New Melones Lake in the Drought of 2015

My travel on September 23, 2015, seemed to also be focused on visiting drought-stricken reservoirs, although not so intentionally. On the holy day of atonement for Jewish people called Yom Kippur, my family has carried on a tradition of spending the day out in the solitude of nature rather than with other people, food, and stressful distractions, because it is a day of fasting and quiet reflection. It also, for me, leads to a more spiritual connection with God through nature. However, choosing a location that is less than a day's drive, beautiful, not crowded, not strenuous to get to, and that has a nice place to sit in the shade most of the day with some hiking opportunities can be a challenge. I also seem to gravitate towards a place with water when I take the initiative on deciding where to go.

That year, I chose New Melones Lake because I had seen it from the air during a flight over the delta and other parts of central California. My colleagues on that flight wanted to see New Melones from the air to get a good picture of how low the water in the reservoir actually was. The scenery was pretty spectacular because of the way New Melones spreads and fingers out amongst and between the rolling green and brown hills. I though if it was this pretty from the air, it would be a cool place to go to on land. New Melones Lake is on the Stanislaus River in the central "gold country" foothills of the Sierra Nevada range in the counties of Calaveras and Tuolumne. It is about a three-hour drive south of the Sacramento area, off of State Highway 49, between the towns of Angels Camp and Sonora. It is not only scenic, but a lake enjoyed by many for recreation and water sports such as boating, fishing, water skiing, and camping. It is also very large, with 100 miles of shoreline and an area of about 12,500 acres. We found our ideal spot in the Tuttletown Recreation Area, with shady oaks, picnic tables, and trails that wound down towards the lake.

Oak woodland at the Tuttletown Recreation Area

After many hours of peaceful and lazy reflection on the past year with thoughts of how I may do better in the year to come, we decided to drive around and explore a bit. We drove out to the southern tip of the Glory Hole Recreation Area. What was utterly shocking was how far out we walked into what is usually deeply underwater. While theming on how this historic drought was affecting the state of California, I'd be remiss to mention how walking into the middle of a giant reservoir is likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The scenery was also uniquely fascinating--steep, striated slopes of the basin, now shades of green and brown soils, jetting high above the water line and telling the story of where different water levels over time reached the shorelines. Similar to how it felt at Folsom Lake a week before, it was an eery kind of fascination.

Towards late afternoon and getting very hungry, it was time to wind our way back out to Highway 49 and head north to break our fast in the town of Angels Camp. I think we chose the Angels Creek Cafe to fill our empty tummies, then headed back towards the greater Sacramento area. The skies were filled with a spectacular red sunset. The beauty of the sunset was unfortunately enhanced by the smoke from the wildfires that were raging in north central California, likely accelerated by the drought. It was another delicate balance between feeling the somberness of a state of disaster while at the same time enjoying the scenically unique sights that otherwise would not be experienced. It is one of those emotionally ambivalent dilemmas often encountered in life.

Adventures on the Pioneer Express Trail

On January 14, 2007, a random ride through the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada range led my brother, husband, and me to a segment of the Pioneer Express Trail at the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area in Placer County.  The Pioneer Express Trail starts in the City of Auburn and follows  the American River south to Folsom Lake. It follows the western shore of Folsom Lake until it meets up with the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail at Beal's Point just before Folsom Dam, pretty much covering the north to south span of the Folsom Lake SRA. We then hatched the idea of hiking long-mileage trails a segment at a time with a dream of hiking American River trails from the foothill town of Cool to Discovery Park in Sacramento.

