Pre-Trail Magic on the California Coastal Trail and the Pre-Trail Provides

Appreciatively, once I found out about The Trek I became obsessed with reading about other fellow hikers. Two messages were received loud and clear in the past few days. The first amazing gem was the idea of trail magic! I love this concept. The other wonderful nugget was, The Trail Provides. Three experiences, one right after the other, have made me a believer.

(1) Rental Car Magic… I Love You Budget Car Rental

For months I was trying to rent a car from Southern California to either Brookings, Oregon or Crescent City, Ca. (These towns are close to the start of the California Coastal Trail) but no matter what I tried I could not drop off a rental car to either of those places. I could only rent a car to Eureka 100 miles away from the Oregon border. Suddenly, I got this brilliant idea: rent the car to Eureka and because it was only another 100 miles to Brookings, rent a Uhaul. It was a brilliant idea until Uhaul called me the day before my trip and said they would not have a truck for me. Luckily, I remembered those magic words, “the trail provides.”

Not even kidding, that night I was searching again for rental cars and there it was a rental car I could drop off at Crescent City!

(2) Karl and the Smith River

Upon arriving  at Crescent City, I had 4 hours before I had to turn in the car. So I proceeded to find the exact spot where I would start the hike. You would think there would be a welcome to Oregon sign, but I didn’t see one. I saw the welcome to California sign so I took a picture with my dog Piper.

Next, I wanted to see where the Smith River was located and how I could cross it. Around the mouth of the Smith River, where I needed to go, across there were only houses. As I started back to return the rental car I saw some kayaks in front of a house. I turned in to ask the person if they knew how I could get across. The neatest guy, Karl, told me he could help. He would pick me up at the place I was staying, take me to the Oregon border and have kayaks ready when I finished the first part of the trail near the Smith River. What a miracle!

(3) Tyler at Budget… a big ole thanks to this young man!

Once I got to Budget in Crescent City, I had to turn the rental car into the airport which was about 5 miles from the place I was staying. I was told they only had cabs that came out to the airport. I called the number on the card, but no one answered. I left a message but didn’t know if they would call back. Tyler, the young man at Budget heard me leave the message. He said, there’s a another guy working, I can take you! What a wonderful sweet young man. Trail Magic, wouldn’t you agree?