Clear Lake, California

When we pulled out of Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast, we headed up Highway 20 back to the 101. It's a little better road than Highway 1 coming down from Leggett. They offer many pullouts for larger vehicles and I used several. Local custom seems to be to honk and wave in appreciation when someone pulls out and allows smaller faster vehicles to pass. We stopped at Clear Lake State Park for two days. The park was virtually closed, only a handful of other camps were occupied during our stay. The only loop that was open wasn't the best for a 5th wheel ... The best site we could find was so far off the level that I could walk under the nose of the 5th wheel after we jacked it up close to level. We moved carefully in the trailer while in the nose, especially. I had visions of it sliding forward during the night while we slept ... We managed a day trip from here to Harbin Hot Springs. The water is great! The people were really weird! Way too many rules about silent pools and quiet pools. I would never have imagined that people soaking in such great hot water could be so up tight. A church runs the place. I think this is their version of enlightenment, but I'm not buying it.

Mendocino Coast

When we left Arcata, we headed down the 101 through the Avenue of the Giants. Slow going through this section of old road, it’s narrow, they’ve got trees marked with reflectors so guys like me who tow big trailers through know what not to hit. We turned off the 101 onto the 1 at Leggett. Wow! This road climbs over the coastal range then drops like a rock (20% grades) onto the Mendocino Coast, which is a very rugged area. Much more like Oregon than the California coast we’d encounter further south.

We camped at MacKerricher State Park quite close to Laguna Point, which is a good seal watching area. They pulled a lot of lumber out of here in the early days, using a gravity fed rail road line to move the lumber from the hills above to the coast to be milled and shipped. What remains of a haul road into Fort Bragg to the south now functions as a good coastal bike trail.

We saw our first confirmed Great Egret and Joanie discovered that Green Sea Anemones look a lot like sand covered bumps on a rock when the tides out. She figures its part of their strategy to stay wet until the next tide. In Fort Bragg we visited the North Coast Brewery. This brewery crafts the best group of beers of the four breweries that I sampled on the 450 mile stretch of the coast from Newport Oregon to Ukiah California.

The first winter storm of the year is brewing in the Pacific when we leave MacKerricher. The sky is clear, sun is shining through the trees when we leave camp. Without a radio we'd never know the storm is coming. We do know, though, that this coast is not the place we want to be when one of these storms hit. We pack it up and head for Clear Lake.

Arcata/Eureka California

In Arcata we met up with Joanie's parents, Charlie and Shirley Keller. They were in Antioch visiting Joan's brother Brian. We really enjoyed seeing them and touring the Arcata/Eureka area with them.

We enjoyed breakfast together at the Samoa Cookhouse, a menu-less all you can eat restaurant that once served the area's lumber mill workers. Great food.

Arcata and Eureka had a liberal spin to them both - about the only place I've ever been that felt more liberal than Boulder Colorado. This mural, reminiscent of Diego Rivera's work is just one example. Sure is pretty, though! ... I had a cup of coffee at Cafe Mokka downtown Arcata while I had the oil changed. They serve great coffee and rent hot tubs and saunas by the hour. I'll wager I was driving the only Dodge diesel with a McCain-Palin bumper sticker on the rear bumper in the whole town.

The Carson mansion on the Eureka waterfront stands as a prime example of Victorian architecture.

Can you guess what these folks are dressed up as? I sure couldn't. On the last Saturday of October before Halloween, downtown Eureka hosts treat-or-treat for all comers. These folks were sushi.