A few months later, on March 24, 2007, we set our ambition way too high. We decided to not only take the 14-mile Pioneer Express trail from beginning to end, but to actually hike the 24 or so miles along the American River and Folsom Lake from Auburn to Negro Bar in the city of Folsom in one day. It was a lesson in being unrealistic, very bad planning, and making bad decisions--the kind of decisions where the phrase "what were we thinking" frequently comes to mind. Lesson 1 - know the terrain. We mistakenly thought the trail would be mostly flat; however, there were a lot of uphill-downhill runs (after all, it is in the foothills). We also mistakenly thought we had some level of supreme fitness, when indeed we were not physically equipped to take on such a trek. Our sense of timing was way off. We actually started late morning, not having a clue how many hours we would need to get to the parked car on the Folsom end of the hike. Lesson 2 - long hikes need good boots. I had on a pair of army boots that were not the right fit and they destroyed my feet. Lastly, and most comically, learn to read the legends on trail maps. We failed to pack an adequate supply of food because the "g" on the map for "gravel pit" was mistaken for "grocery". Envisioning some sort of mythical food vendor on a beach, I failed to realize that this section of trail is very remote and there are no services to be found, even on the roads that parallel the park. So three of us wound up subsisting all day on a strenuous hike on one Clif bar.

It wasn't all horrible, especially in the beginning. The scenery is astounding--starting with beautiful riparian ecosystems and river views, sand bars, small beaches, and eventually moving into rolling hills with oak woodland and grasslands that open up the view of the reservoir as the river widens. I only made it about 10 miles in before my feet were so blistery sore, I had to take off the army boots and hike in my socks. When my bleeding sores started to mix with mud, dirt, and horse manure, I called it quits. I suggested my husband and I hike out of the recreation area to the road and try to find a phone. My brother remained foolishly over ambitious and thought he would make it to the car in Folsom so he could come get us. By this time, it was already starting to get dark. Once we reached a rather ritzy neighborhood off Auburn-Folsom Road, we noticed helicopter police with a spotlight hovering about. I started to get nervous about a criminal on the loose. In reality, some resident saw and heard us talking and thought I was a little boy being kidnapped by my husband, so they called the police. The helicopter cop was after us. Eventually, a patrol car found us. I told the police my brother was caught in the dark on the trail, to please go rescue him. He had made it as far as the populated part of Granite Bay; so luckily, he was found. We were driven to our starting point in Auburn where we left the first car and eventually made it home so I could try to clean and nurse the wounded feet and get something to eat.

On September 20, 2015, my brother and I decided to revisit the trail and take that final stretch from Granite Bay to Negro Bar. This time, we were much more sensible about the distance, the level of difficulty, the need to actually pack a picnic lunch, and wearing the right clothes and shoes. It was a mid-morning to midday hike that included a bit of meandering off the trail and needlessly expending energy I didn't have lung power for on a steeply sloped detour. The scenery was strikingly different and alarmingly depressing. It was in the midst of the hottest, driest season of this area's frightening drought of 2015. Water levels in Folsom Lake were so low, people discovered the ruins of a historic gold rush town that had been inundated.

Folsom Lake during the drought of September 2015

Boat launches and life guard stands sat in lakes of sand, and shades of brown, tan, and mossy greens extended across the dry lakebed over large distances before actual water could be seen. White sands with concentric lines appeared on the slopes where the lake had previously reached the shore. It was fascinating from an aesthetic perspective but also eerily sobering, reminding us of how fragile we are in a changing environment. Folsom Lake supplies much of the greater Sacramento area water supply. The implications for people and nature alike were daunting. Even though we have since recovered from that drought, water conservation in the western USA is still extremely important. It was all I could think of while I was on that trail. This time, we met our destination. We picked up the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, walked along Folsom Dam, and eventually made it to Negro Bar. Although the day will likely never come for us to hike from Cool to Discovery Park, we still enjoy the memories of our adventures on the Pioneer Express Trail.

