Oregon Coast 2007 summer

8/6/07 Day 42 summer trip. I got up early walked Meghan and made cheese omelets breakfast for Linda. We left Mayhill about 11:00 a.m. heading southwest along the Columbia River and through the beautiful Columbia Gorge. We stopped at a small NFS campground called Herman Creek for a rest and a hike with Meghan. The trail headed abruptly up 800’ for a mile to the top edge of the gorge and teed in with the Pacific Crest Trail. It was a short hike but strenuous, very beautiful with a view of the river at the top. The north exposure of this slope rarely saw sun, hence lots of moss and ferns. We continued on, stopping at Troutdale to buy something at Camping World. Arrived in Albany about 4:00 p.m. and checked into the Blue Ox RV Park. This park had very nice facilities including good wifi, so we decided to stay here 2 nights.

8/7/07 Day 43 summer trip. Linda cleaned the trailer and did our laundry today. I talked to people and did lots of work on my laptop. The Carbonite internet backup software has now done 15GB out of the 21GB I have to do. The first 30 days are free, but will I get it backed up by then?

8/8/07 Day 44 summer trip. We got on the road at 9:00 a.m. driving south to Eugene and the west to Florence. The drive west through Siuslaw NF was very beautiful even though it was heavily logged/ clear cut here and there. We arrived at the Heceta Beach RV Park around 1:00 p.m. After getting set up we drove to Weber’s Seafood restaurant in Florence for lunch. I had large fried oysters’ yum yum. At the seafood market I bought some smoked albacore, fresh Dungeness crab, fresh Dove Sole, and some sour dough bread to help with my ongoing seafood diet while visiting this coast town. From our 5th wheel site we walked 2 blocks to the beautiful pristine Heceta Beach. The tide was out perhaps 200 yards. There was a stream coming in here with huge chunks of drift wood along it. The walking was easy unless you walked inland out of the 200 yard sand area, as the surface then changed to large sand dunes. Meghan was allowed off leash and had a great time running and digging in the loose sand. It was a bit cool and windy in low 60’s which was too cool for Linda, so we only walked a couple miles. We had fried fresh Dover sole for dinner, which was excellent.

8/9/07 Day 45 summer trip. The low was 58 F. last night. Expected high today will be in the low 70’s with broken clouds. This is very pleasant weather. We got up late about 9:00 a.m. I made a cheddar cheese omelet with fresh Dungeness crab, sour dough toast, strawberry preserves, and coffee for breakfast. I gave Meghan a bath while we both showered in the 5th wheel. We went to the Heceta lighthouse about 11 miles north of Heceta. They claim that it is the most photographed lighthouse in the world. It sure is beautiful. It’s a steep ½ mile walk up to see it. The view of the bay is outstanding. After an hour at the lighthouse we drove a couple miles north to Washburn State Park and did a 3 mile walk on its beautiful beach. Meghan was allowed off leash and had a wonderful rump on the sand and in the surf. I believe that the Oregon coast beaches are most expansive, pristine, and beautiful in the world. You can walk for miles on flat sand with an occasional stream coming in. Some areas have lots of interesting drift wood also. It was 2:00 pm. now and I was tired from walking on the sand so we came home and I napped for 2.5 hours. I got up and we drove to very scenic Old Town on the shores of the Siuslaw river outlet into the ocean in Florence and toured the shops. After a bit of shopping we had dinner at the upscale ICM seafood restaurant on silts over the river. The seafood was really fresh and very good. The ocean going fishing boats deliver seafood right to the restaurant’s back door. The restaurant gets their pick and the rest is shipped to San Francisco, so food here is 2-3 days fresher than what the San Francisco’s restaurants get. I had a seafood puff pastry pie and Linda had a seafood salad. We came home and watched BURN NOTICE on satellite TV.

8/10/07 Day 46 summer trip. I had to turn on the heater this morning as it dropped down to 45 F. last night brr brr. We drove to Sutton Recreation Area just 3 miles north of Heceta Beach. It is in Siuslaw NF. It had a nice campground, streams, lakes, trails, and beach access. We decided to drive to the beach access point and hike Alder trail along Alder Creek to the ocean. This trail along the creek was beautiful flowing through the wooded sand dunes. The water was fresh, crystal clear, and Meghan had a great time running around in the water and the sand. We walked south along the stream for two miles and never did find a trail to the beach so we turned back to the car. We were totally alone in wooded wild pristine dunes, a totally fantastic hike in such a beautiful environment. We were hungry when we got back to the truck so we headed for the ICM seafood restaurant. I had steamed clams and Linda had a large bowl of clam chowder which was to die for. Next we stopped at the Crab Kettle fish market to buy shrimp for tomorrow’s dinner with Paul Flashenberg. We then headed south to the Oregon Dunes Recreation Area. The first part was almost all sand with lots of ATV’s and trails. After about 4 miles into the dunes, they had some vegetation on them and ATV’s were not allowed in this area. We stopped at a turn out and walked about a ½ mile over very soft sand to the beach. Walking on this stuff is really hard work.

