Day 63 Entry 9

What follows I list as Entry 9 though I realize now it really is an extension of yesterday's. I didn't notice the “It” at the end of the previous entry and it was followed by a photographs page – which up to here have always separated entries. It wasn't till I started to type this one and it began with a lower case “blew” that I realized the error. In fact I think Ruth didn't catch it until later either and thus the intervening photograph and the marginal note in Entry 8 when she picked it up again in the morning.

ENTRY 9

Tuesday, July 28, '31.

blew up last evening but was not heavy until this morning.

Matt seems rather homesick and blue.

We shall pull out as soon as dishes are done and the packs made up

Tides for July 28, 1931 Tuesday

Humboldt Bay California

High { 12.12 – 4.7 feet Am || Lows { 5.28 Am. – -1.1 feet

48. – 6/7 “ Pm 5.01 Pm. – 2.8 “

Hiked along the beach in bright sunlight. Mist is still hangin in the hills and a fog bank out to sea. Hike all day and camped again on the beach.

Wednesday July 29, 1931

Had walked 3 or 4 miles along the beach when we saw the puff of smoke which proved to be that of a Donkey engine – at the same time the fog lifted and we saw the Jetty. The later [latter] proved we had walked way out the sand spit missing the creek. So we went on out to the Jetty and watched four fishing boat trying to get out over the bar. Even the biggest boat had to turn back because of the rough sea.

We plodded thru soft sand and over drift wood then, up the to the Donkey engine.

[Here the handwriting changes so dramatically that I'm pretty sure it's now my dad's—confirmed in 9^th sentence]

Four men were working a donkey engine on the river bank. A log raft had broken off shore 4 years ago and these men were putting the logs in the river. They were dragged across the sand spit to the donkey and there pushed into the river. After finding out where we wanted to go the men offered to row us across the river but since they were busy could not. Allot of good that did. After the fishing boats returned we struck up a conversation with with [sic] one of the fishermen. We foud that the coast is sandy up to Ten Mile creek the North side of Arcata [?] point. We were offered a ride to Florence if the boats couldn't get over the bar. I, Matt walked out the Jetty and saw that they got over the bar. I had a long walk back and could see a long stretch of wooden rails, (the Jetty) and then the four miles of shore we had to walk to Florence. We walkied through wet soft sand and dry sand tiresomely until we got to a wooded shore. The trail turned in through a beautiful wooded path.

[I think it now returns to Ruth's hand—certainly it does so by the final paragraph]

We crossed the Ferry and looked for a place to buy supplies. Stopping at a Restaurant we go clam chowder and desert. We followed a road out of Florence to the state highway. Bearing a sign advertising a lake with Auto [?] camping we walked three miles along the road to another road that runs of towards the lake. It was about ten miles it seemed to us. It was really about two miles. The manager was a nice fellow. He lives with his wife and daughter on a homestead. There are three lakes here; we saw them all next day. We made camp Wednesday night on the shore of the lake. Matt found out that all this brush we've hiked through is balck hukelbarie [I assume black huckleberry].

The first photo (like some previous) is a double exposure--for the young among us, this was particularly easy with the Brownie camera because it had no lock out after you took a picture. If you didn't wind forward then, your next shot would expose the same film you'd already shot--and of course if you couldn't remember whether you had already wound the film, you hated to wind unnecessarily because film was expensive and you didn't want to waste an exposure.