Negro Bar on the American River, Folsom, CA

Tidal Wetland Restoration at Cullinan Ranch and Sears Point - San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Restoration at Sears Point near Petaluma, California

Tidal wetlands are a hot topic in restoration ecology. Since it was related to my work in 2015, I attended a field training in August to two exemplary sites in the North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. These two sites, Cullinan Ranch and Sears Point, were at various stages of restoration. They are located on California Highway 37, a scenic route through protected bay and marsh lands that connects the City of Vallejo in Solano County with the City of Novato in Marin County. Both sites are within the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge, a huge federally protected complex that spans most of the northern shore of San Pablo Bay and its estuaries.

Tidal wetland restoration occurs where previously diked, bermed, or leveed tidal flows are brought back to their natural state. Generally, these tidal flows were blocked to protect agricultural lands, ranches, or other property from flooding. With such practice, valuable habitat for many fish and wildlife species is lost. When the berms, levees, or dikes are breached, natural tidal flow returns between the ocean, bay, sloughs, and rivers. Aquatic, mudflat, marsh, and upland habitats gradually return to the birds, fish, plants, and other life that once depended on them. With some additional help from restoration professionals and volunteers planting marsh and upland vegetation, biodiversity (different kinds of living organisms in an area) is restored, and natural ecosystem processes return. The effort is not always successful. Often, expected outcomes are not realized, and different approaches are needed. It can take many decades and many millions of dollars before the natural wetland ecosystem is fully restored.

Cullinan Ranch

Cullinan Ranch is just west of the Napa River and north of Highway 37. At Cullinan Ranch, restoration started in 2011 with a phased schedule through 2019. In 2015, we walked over land that would become inundated from breaching of levees, connecting the Napa River estuary with the bay. By 2019, the end goal was to finish breaching the levees so the tidal flows would create marsh and aquatic habitats for fish and wildlife. When I went back out there in 2019 and took a look, I saw a lot of water. The levees may have already been breached.

August 2015: Looking towards Highway 37 from a northern levee

March 2019: Looking from Highway 37 to the north 

One phase of the project included developing a parking lot with safe access from the highway, interpretive signage, and a levee trail dividing the national wildlife refuge and the State of California's Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area Pond 1 unit. Public access at Pond 1 is available for people to enjoy walking through the tidal wetlands to view a variety of birds and other wildlife and for hunting and fishing. It includes a kayak launching dock and a viewing platform. In March 2019, tidal water inundated both sides of the trail. These tidal wetlands support many species of native fish and wildlife, including three-spined stickleback, tule perch, steelhead trout, California roach, Pacific herring, coast range sculpin, Pacific lamprey, and canvasback. They also provide habitat for threatened and endangered species such as Chinook salmon, Sacramento splittail, longfin smelt, salt marsh harvest mouse, and Ridgway's rail.

Cullinan Ranch trail, facing east, August 2015, during restoration

Same view from Cullinan Ranch trail in March 2019. Gulls are on the island and enjoy better fishing.

Sears Point

About four or five miles west of Cullinan Ranch is Sears Point, which starts at the intersection of State highways 37 and 121 and extends a good distance to the west. When people think of Sears Point, they probably think of the famous Sonoma Raceway where NASCAR and other competitions are held. What is less known is that Sears Point also has public access to the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge just opposite the Lakeville Highway.

Restoration of the Sonoma Baylands started as far back as 1995 to reconnect diked farmlands to the San Pablo Bay, and restored wetlands were incorporated into the national wildlife refuge. Partners included the Sonoma Land Trust, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, and others. In 2015, we saw Sears Point under construction, where the ground was was being contoured and filled with dredge to design and shape the landscape for marsh, slough, and upland habitats. The dredged material, essentially recycled from dredging projects in the San Francisco Bay, also raised the elevation in areas that had become subsided, meaning land that had sunk below sea level. Wetland vegetation was planted, and a levee was carefully built and sloped to protect the railroad and the highway while also providing upland habitat for marsh species. Today, the result is a naturally developing wetland ecosystem containing deep water, shallow water, mudflats, low marsh, high marsh, and higher elevation grasslands. Sears Point now has public trails, including the Sears Point trail, which is a portion of the San Francisco Bay Trail; a cellphone audio tour; and kayaking for outdoor enthusiasts.