Jedediah Smith State Park, California

On the way down from Bullard's Beach to Jed Smith we picked up our first (and only to date) hitch hiker. Cammie was a woman in her early fifties. Travelling light. She wanted a ride to Brookings Oregon that day. Since we were going that far and further, we offered her a ride. She hitch hikes up the coast in early summer, then goes down to the Mendocino Coast in the fall, finally wintering around Monterrey. She sleeps in churches along the way, telling us she feels rich, though she has very, very little. She used to travel with a guitar. "They" stole it. Then a fiddle. They stole it. Same thing with a camera. Cammie told us she'd like to live up around Yachats Oregon, but there are a lot of people around there that grow pot in the forest. They seem to have a way of showing up at your camp unannounced. She finds the tall forest on the Smith River where we're headed to be spooky. We drop her off in the rain on the south end of Brookings near the church where she'll sleep for the night. Jed Smith marks the start of the truly big trees. In the campground we find the largest redwood tree in the grove, the Grand Mother of those that surround it. Twenty feet from it is a circular raised stone fire place.

Redwoods are not the only large tree in this forest. Believe it or not, the Douglas Fir grows thick and tall here, too. Their needles are so far up the tree, it's hard to tell what you're looking at. One tip off is that Douglas Firs seem to have more moss growing on them, as does this one in our camp. Bark and the needles and cones beneath the tree assist in identification, too.

More fungus!

We didn't run the generator the entire time we were in Oregon. All the state parks had electric hookups. In California, things change. The state parks no longer offer hookups of any kind - water or electric. California park employees tell us that's because Oregon parks are financed from their gasoline tax and user fees, while California relies primarily on user fees. Even so, California charges more for less.

The road in the Jed Smith campground wasn't much wider than a good bike path ... Made for fun pulling the trailer in and out between the trees.

Shore Acres (near Coos Bay)

The gardens at Shore Acres were originally part of a lumber baron's estate. Eventually they came to be owned and preserved by the state of Oregon. You'll find them on the coast south and west of Coos Bay. Why is Joanie smiling in this picture? It's late October and she sees acres of gardens planted in flowers, part of a grand design that blooms year round.

Bullard's Beach

Evergreen Huckleberry bushes surrounded our camp on Bullard Beach. Joan felt industrious one morning. She gathered a full bowl, cleaned them all, and baked an even dozen Huckleberry tarts. Served warm with whipped cream and coffee. They were the best!

Bullard's Beach at Bandon

Oregon grows all sorts of mushrooms. This one in particular caught Joanie's attention. It's the Amanita muscaria, commonly known as the fly agaric. Poisonous, yes, as well as psychotropic. One of those double edged swords! How did the ancient peoples figure out how to use these things in shamanic ritual? Eat these mushrooms and you'll get very, very sick. Hallucinations may follow. No thanks!


The coast features several rocky areas where spouts have been carved. They're just as regular as those Yellowstone geysers.

The Coquille River light house at Bandon was the final one that we visited. It has a 4th order lens (much smaller than the other two), since it's job was to guide ships into the river channel, not to assist ships far at sea.

The jetty at the light house extends quite a ways into the ocean. At the far end the final piece has separated from the rest and now slopes into the sea. Joanie wanted a picture of her on the jetty, so I waited until I saw a good sized wave coming. Spooked her a bit!

South Beach

The Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport is well worth the visit. They host stunning exhibits of diverse marine life. I particularly enjoyed walking in a glass tunnel under the water through a tanked filled with leopard sharks. When we finished the aquarium, we had lunch in the Rogue cafe and then toured the brewery. By the time we finally turned off the coast in California I'd sample the beers of four coastal breweries. More on this later.

South Beach at Newport Oregon

South Beach is the site of the annual LongBoard Classic hosted by Rogue Brewery. Their major (only?) brewing facility is located on the water in Newport. Unfortunately, we were one month late for the event. On the bright side, the brewery does offer tours ... I sampled several great beers in the tasting room, but I was disappointed when time came to buy - though they bottle at least one dozen different beers, several of my favorites were not bottled. And a growler just doesn't make sense in the small confines of the trailer! The October moon was full on the 14th. That night was clear. We enjoyed a great fire, then walked part of the jungle trail out back of our camp. This trail passes through rhodedendron bushes (trees?) at least 15 feet tall. We walked it in silver moonlight. It was here in South Beach that Joanie cooked us a gourmet feast - chanterell mushrooms, shallots, garlic, crab, mmmmmmm. All local produce.






