NEW ENGLAND WEST : Trinidad, one of California’s last unexploited coastal villages, has the snug-harbor character of an East Coast seaside hamlet

Clyde Bransund, retired logger, studied his fishing pole, cantilevered over the rail of the Trinidad pier. “It’s just a fishing village, but it’s pretty nice,” he said amiably. Then he offered another scrap of information since nothing was biting: “And the weather’s usually about like this--just right.”

It was a late fall morning, 60 degrees, overcast, with no wind. By noon the sun would burn away the clouds, warming the pier, the neat houses stacked up the hill from the waterline, the nearby hidden beaches and redwood groves.

Bransund, a resident since 1936, returned his attention to the gray-green water. I walked back along the pier, past the practical, fish-pungent paraphernalia in heaps along each railing and the broken slabs of old concrete from an earlier landing, when the narrow cove accommodated a whaling station. Trinidad is more than just “pretty nice.”

A small, rocky port 284 miles north of San Francisco, Trinidad has the character of a New England seaside hamlet--though it is considerably less expensive to visit, particularly from the West Coast. Originally La Santisima Trinidad, it was named by visiting Spanish sailors on Sept. 9, 1775, during the week of Trinity Sunday, a Christian feast day.

Today, Trinidad is one of the last unexploited coastal villages in California. In a naturally beautiful area--”where the redwoods meet the sea,” as some local merchants note--it has yet to be prettied up, has yet to attract the crowds that pull in hotel chains and fried-chicken franchises. It still harbors both winter and summer commercial fishing fleets after earlier incarnations as a port from which to load timber and to off-load mining supplies during California’s Gold Rush.

Better known in San Francisco than in Los Angeles, Trinidad is a secret that Northern Californians seem disinclined to share with others, particularly their neighbors to the south.

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My brother-in-law, a youthful San Francisco banker, had no choice, however. His wife’s side of the family had vowed to get together in California somewhere. He also had to factor in his inquisitive 4-year-old son and a new baby. Cornered, he planned. He phoned. He asked fellow San Franciscans for favorite destinations with adult appeal, child-charming potential and easy-access entertainments.

Others apparently have done the same, and this misty jewel may not stay secluded much longer.

Two new and rather beautiful bed and breakfasts have joined the older cabins, motels and RV parks on Patrick’s Point Drive, the main drag along the coast. Gourmet dining, as well as cook-house fare, is now available. And scheduled airline service (United Express) connects San Francisco to Arcata, the larger town just 10 minutes south of Trinidad on U.S. 101.

Even Salty’s Sporting Goods, the longtime local clearinghouse for fish news, for the first time this year will stay open through the winter to supply a growing number of off-season visitors, many of them families coming to drop their crab traps off the pier. The Dungeness crab season opened the day after Thanksgiving.

Fall, winter and spring are also good seasons for redwoods lovers, beach-combers and whale-watchers. Rough winter seas and the occasional storm churn up the beaches, bringing knuckle-size agates to the surface, and fresh driftwood and other flotsam ashore. “After a storm, when the waves have really pounded that sand, the bigger agates come up,” said Manja Argue-Hoggard, co-owner of Salty’s with her husband, Robbie Hoggard.

In the forests in winter, warm rains frequently drizzle through the redwoods and giant sequoias in a string of state and federal preserves just north of Trinidad--including the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park, Richardson Grove. A herd of Roosevelt elk grazes picturesquely alongside paved roads, though they do that year-round. And fuchsia grow everywhere, like weeds, some varieties to the size of small trees.

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Summer is the biggest fishing season. Inexpensive charters offer ocean fishing for salmon, ling cod, Pacific halibut and other varieties; freshwater lagoons hold steelhead and cutthroat trout. The town sponsors a ling cod derby, a fish fry and an arts and crafts festival. “Bring a warm coat and we’ll do our best to hook you up with a fish,” is the honest promise on the door of Bob’s Boat Basin at the pier. (Even in summer, it can be brisk on the water.)

Town historian Ned Simmons, who moved to Trinidad seven years ago, is not overly concerned that so far the area draws only modest tourist traffic. Simmons, who sells the work of local painters in his gallery, concedes with a laugh that this does make it a “lousy place to sell art.”

It is, however, a good place to buy art, or a $12,000 basket made by native Yurok artisans, or to drift into a nap to the soft bark of sea lions.

It’s true the weather can be iffy during the winter months, but it’s the best time to see the whales from one of the best vantage points along the California coast. There are always humpbacks and other whales off the Trinidad coast. But the southern migration of the California gray whale, the species that most closely hugs the shoreline, runs from November through January (the whales return on their way back to Alaska January through March.

