That gave us three days to make the short move... even I should be able to do that... right?
Running from Three Rivers Casino toward Tillamook we decided we'd overnight at the Beverly Beach State Park just below Depoe Bay. That lil' spot is billed as the worlds smallest harbor.
While I can't vouch for that... I can say that it's the lil' hole you have to float a boat through, with heavy surf surging all over the rocks around you... that would get my attention long before the size of the harbor you'd be in once you made it through!
Looked to me that the thing was only maybe three times as wide as the boats moored at the docks! I'll stick to nice safe Motorcycles. :)
Beverly Beach was nice enough and combined with a "Feeling Puny" episode of mine, we elected to extended our overnight and make it a two night stop. I'm telling you, Oregon's gift of ten days a month is spoiling this old boondocker! :)
I've been taking advantage of those sizzling hot showers too... Soaking under that hot stream is a joyous luxury for folks that have learned to stretch 50 gallons out for most of a week!
The camp is pretty darn big,. From our spot it was most of a 1/2 mile stroll down through the park to the beach itself. The camp road takes you down through the heavy forest to a trail that leads under this bridge on Hwy 101.
Yup... hot showers, Beautiful beaches and easy strolls through shady forest... It's a hard thing to live this rough.
The wind had come up strong when we walked down to the beach. A pretty standard pattern around here. If you want calm, get up early and do your walking as soon after sunrise as you can get your coffee drunk.
I don't know which is the most popular name, I've heard it called para surfing and kite surfing... but there were three or four guys doing whatever you call it when we came out from under the bridge...
Looked to me like a whole lot of work to get wet... I believe I'll just stick to finely brewed beer and wet myself from the inside out! ;)
The next day we continued our slow march up the coast, wiggled past the lil' sitchy-a-shun with the truck and landed at the Tillamook Airport RV Park... a big fancy name for a spot that is currently home to just me and a van camper with his pup.
It's more than us cheapskates have grown used to paying... but with decent signal here, and dang close to town... it'll work out real well for me to get some work done for the two weeks I'm bachin' it... I only have to find a way to sweet talk 'em into letting me stretch their 14 day limit a couple of days.
As you can see, it's terrible crowded ;) If they prove inflexible with the rules, I'll have to move a day or so before her return...
On the way to the Portland airport yesterday we made a stop at the Tillamook Forest Center. Back in the 30's they had a series of devastating fires run through this whole region. The upstart was that I guess all the homesteaders and even lumber companies abandoned their holdings because of the devastation and poor lumber prices.
The counties in the area got with the state and apparently some sort of a deal was worked out where the state would take over management of the land and pay to rehab the land with I forget how many million seedling trees; and then eventually share a portion of the lumber sales revenues with the counties to replace the lost "tax base".
Bottom line is, they're managing a healthy state forest... instead of being obstructed by the "greens" that prohibit proper management everywhere else...
Yup... they have a relatively healthy forest... and active logging going on in it to PROPERLY manage that forest. Curious, that a state can operate and not be stopped by the litigation of the misguided "greens" and have a healthy forest... but the Feds... possessing FAR MORE power... claim to be helpless in the face of the sierra club and their cronies... curious...
The displays in the forest center run down the aftermath of the fires and how they brought the land back to the health it sees today. It's really an interesting place and tickles the imagination of what can be achieved if you get the feds out of the way.
Moving on out of that forest and down into the country south of Portland we ran smack into URBAN CULTURE SHOCK! Whooooooeee! For a guy that's not been in any real Metropolis for better than a few months... the bumper to belly... stop and go for the last fifteen miles or so, getting to the airport... in the middle of the afternoon was not totally unexpected... but sure started a lot farther out than I contemplated.
We gained a view of Mt. Hood... nearly as soon as we broke out of the mountains. Having this to look at softens the fact that the picture was taken sitting in bumper to butt traffic... moving... three miles an hour. ;)
I guess they're working to loosen up the traffic... though I didn't see a whole lot of movement around this bridge under construction as we crawled across the river.
Ten years or so ago we attended a big Bead Show in the convention center. Those two big glass towers that you can see over this bit of traffic that was one of the Yellow sections between the Red sections of traffic notification on Heidi's GPS. I just let the clutch off... and if you look you can see the brake lights of the front cars. :)
Good thing when the map program said nearly two hours we allowed four... we made the 75+ miles in just over three! :) Oh yeah... Portland traffic is Sweet! :)
A bit of the Portland skyline... I cropped it down tight... or all it would be is CARS! Oh Lordy... then... when I dropped her at the Airport... and headed back out through the concrete maze... I made the mistake of actually following the GPS directions... and it Burped...
Directed me to take an exit from this road to that road and trapped me in a lane that took me off onto some lil side street. Well, twenty minutes later I FINALLY found my way back to the proper route an wiggled through traffic and back onto the open road leading into the mountains and back to the salvation of Tillamook!