The light house on Yaquina Head is quite a bit taller than the one on Cape Mears. It has a first order Fresnel lens just like Cape Mears, but there's no red in the lens. Instead, it's pattern is recognized by a series of on and off sweeps.

The lamp is no longer kerosene, of course. They've upgraded to a 1000 watt electric bulb. Costs about 35 cents per day to run, given it's on-off pattern. It's a long way up and down a spiral stair case in this lighthouse!

I came across this Smart Car in a parking lot in Newport. Temping to just pick it up and throw in the back of the truck. I wonder if these are the cars that Obama is promising to give us all? Just fooling - this one is gasoline powered, gets about 33 mpg and costs about $12,000. Mercedes imported about 25,000 this year.

Nehalem Bay, Oregon

We did have some great weather coming down the coast, it wasn't all rainy. Pacific City has a great beach with large rock monoliths just off shore. They allow folks to drive on this beach. I passed. We watched one fellow who did drive onto the beach to haul out his boat. He winched it onto the trailer just fine. Unfortunately the wet sand was a little soft. The more boat he got on the trailer, the deeper his trailer wheels sunk into the sand. They quit sinking when the weight of the axle held them up. It was amusing to watch him try to pull it out with his Ford Explorer. It didn't even budge. I figure next time he'll put some planks under his trailer tires!

The Oregon Coast has an array of light houses that, at one time, cast an overlapping arc of coverage out to sea for up to 21 miles. At Cape Mears we began our lighthouse tours. Most were constructed more than 100 years ago using concentrating lenses made in France, shipped to the US and assembled on site. Cape Mears has a unique red and white lens. It's short since the head it sits on is already quite high above the sea.

Tillamook is cheese country! We did get some great local foods down this section of the coast, including some garlic spiced bree.

What does a mascot look like for a high school football team named the "Cheesemakers"? Any ideas?

Nehalem Bay, Oregon

We spent a few days in Mountain Dale (outside North Plains, OR) waiting for our absentee ballots to catch up with us, soaked in wonderful hot tub, got groceries and did the laundry. This was last time our bath towels would be dry until we fell out the bottom of the Oregon coast into Arcata, CA. Making the turn off the paved road onto the black gravel road leading to Mountain Dale, I lost traction. The turn is sharp, it bends 180 degrees back to the right and ascends well over 10% grade. Recent rains made it all the more slippery. The trailer started to jackknife back into the truck as I attempted to back down. I had Joanie unhook the trailer brakes from the truck and managed to straighten it out. I was sweating that one. We came over the Coastal Range on Highway 26. A strong rain hit us at the crest. A friend of mine who has lived on the Oregon coast told me if you come after September bring your rain gear. With our expectations set, we were ready to enjoy 400 miles of awesome coast line.

Banana Slugs are not the only thing that grows large in all that rain on the coast. Joanie's standing at the base of a huge Sitka Spruce. Until wind storms last year it was the tallest known spruce of it's kind.

Here's a view of the coast on the first day we hit it. Typical of this time of year. Rocky headlands combine with sand and cobble stone beaches.

It wasn't always cloudy! We did get great beach sunsets. When we hit Nehalem Bay, the moon was nearly full. Kids from Idaho in wet suits were trying their luck on short boards in the surf. By the look of the license plates in camp, locals outnumber tourists by a great amount. These Oregonians sure know how to have fun! Clamming, crabbing, cooking 'em up in propane powered pots right where they pull their boats out of the water. Young girls prance out into the waves, then run back onto shore and turn cartwheels. At sunset as the tide builds, the waves stair step up to the horizon. Last night it rained hard. Tonight I see the moon and the summer cross overhead.