One afternoon, Erica Redmond, born and raised in Trinidad, was tending the store at the Lost Whale Bed & Breakfast Inn, a beautiful newish guest house with a backyard (and hot tubs) with a spectacular view of the Pacific. Over the barking of sea lions from the near-shore rocks below, she described a recent day watching the whales.

“We had eight out there just hanging around--it looked like a bathtub,” she said. “People don’t understand that the juveniles and resident whales just hang around.”

The Lost Whale is a big Cape Cod-style place, built in 1989 largely of polished blond wood. All rooms have private baths, and the $95 to $150 for a double may seem all the more reasonable to parents who find they can let loose the children in an enclosed, grassy backyard that is still within eyesight from a deck hot tub.

Just down the road, the newer Turtle Rocks Inn--$75 to $155 for a double--has perhaps the more dramatic ocean view, namely the offshore Turtle Rocks, with their own clan of sea lions. This B&B;, a more adult place, has private, glassed-in decks and great big rooms and bathrooms.

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My wife, Judie, and I, my parents, sisters, assorted spouses and kids stayed this fall at yet another place, an older cluster of cabins called Shadow Lodge that backs into a stand of redwoods off Patrick’s Point Drive. Moss has crept contentedly over the cabins’ shake roofs. In the evenings, we generally cooked en famille in the cabin with the largest kitchen. A hefty, fresh local salmon from Katy’s Smokehouse, just down the road, and barbecued with the “Pride of Trinidad Seafood Marinade” will long be remembered. Later each night, around a fire pit, we warmed ourselves with Irish whiskey, single-malt Scotch and family gossip.

In the clean, crisp mornings, we explored.

As it happened, most of us had driven there, so we had a small fleet for the daily rambles. Rental cars can be had at the Arcata Airport, however.

Our first excursion was to Agate Beach north of town at Patrick’s Point State Park. If you can’t find agates on Agate Beach, you’ve got your head in the fog. The translucent, mostly amber-colored stones are abundant, as are driftwood chunks worn smooth against the rocks.

Like most beaches in the area, Agate is for walking, not swimming, with cold water and serious riptides. Four miles north is Big Lagoon, a Humboldt County park with easy access to the freshwater lagoon and a sandy, broad beach. This beach also has plenty of bench-height logs, for family members who like to view their oceans sitting down. A bit farther north along U.S. 101 are the redwoods, and the elk.

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One morning as we pushed farther north along U.S. 101, approaching the Prairie Creek Redwoods Visitor Center, where many of the elk spend their days, we were warned over the park radio that the wild and unpredictable males, particularly in the state of sexual excitement called rutting, can run you down at speeds up to 50 miles an hour. As we drove into the parking lot, however, the two males we could see were merely staring each other in the eye. Several female elk lay in the grass yards away, apparently awaiting an outcome.

I shouldn’t make light of the elk, of course. At the center, I lingered in the small museum and bookstore, saddened by a yarn of elkian passion.

A plaque on the wall told of a harem bull who had reigned over the Prairie Creek herd in the fall of 1972. Becoming “extremely erratic” during a frenzied rut, he broke 38 windows in this building, confronted and severely damaged a car, trapped a ranger for hours in the entrance kiosk and chased visitors into the huckleberry bushes. Unfortunately for him, he was not erratic enough. His head is now mounted above the plaque.

“I’d like to think we wouldn’t do that now,” sighed Barbara Wilkinson at the bookstore cash register. “The peak of the gene pool, and we shoot him.” Wilkinson is executive administrator of the North Coast Redwood Interpretive Assn., a volunteer affiliate of the state park system.

Other changes have come in recent years to the state parks, Wilkinson added with a deeper sigh. Mainly, park funding has been gutted in year after year of state-government cutbacks. That’s why Wilkinson, who is married to the Prairie Creek center’s ranger, is a full-time volunteer. “Otherwise, there wouldn’t be anyone here to talk to you,” she said. “It’s a big crisis . . . after you pay to take out the trash, there’s no more money.”

The redwood preserves around Trinidad still seem none the worse for wear, however. At the Prairie Creek center there’s a gentle walking tour through a stand of old-growth redwoods. Along the blacktop path, signs explain the basics of a redwood forest, as well as the principal players, which even held the attention of my lively 4-year-old nephew.

Coast redwoods are the world’s tallest trees, with an average height of 300 feet. The tallest recorded specimen topped out at 367 feet. The giant sequoia lives longer, with one dated at 3,300 years, compared with 2,200 years for the oldest Coast Redwood. But the tallest Giant Sequoia on record was a mere 325 feet.

