Mud-on-the-tires Full-time RV Adventure: November 2017

Wednesday, November 29, 2017

OR -- Nehalem Bay State Park, 10-17 Nov 2017

One week at Nehalem Bay State Park…

Why we came…

To check out the quaint coastal towns and find some shrooms!

The campground…

Nehalem Bay State Park is big and quite nice. There are 265 sites with electric and water, 18 yurts, a horse camp area with 17 primitive sites, a hiker/biker camp, airport camp with primitive camp sites, and a meeting hall. During the busy summer season, it would be like a small town, but during our stay, it was a ghost town! There are also miles of trails, miles of beach, and a boat ramp. We especially like the two mile beach walk to cutesy Manzanita.

Our back-in site was paved, fairly long, and fairly level. Our site was also open which allowed the rare sun to bathe us in its welcomed warmth and light. We had water and electric. There is a dump station near the campground entrance. Satellite worked well from our site, but would be challenging in a few. We did not have wi-fi, but did have a reliable 3-4 bar LTE Verizon signal. There are also well maintained bathroom and shower facilities. We washed our clothes at a small and expensive laundromat just a mile from the state park entrance.

We really like Nehalem Bay State Park and would gladly return, especially during the off season.

Nehalem Bay State Park has 265 camp sites

Nice camp sites with lots of space. Just 15 of the 265 sites were occupied during the week!

Nearby towns…

Manzanita, population 598, and Nehalem, population 267, are just a couple of miles from the campground. Both are cute little coastal towns with a few touristy stores, a small selection of restaurants, and a couple of small grocery stores. We enjoy parking at one end of town and slowly walking through along each side of main street.

Cannon Beach, 15 miles north, Rockaway Beach, 13 miles south, and Garibaldi, 18 miles south, are a little bigger and offer a few more stores, restaurants, and services. They also have that quaint Oregon coastal town vibe that draws visitors.

Tillamook, population 4,942, is 27 miles to the south. It is the main service center in the area with a big Fred Meyers, a decent Safeway, a good selection of restaurants, the fun-to-visit Tillamook Cheese Factory, and a hospital.

Weather…

We know that fall weather in the Pacific Northwest can be yucky, but we always hope for the best. Plus, we figure that during a one week stay, at least one or two days will be nice. Things didn’t work out this time!

It rained every day. We got six inches, most of it being blown horizontally by 50-60mph winds. Thankfully we were camped in a good spot, blocked from most of the winds. We lost power three times for a total of 8-10 hours. Seas were reported up to 25 feet and two water spout warnings were issued! I attempted to watch the waves once but retreated after getting sand blasted. Sadly, the nasty weather kept us pinned in most of the week.

Adventures…

Exploring the state park…

During brief breaks from the drenching rain, we took walks around Nehalem Bay State Park, which has a variety of routes. We had the option of ambling around seven loops of campground sites. Or we could hike the two mile Spit Trail. Or we could walk the 2 mile bike trail around the airport runway (primitive fly-in-camp).

Surprisingly, we did not find any of the edible choice mushrooms we were looking for outside of the campground. Like most easily accessible places along the Oregon Coast, we found mushroom debris left by previous hunters. However, we found two or three Porcini (Boletus edulis) a day around the empty camp loops. It was just enough to fill an entire container during our week long stay.

Walk route around Nehalem Bay State Park / King bolete mushroom…a tasty treasure!

Looking south towards Cape Meares

Looking north towards Manzanita and Neahkahnie Mountain

Looking for mushrooms

We found a few nice king bolete mushrooms

Cape Meares…

Arleen and I started our afternoon by having lunch at Hidden Acres Greenhouse and Café. It was a perfect place for a unique sandwich and a cup of yummy soup.

Afterwards, we set out to Cape Meares Lighthouse. There are a few different routes to get there. We followed the Google suggestion by following Bayocean Road to the north which followed the Tillamook River. However, a part of the road washed out in a mudslide four years ago. Sigh…

We parked at the closed road sign near two other vehicles and hoofed it a few miles to the lighthouse. It gave us a mushroom hunting opportunity! We walked across buckled areas of road and saw other sections of the road that had slipped several yards down the hill.