Construction August 2015

Restored! March 2019

Cullinan Ranch is only accessible on the west-bound side of the highway. Sears Point is accessible when traveling from either direction. Driving both directions on Highway 37 is a worthy day trip if you're in the Bay Area. There are other access points for outdoor recreation, such as Skaggs Island and the Sonoma Creek Unit of the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Area. Skaggs Island even holds raptor tours in the winter. A couple notes of caution: Avoid commute hours during the week, as this highway can be very slow and crowded. In very wet winters, check for flooding, as the highway is sinking below sea level.

Boat ramp and viewing platform - Cullinan Ranch 

Agriculture and nature may continue to be in conflict for years to come, but at least this restoration story is a successful one. San Francisco has no shortage of food supply, and the northern San Pablo Bay has no shortage of beautiful tidal wetlands, fish, and wildlife for generations to enjoy.

Oregon Random Ride Finale: Darlingtonia to Ashland

July 12, 2015, was the last day of our random ride, cut short because of car trouble. We tried to figure out what had happened and replace the leaking fluids, but what to do was a mystery. We decided to rush back to the mechanics in Ashland, who had made repairs at the beginning of this trip, and have them check it out. But there was one more stop to make before leaving the coast and making a beeline to the east.

California pitcher plant

Just north of Florence, there is a little park a few miles off Highway 101 called the Darlingtonia State Natural Site. With my knowledge dating back to Little Shop of Horrors, venus fly traps in flower pots, and studying botany at Humboldt State University, I only recently discovered carnivorous plants are not only in the jungles of Borneo. Darlingtonia californica, the California pitcher plant or "cobra lily", is endemic to northern California and southern Oregon. Where there is cold water, seeps, or bogs, this beautiful-looking green predator may grow in large populations. They suck water up from their roots to fill leaves modified into pitchers, attracting unsuspecting insects with a sweet nectar. When the insects fall into the liquid, the plant dines on and digests the poor critters to make up for a lack of nitrogen in the soil. "It's supper time..." I first discovered these pitcher plants when camping in the Siskiyou range; however, the population by Florence is much larger.

We took Highway 126 along the Suislaw River to Interstate 5 and to Ashland, passing a wildlife refuge I would like to visit, and stopping for lunch at Ixtapa Family Mexican Restaurant in the town of Veneta, just west of Eugene. The truck seemed to do OK on the trip up I-5 to Ashland. We took a room at the Rodeway Inn and got dinner at the adjacent Wild Goose Cafe and Bar. Little did we know, it was open mic night. So we followed dinner with a few drinks and entertainment from Ashland's local singer-songwriters--from seasoned folk singers, to a clever cover of The Elements by Tom Lehrer, to a fledgling who had never played in front of people before.

The next day, we took the truck to the Shell station mechanics, and they again dropped us off at Lithia Park while they spent nearly the whole afternoon fixing her up. This time, we walked the trail a bit and had lunch at Umi Sushi and nice coffees from the Mix Bakeshop. And we saw a few more animals at the duck pond, including the western pond turtle, which is a native and critically sensitive species in Oregon and a species of special concern in California. They may be common in southern Oregon, but they are declining in other parts of their range. They are usually shy of people, but this turtle seemed well adjusted to our presence.

A western pond turtle makes his home in Lithia Park.

American robin with his catch of the day. Is that a fish?

This is a male cardinal meadowhawk (Sympetrum Illotum)--
a very pretty red dragonfly found in the western U.S.

Lithia Creek

When the car was finally ready, we headed back to California. Of course, no trip down Interstate 5 from Oregon is complete without getting the shot of Mt. Shasta. Not much snow, however. Tells the tale of the drought.

The trip ended meeting dad for dinner at Black Bear Diner in Paradise--home to my parents and nearly home for us. I was already planning the 2016 random ride, starting at the Darlingtonia reserve.

