To Plan A Trip

Call the Eureka! Humboldt County Convention & Visitors Bureau (1-800-346-3482) for a copy of its guide for visitors and a list of local events, including the Trucker’s Christmas Lighted Convoy in early December, when logging trucks parade through downtown Eureka, the Dolbeer Steam Donkey days in April, and the banana slug derby in August. The summer months are the most rain-free.

Eureka seems to have hundreds of places to stay, from inexpensive motels to the opulent and gourmet Carter House Inns (1-800-404-1390). I stayed at the comfortable Tudor-revival Eureka Inn (1-800-862-4906), which has redwood beams in the lobby’s ceiling and timeless, universal hotel comforts like a Rib Room and a Palm Lounge. “Are you a baseball fan?” Mr. Josephs asked as I was checking out. “Ted Williams slept in your room.”

Among the many bed-and-breakfasts is one called An Elegant Victorian Mansion (707-444-3144), a handsome 1888 Eastlake-style house built for one of Eureka’s mayors. I rang the front bell late one morning and was permitted .a fleeting glimpse of the elaborately furnished interior. Ted Williams would not have been comfortable there.

Drive north up the coast to Trinidad and have a meal in a waterfront restaurant overlooking the bay where Spanish explorers and Russian, British, and American traders landed in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Eureka’s waterfront, protected by sandbars, is calm and undramatic; in Trinidad steep cliffs plunge down to a picturesque rocky cove. Continuing north, the scenic highway 101A takes you right by the ocean.

Drive south to Scotia, a company town established in the late 188Os by the Pacific Lumber company. Pacific Lumber offers tours of its sawmill operation; after reading The Last Stand by David Harris, the story of the company’s hostile takeover by a profit-hungry Wall Street arbitrageur, I couldn’t bring myself to take it.

Finally, consider joining the Save-the-Redwoods League. Conservationists founded the organization in 1918 to try to stop the overcutting of ancient forests by buying back land from the lumber companies. Since then the league has purchased more than 125,000 acres for state and national parks. The league’s address is 114 Sansome Street, Room 605, San Francisco, CA 94104.