Redwoods, as it happens, were the dominant Northern Hemisphere tree 100 million years ago. But advancing ice sheets squeezed them into small enclaves in California and China. Today, Sichuan Province in central China still grows a redwood that is both much smaller--at an average of 80 feet--and, oddly, deciduous.

Lesser inhabitants of the forest floor include nine varieties of fern, notably sword ferns; salmon berries (something like an edible but bitter raspberry); red and black huckleberries; blackberries; black bears, bobcats, banana slugs. Above are 260 varieties of birds.

Our lazy excursions always seemed to encourage the appetite. One of our last evenings in Trinidad, we headed south from town for dinner, to a private room at the local legend, the Samoa Cookhouse, in the logging-company town of Samoa.

From shortly after the turn of the century until the 1960s, the Samoa Cookhouse fed loggers--in its final days, the crews of Georgia-Pacific Corp. The cook house shut down when the loggers started going home to have lunch with their wives.

The Cookhouse now is open to the public, with food is still served family style, at $10.99 a head. When I asked our waitress when she wanted us to order, she smiled patiently at the first-timer’s question and said, “I’ll bring you your dinner.”

That night, dinner included big bowls of vegetable soup, platters of green and three-bean salad (delicious, to everyone’s surprise), green beans, baked potatoes, fried fresh snapper, thick roast beef, apple pie and coffee. To remind us of why loggers ate like that every day, part of the Cookhouse is given over to displays of old and impressively heavy logging gear, from two-man chain saws to wash tubs.

Our final breakfast brought a return to the Trinidad pier, to the Seascape restaurant, overlooking the old whale slip. Ned Simmons, the town historian, makes the point that in maritime terms this is not truly a harbor but a roadstead--that is, a curve of land protected in ordinary wind conditions, but unprotected in unprevailing winds.

“If a south wind comes into Trinidad Bay,” Simmons said, “all hell breaks loose.”

This morning all was calm. The Seascape is Trinidad’s no-nonsense seafood joint. I considered for a moment their Hangtown Fry, an oyster omelet of historical resonance, but settled on what the waitress called the “scram and chow,” eggs scrambled with the house clam chowder. Within the inherent limitations of these kinds of combos, it was delicious. And in the low-key Trinidad way, the plate came not with an artful slice of orange or sprig of parsley but with a cluster of local huckleberries at the side.

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GUIDEBOOK: Whale of a Tale in Trinidad

Getting there: Trinidad is about a six-hour drive north of San Francisco, on U.S. 101. United Express has daily flights from San Francisco into Arcata Airport, about 10 minutes south of Trinidad. The airport has rental cars available from National, Avis and Hertz.

Where to stay: The Lost Whale Bed & Breakfast Inn, 3452 Patrick’s Point Drive; telephone (707) 677-3425; fax (707) 677-0284. A newish Cape Cod-style inn, 150 steps down to the beach (doubles: $95-$150, including breakfast). Turtle Rocks Inn, 3392 Patrick’s Point Drive; tel. (707) 677-3707. Sunny, big rooms with private balconies (doubles: $80-$155, including breakfast). Shadow Lodge, 687 Patrick’s Point Drive; tel. (707) 677-0532. Older, but clean cabins and motel rooms, some with kitchens (doubles: rooms $49, cabins $59-$95, pets $10). Bishop Pine Lodge, 1481 Patrick’s Point Drive; tel. (707) 677-3314; fax (707) 677-3444. Clean alpine-decor cottages, dating from 1927, in the redwoods (doubles: $60-$90).

Where to shop: Trinidad Market & Deli for ordinary groceries as well as such niceties as fresh baby dill and specialty cheeses. Katy’s Smokehouse has a great variety of fresh and smoked local fish Sea Around Us is set in a small English garden, sells local handicrafts, seashells, minerals and silver jewelry.

Where to eat:

Laruppin’ Cafe (local tel. 677-0230) is the upscale local eatery, with Pablo Neruda quoted on the menu, a vegan special, Southern U.S. specialties, barbecued Humboldt Bay oysters (dinners $15-$20, excluding wine). Seascape Restaurant, at the pier, is the local fresh-fish joint (tel. 677-3762), (breakfast, lunch, dinner $9.50-$16.50). Samoa Cookhouse (down U.S. 101 toward Eureka, tel. 442-1659) offer lumber-camp fare, served family-style, in a former Georgia-Pacific cookhouse (breakfast, lunch, dinners about $12).

For more information: Trinidad Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 356, Trinidad, CA 95570, tel. (707) 677-0591.

--M.P.