Oregon Coast: Umpqua River to Florence

Eel Lake,  William M. Tugman State Park

July 11, 2015. We started the morning at the scenic Eel Lake, where we had camped at Tugman State Park, and took a short walk down to the dock. enjoying the beautiful lake with emergent vegetation and surrounding forested hills. We then headed north to the Umpqua River lighthouse, which sits on the western edge of Umpqua Lighthouse State Park. Back in '05, we had visited this lighthouse and took the tour up the spiral stairs into the awesome red and white glass top housing the lens; this time, we enjoyed the lighthouse from outside of the closed gate. Across from the lighthouse, I took in the view of the mouth of the Umpqua River and its two jetties, where it meets the sea, across the very green Ziolkouski Beach Park. What I didn't see was another hidden lighthouse in the trees. Look even closer, and between the south jetties is the Umpqua Aquaculture triangle oyster farm. So when I pop the next luscious oyster in my mouth, I can imagine this is where it came from--which is better than the wild oysters being over-harvested and depleted while the dredging destroys the bottom of the sea. Thumbs up for aquaculture.

Ziolkouski Beach Park. Look to the right, just below the landward edge of the longer south levee for the hidden lighthouse. Zoom in to see the rows of suspended oysters on ropes in the triangle between the two south levees.

Instead of climbing the spiral stairs, we visited the museum and gift shop just up the street and spent a good amount of time learning about the history of this place and buying a few gifts. Just a bit off Highway 101, we did our random riding up Lighthouse Drive between Umpqua Lighthouse State Park and the Umpqua River. Lighthouse Drive ended on Salmon Harbor Drive, and we had a very windy, rainy picnic along a little inlet called Half Moon Bay, where people fished the Umpqua along the pier. Sandwiched between Highway 101 and the sea, the only place to wind up was back at at the highway at Winchester Bay. Our left turn continued north.

Umpqua River Light

Now, we were riding along the dunes. My brother recommended a dune buggy ride, so in the late afternoon, we stopped at Sand Dunes Frontier to experience the sand on wheels rather than on foot. It's a different world than hiking the wild places--it's where the federal government gave thousands of acres of what was once pristine natural dunes to a big human playground. My eco adult side felt guilty about supporting an industry of vehicles compacting the sand and damaging the natural dune ecosystem processes, while the little kid in me was having a blast of a good time. We had a crazy driver with a crazy MadMax-like rig for multiple passengers. The old buggy gave him a little trouble while he had us out on the sand, but he got it started again and gave us a ride for our money. The scenery was beautiful, and we were seeing parts of the Oregon Dunes NRA that we would not have been able to access on foot. And, of course, we hit the highest hills at top speed for that amusement park effect.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area with an ATV kicking up sand (upper left).

When that bout of fun was over, it was time to head up to Florence to settle in for the night. We found a room at the Le Chateau Inn, which seemed nice and reasonable, but we parked in the back next to a guy living out of his truck. When I went to move my truck, we discovered an unpleasant surprise of a puddle of leaked fluid. Car trouble. Again. Dinner, however, was on the agenda. We took the leaking truck down to the Port of Siuslaw along the Siuslaw River, and by recommendation, dined on pilings on the river at Mo's Restaurant--a trendy seafood place that had a cool atmosphere, lovely view, and delicious clam chowder. Back at the Chateau, we enjoyed a nice relaxing hot tub before settling in for the night. We saved worrying about the car trouble for the morning.

Oregon Coast: Coquille River to Tugman State Park

Cape Arago State Park

Coquille River Light

View of Coquille River jetties from Bullards Beach. The actual
functioning light is now on the south jetty.