Yeah... don't always trust GPS technology... get a lil' complacent and the suckers will ambush you! :)
The first day of bachin' it with the dogs I spent most of rebuilding another half dozen pages of the sites... and trying to capture photographs of a coupe WWII fighters flying around the museum...
The first one I think might be a P47 Thunderbolt but I could be wrong on that, something about the wing seems wrong... but the one below is unmistakeably a P51 Mustang. In its day maybe the finest Fighter airplane built.
The thing must be in pretty good shape... considering the pilot seemed to really enjoy getting it upside down a lot!
Early in the day I'd heard a plane taking off, the first of the day that I noticed. When I looked up from my work a Japanese Zero Fighter was zooming into the sky... but it sailed off so fast I couldn't scramble quick enough to capture it.
So with sunny skies keeping my batteries charged, plenty of coffee beans to keep me charged and plenty of work to keep me busy... the next couple of weeks should roll by with alarming speed!
Settled in Tillamook
Brian
8 comments:
I stayed at the same campground a few weeks back... spent my time trying to catch those cute little airplanes too. I have since heard that you can boondock at the air museum parking lot. I don't know if that's true or not... I'm not one for pavement parking but it might be worth checking out especially if you have to move. I found another spot at Sand Lake about 25 miles to the south East but I didn't have my MIFI so I couldn't check for internet. Good Luck!!
kbexplores; Mark and Bobbie boondocked in the Airport parking lot a couple years back. Sand Lake is an excellent FS camp! We stayed there one fall three years or so ago. Signal was weak to non-existent then... I'm getting better at not choosing camps based on that, but right now I'm so far behind on my work from doing that and allowing so many diversions I have to have a LIL discipline for a while and Work! :)
Hey, the air museum is worth seeing if you haven't been there before...seeing you like old planes and all. Try not to eat too much cheese in Tilly :)
I'll give you a call while Ms Heidi is gone so you won't get too lonesome :)
Box Canyon Mark
Ugh, traffic! Glad we live in the sticks when I see that stuff. I think that blue plane is a F4F Wildcat. Navy didn't use P-47 though they do have a similar profile.
Your comments about forest management struck a chord. Another blog recently spoke of global warming as being the cause of so many wild fires in recent years. Perhaps we should look at the mismanaged forests and all the accumulated fuel that is available to feed those fires. Logging companies are blocked at every turn by the greenies (as you say!!) preventing them from thinning out and cleaning up some of that tinder dry wood. This is a simplification of course but it is a big factor in forest management. Thanks for acknowledging the sustainable practices in Tillamook.
Mark; No room for cheese, not when there's Tillamook Ice cream to be had! :)
Flyfishnevada; The F4f Wildcat is it! the corsair had the gull wing style... I finally thought of googling an image... as soon as I published the thunderbolt idea it seemed wrong ;)
DonnaK; the forests are overgrown by a ratio of approximately 7-8X the 400 year population average. Fires were deliberately excluded for 100+years. The forests are all senile and badly overgrown due entirely to the litigation obstructing proper management and healthy, sustained logging.
You have two choices. 1. Log properly to replace fire and other natural affects. or ...
2. or Let it burn.
If you choose #1 and do it properly you eliminate most of the problems of fire.
If you choose to not log but don't want to Burn the forest you are going to be frustrated. Because it will burn ferociously as they are. If not logged you are CHOOSING to Burn it and burn it DISASTROUSLY.
Those responsible for the disastrous fires are the Sierra Club and their compatriots supported by congressional collusion.
7-8X the NORMAL tree population CAN NOT survive on the same water and nutrients that ONE tree used to... That's just plain Stupidity. And I have yet to be convinced that a planetary rise of less than two degrees average over the last 100 years is even measurable let alone some sort of catastrophe... Especially since science also AGREES that the earth is NOT YET as warm as it has been several times in the past 10,000 years. The problem is the Doctorate of Disney degrees that those in control of our forest management are working with.
The real consequence is they are past saving. The forests across the west are GOING TO BURN. There is no stopping it. they are diseased, mostly dead or dying... and the only healing will be by cauterizing the sick mountains with fire. THEN, if we can keep the Sierra Club and the malignant feds out... and follow Oregon's lead, we can return the land to health.
There is NO appreciable Drought. IF... there was ONE tree where there are now 7... that tree would have more than enough for full and healthy growth. There would be sun and space for healthy undergrowth that would support something for their damned wolves to eat to boot. ~ end of Tirade! :)
Tillamook was especially notorious, when I was there, for its "dairy air" fertilizers from the cattle.
Barney; Yup, there's a pungent aroma 'round here at times! But uh, for a guy like me, that comes from cattle and the ranches... That's the scent of MONEY! :) I forget that town folk sometimes find it a bit too "western" for 'em!
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