We finally made it to the lighthouse. Because it’s perched on a 200 foot cliff, the petite 38 foot high lighthouse is adorable compared to other imposing beacons.

“Named after Captain John Meares who first charted it in 1788, Cape Meares was deemed an ideal site for a lighthouse. Easily seen from the sea, the outer point is below the fog line, making the light visible during conditions when it is most needed. The lighthouse served from 1890 until it was replaced be an automated beacon in 1963.”

“Nine lighthouses were built along the Oregon coast in the late 1800s. Each light had its own “signature to help mariners navigate. Lighting along the coast was designed to keep a ship within sight of a light at all times.”

Cape Meares is not just about the lighthouse. The area is also a wildlife refuge: “A small point of land important to people, plants, and wildlife.”

Next, we visited the Octopus Tree. “The forces that shaped this unique Sitka spruce have been debated for many years. Whether natural events or possibly Native Americans were the cause remain a mystery.

The tree measures more than 46 feet in circumference and has no central trunk. Instead, limbs extend horizontally from the base as much as 16 feet before turning upward. It is 105 feet tall and is estimated to be 250 to 300 years old.”

Finally, we were going to hike a trail where we had discovered our first chanterelle mushrooms six years ago. Arleen was so excited! She remembered the exact tree where she had found them.

However, glancing to the south, I saw a dark, menacing rain shower moving towards us. We quickly moved back to shelter just as chilly rain and gusty winds inundated the area.

Here, we stayed dry and learned from informative signs. We were surprised to learn that Brown Pelicans inhabit the area!

After the rain shower finally passed, we had to head back to the truck to beat the dark. The memory of those first chanterelles would not be repeated.

Hike route to Cape Meares

Cape Meares has nice trails and informative displays / The rocky islands attract seals, sea lions, and birds

The oddly shaped Octopus Tree is estimated to be 250-300 years old

Cape Meares lighthouse

Visit with Jim and Kay…

Arleen and Jim worked together at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Jim and his wife, Kay, always welcomed Arleen into their homes for the holidays when I was deployed. We will always be thankful to them for their friendship during those times.

Jim was shocked that we had been on the road for six years! We spent time expanding on our travel stories. Plus we both shared future adventure plans.

Jim and Kay have recently retired and are planning to build a new home in a few years, just like us. We spent a lot of time comparing notes and house plans.

It was good that we had a lot of jibber-jabbering to do because the weather outside was frightful. We drove to Cannon Beach for lunch. Arleen tried to pose for a picture on the beach for a friend. But it was impossible due to the winds blasting her with stinging sand.

The four of us shared a meal at the famous Mo’s in Cannon Beach. It was an ideal setting to watch the weather raging outside. Unbelievably, a dedicated (or crazy!) fisherman was trying his luck in the maelstrom.

We look forward to seeing Jim and Kay again. Hopefully, it will be in less than another six years!

We had a wonderful time catching up with Jim and Kay at Cannon Beach

Previous visit…

We spent a week here six years ago. The weather was more pleasant and we had more adventures. Here is the link to that blog: http://mud-on-the-tires.blogspot.com/2011/10/or-nehalem-state-park-10-17-oct-2011.html

Next…

We spent a week at Fort Stevens State Park near Astoria OR. Now we are in Tacoma WA visiting a bunch of friends. Then we’ll spend two months in Sequim WA and two months in Port Angeles WA. After winter on the Olympic Peninsula we will spend the summer in Alaska!

Parting shots…

We saw deer and elk in Nehalem Bay State Park / A crazy fisherman braving the nasty weather

View towards Manzanita and Nehalem Bay SP from the Neahkahnie Viewpoint along Hwy 101

(187,000)

Saturday, November 18, 2017

OR -- Yachats, 27 Oct–10 Nov 2017

Two weeks near Yachats, Oregon…

Why we came…

To explore the spectacular coast between Florence and Yachats!

We had a great drive along the central Oregon coast. Heceta Head lighthouse.