July 10, 2015. The morning started with another visit to the Coquille Point unit of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge. We walked the interpretive trail and at the end of the point saw the Coquille River lighthouse to the north. Of course a visit to the lighthouse was on mom's agenda, and we were happy to indulge her. But we wondered if there was a shorter way over there from Bandon than going back to 101. Our wandering took us to a wharf on the south side of the Coquille River, between us and the lighthouse, just east of the south jetty where the Coquille meets the ocean. The Coquille is as wide as a bay here, so after a brief pit stop at the wharf--and me lecturing some tourists about feeding bread to wild gulls that a local bakery sold to them for that purpose--we left Bandon and returned to Highway 101. To get to the lighthouse that is just a bit more than 1,000 feet across the river from Bandon, we had to travel about 1/2 mile east out of Bandon, then about 2 miles north to cross the river, then meet up with Bullards Beach Road at Bullards Beach State Park, then travel

From the south side of the Coquille River

another 2 or 3 miles south again along the Coquille River to Bullards Beach and further south down the little peninsula to the lighthouse. However,  no one was in any big hurry and it's a beautiful ride. This is a rather small and cute looking lighthouse, restored in the 1970s. There were no tours, but we were able to go inside and do our donation-shopping at the gift shop.

Then we did a little exploring. First, my husband and I took a very nice and mellow trail east along the Coquille River. Then, my brother and I went the opposite direction--west out to nearly the seaward end of the north jetty, built by the Army Corps of Engineers to provide a safe entry to the Coquille River for ships to dock at the Port of Bandon. There were other people on the jetty, but the waves came up fairly high and were crashing against the rocks we were standing on. It seemed rather dangerous to me, so I suggested we turn back. It turns out my web search after the fact reveals that the jetties are not open to human recreation because of the hazardous conditions. In other words, we and a bunch of other fools were going where we weren't supposed to go.

Enough adventure for the morning, we drove back out through Bullards Beach State Park now thinking about lunch. I wanted to have a picnic at the park, but there were no other takers on that idea. Instead, we made a beeline several miles north to Coos Bay to eat at a Subway sandwich shop. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea of what we missed along the way. Our next destination was the Cape Arago lighthouse. I wanted to avoid the Coos "Bay Area" of Oregon and go back south to take Seven Devils Road. I liked the name of it--thinking there were perhaps seven devilish rock formations we would enjoy encountering.

Seven Devils Road to Point Arago State Park

We backtracked several miles to follow the sign to Seven Devils on West Beaverhill Road. Our first diversion was to turn left on East Humphrey's Road to Whiskey Run and found ourselves at Whiskey Run Beach. Whiskey Run is small and secluded--only ourselves and a couple of young partiers were there. We spent a little time enjoying the beach, then went back to Seven Devils Road and took it north to the Seven Devils State Recreation Site. The name of Seven Devils Road had nothing to do with rock formations out at sea. This wayside was a nice beach with a restroom and signs explaining the origin of the name--the seven dangers that early travelers encountered on the narrow, windy road that paralleled the Pacific. Some travelers settled at the wayside, and Oregon State Parks acquired the private property in the 1960s.

Seven Devil's Wayside. I could see settling here.

As we continued north towards Point Arago State Park, we encountered the South Slough Estuarine Research Reserve. This area covers the southern tidal marsh estuary connecting Coos Bay with freshwater streams to the east and south. It's a delta with forests and wetlands and a wealth of fish and wildlife for researchers, students, visitors, hikers, and birders to use and enjoy. It sounded like heaven to me, except the main trail was closed and would have been too lengthy to take in the amount of time we had. So I had to settle for the little nature trail around the closed interpretive center. It was a nice hike but not quite the wetland birder dream, so here's a place I need to try to get to again to explore more thoroughly. Mom wanted to see the Cape Arago light before it got dark, so we pushed on.