8/11/07 Day 47 summer trip. We drove south 13 miles south to Tahkenitch Campground where we met Paul Flashenberg at 12 noon. Paul, Linda, Meghan our Irish terrier, Jack a bearded collie, and I started on Tahkenitch 6.5 mile hike. The first ½ mile was in thick heavy boreal forest. Then we hit a mile of huge sand dunes, but fortunately it was mostly down hill. We then encountered a 1/2 mile of wooded dunes with easier walking. Next was a mile of beautiful sandy beach. Paul found the markers to leave the beach and we head back east through some uphill dunes to 3 mile lake. Meghan ran down the steep incline to the fresh water lake for a drink and decided to run the 200 yards back up to us. She started running real fast but after 100 yards her pace changed to a walk which was really funny. Unfortunately Jack and Meghan had a couple of dog encounters, the first one being about Jack getting water in front of Meghan. Mostly they got along well but we kept a watchful eye on them. The remainder of the hike was through thick boreal forest and had 640’ of uphill. I left my camera on a bench about 2 miles from the end, but when I discovered it, I was too tired to make the trek back up the hill to get it. Although I was dead tired the hike was probably in the top 10 most beautiful hikes I have been on and I enjoyed it allot. We finished the hike and we all returned to the 5th wheel. We made barbecued shrimp, fillet mignon, Swiss chard, and rice pilaf for dinner. Paul provided the Chardonnay and we had a very enjoyable dinner. I went to bed early about 9:00 p.m. very tired from the days activities.

8/12/07 Day 48 summer trip. I could ‘t sleep past 6:00 a.m. so I decided to get up and go back to the Tahkenitch trail and look for my camera. I walked 2 miles to the bench where I had remembered leaving the camera and found a note saying that it was found and would be left with the campground host. I returned the 2 miles to parking lot and to my pleasant surprise found that she had it. I returned to the trailer for a big breakfast and some rest. Around noon we decided to drive 20 miles north to Perpetua Visitor Center to do a 2 mile hike along a pretty stream to a giant 500 year old Spruce Tree. It was huge. We returned and had an early dinner at the ICM restaurant along Siuslaw River.

8/13/07 Day 49 summer trip. We got on 101 south about 9:00 a.m. This Oregon coast highway is sure beautiful. The sand dunes continued for about 80 miles along with heavy forest to the east, which was heavily logged and clear cut in some areas. At about 100 miles south we entered the very beautiful Cape Blanco SP. It had two camp grounds (one being a horse camp), several historic buildings, a light house and miles and miles of beautiful beach. I parked the 5th wheel on a cliff parking area with a view of the beach and light house. We opened up the slides and window shades, enjoyed the wonderful view, and cranked up the micro wave to heat left over Hawaiian pizza from two nights back. We then took Meghan off leash on a nice trail down to the beach. Much of the scenic coast line in this area has, what appear to be huge volcanic rocks sticking up out of the ocean. Meghan really enjoyed exploring all the strange rocks and crustaceans on the sandy beach. We left and continued down the coast to our destination at the Whale Head Resort RV Park just 4 miles north of Brooking. The city of Gold Beach 20 miles north which has the Rogue River flowing into the ocean is an impressive boating and fishing area. I bought fresh green ling cod to barbecue for dinner. It is actually light green in color but turns white when cooked. It was so fresh and sweet, what a treat yum yum. Our RV park is really lovely and well manicured in the tall trees. There is a tunnel under 101 to a SP beach. No WIFI or satellite TV, but there is 30 channels of cable TV with TNT to Linda’s delight.

8/14/07 Day 50 summer trip. Got up late and had breakfast. We drove across 101 to Whales Head SP this foggy morning to walk Meghan a couple miles on the beach. As usual Linda was wearing shoes that she did not want to get wet so we had problems crossing the small creek that was in our way heading south where the beach was open. We did about a 3 mile hike and then came home for lunch. I had a dozen fresh sautéed oysters which I had purchased in Gold Beach last night. They were outstanding and only cost $4.50. We then drove to Brookings 5 miles south to see the 6,500 population town. A river the Chetco meets the ocean here, but is not as scenic as the Gold Beach town to the north. We visited Azalea Park in town which was pretty but had virtually no azalea blooms this time of year. We then drove 8 miles east along the river to Loeb SP. The drive was not pretty because it was filled mostly with poor white trash double wide trailer parks. The park on the river was OK with a huge rocky and sandy beach being used by lots of kids. We started on the river trail but ran into two big mean looking dogs that seem to threaten Meghan so we left. We drove to Gold Beach to buy fudge and fresh fish. I bought Red Rock fish for dinner, shucked oysters for lunch tomorrow, wild frozen local salmon, and frozen Oregon halibut. I barbecued the Red Rock fish which was good but not as good as the green ling cod the night before.

8/15/07 Day 51 summer trip. It is another cloudy foggy morning which puts Linda in a bad mood. She doesn’t like the fog. I kind of like it for the cool temperatures it produces. Its really heavy and rolling around like billowing smoke. We decided to find a veterinarian to treat Meghan’s dermatitis on here belly and between her back legs. We drove to 30 miles to Crescent City California, but could find no vet who would treat her today. Finally after some research we finally found a very busy vet in Brookings, OR. He discussed Meghan’s situation with us and recommend only treating her with a $22 medicated soap twice a week and a standard human adult Benadryl tab if she started itching herself allot. He didn’t even charge us an office call. We stopped at Grocery Outlet for fresh spinach, cheese, and wine. This place had fantastic bargains. We stopped at Lone Ranch Wayside, a tide pool area on the beach on the way home give Meghan a 3 mile rump on the beach. We had flash frozen barbecued wild salmon, spinach, Chardonnay wine, and rice for dinner. The salmon was outstanding and I need to return the Fishman’s Direct market to buy some more for the road.

8/16/07 Day 52 summer trip. Got up late around 9:00 a.m. and cooked cheese omelets with English muffins and whipped fresh peach honey spread. My computer gets another infected file put into quarantine folder every day. I want to buy a back up fire wire portable hard drive ASAP before the computer self destructs totally. Perhaps Eureka will have a Costco or Best Buy where I can buy one. Linda is washing and shopping today as our next campsite in Humboldt SP has no hook ups or facilities available