The campground…

Sea Perch RV Resort is top notch! It’s a small RV resort with a couple of cabin rentals backed up to the beach. The sites are big concrete level pads. There are full hook-ups on each side to allow trailers to back in or motorhomes to go in head first. Though there is no cell phone signal, they offered a courtesy phone. Wi-fi was usually decent but slowed to a crawl when too many data hogs choked the system. Cable TV was available and satellite reception would be good from all sites. There was a very nice club house with a full kitchen, laundry room, and exercise room. Everything was well maintained. Of course, the incredible location and excellent facilities came at a price…it was expensive!

Our site backed up to the beach. We continually looked for whales but didn’t see any. We enjoyed walking on the beach and flying our kite. The section of coast between roughly the Sea Lion Cave and Cape Perputua is some of the most rugged and beautiful anywhere!

The beach was in our back yard

This is one of the best locations we’ve camped!

Unless there were too many clouds, the sunsets were incredible

It was a fantastic place to fly our kite!

Nearby towns…

Yachats, population ~700 and elevation 45 feet, is seven miles north of the RV resort. It’s mainly a vacation and tourist town that offers a few decent restaurants and a small grocery store.

Florence, 25 miles south and Newport 24 miles north, are the nearest supply centers. They have a good selection of stores, restaurants, and services.

Adventures…

The beach in our back yard…

Searose Beach was literally 30 feet away from us! We only had to scamper down a 10 foot beach head and we had sand between our toes!

Searose beach is less than a mile long so walking to the headlands on the north side and Tenmile Creek on the south side was a nice mile and a half walk. We would walk it a few times a day, especially at sunset.

However, we did not walk out there when the tide was up. The combination of high tide and big swells made it too dangerous. The waves would grab large logs and toss them around like toothpicks.

A camp host told us that winter storms take the sand from the beach. It leaves so many rocks, that walking out there becomes difficult. It’s hard to imagine. But, during our time here, the beach became littered with more and more small rocks. Then, every spring the sand magically comes back.

The beach area was also a great place to fly our kite. It was the first time we had flown it in five years. The Oregon coast is just perfect for it!

Walk route on the beach by Sea Perch RV Resort / The patterns in the sand were always interesting

We walked the beach once or twice each day

Never turn your back to the ocean!

Cook’s Ridge and Gwynn Creek loop…

Cape Perpetua is one of the prettiest and most geographically diverse areas on the Oregon coast. It was the perfect place to have our first Yachats adventure.

“Cape Perpetua is a large forested headland projecting into the Pacific Ocean on the central Oregon Coast. The land is managed by the Forest Service as part of the Siuslaw National Forest.”

We parked at the Cape Perpetua visitor center. The trailhead was right there.

We started up the Cooks Ridge Trail which is an old logging trail. It was a steady 1,000 feet of climbing to the ridge.

At first we passed through huge Sitka Spruce and Western Hemlock. Further up, the forest changed over to huge Douglas fir that was evident by cones sporting little mouse tails everywhere.

More impressive were the gargantuan cedar stumps. We would have liked to seen them before the logger’s saw brought them down.

The understory was thick and comprised of elderberry, wood fern, sword fern, evergreen huckleberry, and salal. We poked around a bit for mushrooms but did not see any of our target species.

It was a cloudy day and the early morning fog never lifted. Wisps of it moved through the forest giving it all a medieval, eerie feel.

Once across the ridge, we followed the Gwynn Creek Trail down to the Oregon Coast Trail. We walked quite a few miles on the 382-mile Coast Trail in this area.

Amazingly, on a Saturday we had the trail all to ourselves! We saw three mushroom hunters but they were off trail. We ended up seeing a few mushrooms but left them alone.

Afterwards, we stopped by the Devil’s Churn to watch the chaotic surf play a game of spitball with the fountains.

Cook’s Ridge to Gwynn Creek loop hike / Impressive old cedar stump

The walk along the ridge in the patchy fog and old trees was amazing

A big raptor looking for a snack / The Spouting Horn sprays water a hundred feet high

The Big Spruce, Cook’s Chasm, the Devils Churn, and Cape Perpetua…

We set out to combine three of Cape Perpetua’s shorter hikes into one grand photography day.

Once again, we parked at the Cape Perpetua Visitor Center.

First, we hiked the Giant Spruce Trail. The goal was to see one of the largest Sitka Spruce in Oregon.

The trail meandered next to Cape Creek across from the Forest Service campground. As we hiked, we noticed several very large spruce.

