, respond aggressively. Make loud noises, throw things and fight back.
So now you know what to do. I drive to the hiking trail. It’s again a gravel road and I’m a bit worried about my tires, but fortunately this road doesn’t get too bad. To get to the trail you have to open a cage with a number combination and then you can drive to the location where the hike starts. I make myself a sandwich and start walking. I don’t feel like an encounter with a bear today, so I turn on my music. The same music as I was playing in Zion National Park and that brings back memories. I realize how much I’ve done in just a few weeks and I know that this journey will go into the collection of best experiences of my life. It confirms what I’ve started to believe in the past year. Now is the time to do the things you really want to do in life. Don’t wait until you’re retired at 70 years old to travel the world or do the things you’ve always dreamed of. You don’t know how long life is and as my favorite quote says: in twenty years you’ll have more regrets about the things you didn’t do than the things you did. I am glad that I decided about two months ago to go on this journey.
Half way the hike I meet a girl called Ana. She tells me that she’s been traveling for three years now and is also living in her car. We continue hiking together. When we’re back at the starting point Ana says she wants to go to a free campsite in the evening and I like that idea. Funny that I just wrote down this morning that I miss cooking like I did in New Zealand, because that’s what I can do again tonight. We drive for about an hour until we arrive in Oregon. There is a nice free campsite right by the ocean. We park our cars and cook dinner. There is a local guy called Dan, he’s very friendly and tells all about the area we’re in and which beaches we should visit. We hang out for a while and then Ana return to her mobile home to read and I go back to mine to continue the movie I watched last night. It’s nice to meet some new people on the journey and to go camping again. I can’t imagine how it is to travel alone for three years. For six or seven weeks I enjoy it, but then I usually like to go back to normal life for a while.
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