The combination of the location on the coastline and the creek is a perfect environment for growing BIG trees. But these trees were youngsters compared to the tree at the end of the trail.

The 500-year-old Giant Sitka Spruce was impressive with branches as thick as the trees in the area. When we think about it in terms of American history, he was a sapling when Columbus was trying to find the new world!

The Silent Sentinel of the Siuslaw is more than 185 feet high, and has a 40-foot circumference at its base. “It was even taller until the Columbus Day storm of 1962, when winds in excess of 160 mph blew off the uppermost 35 feet of the tree.”

The Oregon coastline is a combination of sandy beaches and black, basalt shorelines that form “abrupt barriers that cause the surf to continuously explode in dramatic fashion. Funky formations allow watery pyrotechnics. High, soaring cliffs take us up above it all.

All this came about because of one kind of massive lava flow or another, sometimes underwater and sometimes from a towering volcano.”

We wanted to see some of these watery fireworks! So, we made our way to the Devil’s Churn.

“The chasm likely started as a narrow fracture or collapsed lava tube in the volcanic bedrock. Over many thousands of years under the constant pounding force of the ocean waves it's now more than 80 feet wide where it opens at the ocean.”

“The long crack in the coastal rock fills with each ocean wave, occasionally exploding as incoming and outgoing waves collide.”

“How spectacular the sights are is a function of the height of the high tide and the direction and size of the swells. The wind can also be a factor.”

Around the corner, we made our way down to a small beach that is located near some of the basalt formations. We made a note to return at low tide someday since it is an ideal spot to see tidal pool life.

Our last point of the triangle that day was Cook’s Chasm. “The Spouting Horn at Cook's Chasm and Thor's Well on the plateau nearby are both salt water fountains driven by the power of the ocean tide.”

It was calm today compared to the other day we had been there. It was entertaining to watch people on the rocks. A few of them stood right over a spout and jumped back as it spit in their face!

We went back a few times to observe the Chasm and the Churn.

On another clear day we drove to the West Shelter observation point that sits 750 feet above the coast. We took the Whispering Spruce Trail to the historic rock viewing shelter that was built in 1934 by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC).

“In 1933, a CCC camp was built at the foot of the cape just north of Cape Creek. The CCC constructed the Cape Perpetua campground, a network of trails, and the West Shelter observation point near the top of the cape. During World War II, the West Shelter observation point was used as a coastal watch station, and a large coastal defense gun was temporarily installed.”

From the observation point, we could see the Chasm and the Churn doing their thing to the south and we could see the town of Yachats hundreds of below us to the north.

Hike route to the Big Spruce, Cook’s Chasm, and Devils Churn / The trail was cut through this spruce

Appreciating the 500 year old huge spruce tree

View along the Oregon Coast trail between Cook’s Chasm and Devils Churn

Waves act crazy in the Devils Churn

Impressive wave action

This one soaked me!

The Spouting Horn

Cape Perpetua provides one of the best views on the Oregon coast

Posing at Cape Perpetua

Hike in Washburne State Park…

We drove to Carl G. Washburne Memorial State Park without a particular plan in mind. We wanted to find some mushrooms by poking around in the shore pines in the area.

The first few areas we pushed our heads into were impenetrable with thick understory. Arleen suggested we cross the highway and walk around the campground.

We came to the Valley Trail sign. As we looked at the map, a plan formed. We could hike the Valley Trail, the Hobbit Trail and follow the beach back to Washburne Park. A perfect loop hike!

We had only walked the trails a few yards, when Arleen paused, pointed, and muttered, “yummy, yummy!” There, cleverly tucked under salal was a fat ole Porcini (Boletus edulis). It was one of the nicest ones we had found all year!

Now we got serious, finding side trails where we could poke around in the woods. Sadly, we found only one other small porcini (right on the trail) and just a few chanterelles.

The Hobbit trail was fun as it meandered from the highway down to the beach.

We had a nice walk back on Hobbit Beach. The tide was out so we were able to climb around on the basalt rocks. I was able to get some great pictures of the green anemones that make their home there.

Hike route in Washburne State Park / A king bolete found along the Oregon Coast Trail

We walked nearly two miles along the beach

Looked for whales but only saw colorful anemones

Heceta Head lighthouse round 1…

We started the day in the Big Creek Nature Conservancy area. The area is a secondary forest. We walked up an old logging road about a half mile and ducked into the woods when I spotted an orange, funnel-shaped mushroom.

Once up there, we were greeted by a big patch of beautiful golden Chanterelles (Cantharellus). After just a few hours in the woods we thought we were close to our Siuslaw Forest mushroom limit. We went back again a few days later and had similar success.

Since it was still early, we headed south on the highway to the Haceta Head Lighthouse.

The Haceta Head Lighthouse is probably one of the most photographed lighthouses in the country. We grabbed a picture of it with our little home when we were traveling north. However, we wanted to return for an up-close visit.

The lower Light Keeper’s Home is a bed and breakfast and is managed by the US Forest Service. They have informative signs that explain the hardships of living in the remote area and maintaining the lighthouse over a hundred years ago.

The working lighthouse is an Oregon State Park. It has stood in its location 205 feet above the ocean since 1894. “Its “first order” Fresnel lens, casts it’s beams some 21 miles out to sea. It is the brightest light on the Oregon coast.”

We parked up on the highway and walked down to the parking area where we had a great upward view of the Cape Creek Bridge. It is another Conde McCullough designed arch bridge. It was completed in 1932 and immediately eased the lives of the light keepers and their families.

Unfortunately, the lighthouse programs are from only 11-14L during the winter. We arrived too late.

But we hiked up the trail to get an epic panoramic picture of the lighthouse.

As we were leaving the park, we found two fresh porcinis. That was the perfect ending to a nice day!

Walk route to Heceta Head lighthouse / 1895 picture of the lighthouse keepers’ quarters

Heceta Head lighthouse on a foggy day

What a spectacular place!

Heceta Head lighthouse round 2…

We returned for our second visit to the Haceta Head Lighthouse with the hope of getting a tour.

We parked at the Hobbit trailhead on the highway and it connected with Lighthouse trail a few yards into the woods.

The mile and a half trail undulated up and down and then climbed to a ridge all through a spruce forest with a few dramatic views of Hobbit Beach. Then it dropped back to the lighthouse. The trail down was muddy and slippery, but we stayed on our feet!

Velva, a State Park volunteer, greeted us outside and offered to give us a tour of the lower area in the lighthouse. Unfortunately, they don’t give tours up to see the lens anymore because of stability problems with the building, and wear and tear.

The light originally was controlled by a pulley system with a 200 pound weight. At first the light keeper had to wind it every 39 minutes. Then they took half the floors out which lengthened the fall of the weight and provided 4 hours of operation. Today the light is turned by a minimally powered generator.

We learned that the lighthouse service used to be a separate branch of the military. United States Lighthouse Service was active from 1910 to 1939 when its mission transferred to the US Coast Guard.

When we were hiking across the ridge we could hear the barking of the sea lions. We thought they might be hanging out on the rocks right there at the lighthouse but they were across the bay at the Sea Lion Caves. They are loud sea mammals!

We saw just a few chanterelles and lobsters on our hike back so we practiced “catch and release mushroom hunting”. Arleen has such a hard time doing that! We were hoping to find a few porcini. Maybe we’ll have better luck at Nehalem.

Hike route from the Hobbit trail to Heceta Head lighthouse / Hundreds of sea lions gathering near the cave

We love these deep dark forests and so do our mushrooms

Great views through the trees / Tour of the Heceta Head lighthouse / The stairs in the lighthouse

Mushroom hunting…

We looked forward to shroom hunting in the Yachats area. Between Siuslaw National Forest and Washburne State Park, there is a bunch of public land with good access. The area is also sparsely populated and rugged so we had high hopes to find a few honey holes. We still had a few empty containers to fill!

Like most areas along the Oregon coast, there was evidence of previous mushroom hunters nearly everywhere. Most of the time we felt like we were getting the scraps that others had missed. Thankfully we did find a couple of special spots, especially for chanterelles. Not only did we eat a bunch of fresh mushrooms, but we also filled a couple more containers. We also enjoyed seeing the incredible variety, including some that we’d never found before. It’s hard to beat the Oregon coast in the fall if you’re a fungifile!