We came from the south to the Cape Arago State Park headlands, with beautiful ocean views and hiking trails down to the coves. On our way down to the cove, an enthusiastic hiker told us about whales that had been passing by; we tried to look out for these whales, but didn't see them. We did enjoy beautiful views of the coves before hiking back up and moving on. The Cape Arago light is on a peninsula that is private land, with no public access. The only view of the light is from an unmarked pullout on the west side of the Cape Arago Highway. The lighthouse isn't very near this spot, but it's a good view with a zoom lens. I discovered a little trail that went from the lookout along the highway and into the trees but didn't find a better viewpoint.

The inaccessible private bluff that holds the lighthouse

It was after this that going through the Coos Bay area was inevitable. We decided we didn't want to stay in a motel but would rather find a campground north of Coos Bay. Because we were now riding along the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, campgrounds we stopped at were filled up with people and their ATVs, trailers, and other dune-buggy toys. So we kept looking. Luckily, we were told about William M. Tugman State Park with a campground nestled on the east side of the highway at Eel Lake. There was a vacancy here and without the noisy dune recreationists. There was still wood available to build a fire, and we were able to enjoy a night of camping in a very nice scenic area.

Before moving onto the next chapter of this random ride, I'll leave you with a little video of Cape Arago.

Oregon coast: New River to Bandon

Common murres and gulls on top of a rock at Coquille Point, Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge, Bandon, OR

July 9, 2015.

New River ACEC

From Cape Blanco, we traveled back to Highway 101 and north along the Sixes and its tributary creeks until we were in the vicinity of the New River. New River is just north of Floras Lake, emerging at Floras Creek near the town of Langlois, and running north alongside the coast of the Pacific Ocean into Coos County. It's a trip, because the river actually runs alongside the surf on the sandy beaches. Accessing the river is not a simple matter if you're not sure where to go. We turned toward the river and found ourselves in the New River Area of Critical Environmental Concern (ACEC) owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). BLM manages public lands throughout the nation, often meeting the needs of multiple land uses for people and nature alike, but an ACEC is land set aside to manage specifically for the special cultural or natural resources that land has to offer. The New River ACEC is a unique set of ecosystems rich with a diversity of habitat types including estuary wetlands, meadows, forest, shrubland, and dunes. These ecosystems host a wide variety of birds, plants, and other wildlife--some rare and native to the State of Oregon.

The ACEC has four access points to its four main units. We encountered Storm Ranch first, which has a nice trail system. We started at a visitor center at what was once a thoroughbred horse ranch owned by the Wilson sisters from the rock band Heart. BLM acquired the land from Ann and Nancy, and it is now open to the public for low-impact recreation such as hiking and birding. From the visitor center, we took River Road to the second parking lot to hike the east and west Muddy Lake Trail loop. At the crossroad between a birding platform at Muddy Lake and a spur trail to the New River, I chose the birding platform. My brother took the spur trail and caught the view of the New, which I missed out on. After this hike, and continually encountering another traveler and her dog, we moved on up the highway.

The Lost Lake Trail unit of the ACEC caught our attention--we liked the name and decided to check it out. If we were enchanted by the name of the trail, the utter beauty of this scenic hike was even more enticing until we stood in awe next to the gorgeous little hidden lake that gave the trail its name.    It was magical. Two of us decided to stop there and relax near the lake and take in the quiet and the peace, since this was a relatively unpopulated trail.

tree snags emerge from within the lake

My brother and I decided to hike on. Now back to the part of me not getting to see the New River. Knowing we were going west and running into dune-like terrain, we were certain that if we kept going that direction, we would get near enough to overlook the beach that hosts the river. Dune hiking, however, can be deceiving in two ways--direction and time. Without a map and any certainty on which way to turn at the fork just at the northern tip of the western most little lake connected to Lost Lake, we used up time and physical energy trudging through the sandy dune in the wrong direction (north) until we were met with a surprising sign that told us we were now exiting public land. We unknowingly wandered onto the private land and had to turn back to the main trail and head west again. The other deception of dune hiking is the feeling of "we're almost there." I thought every hill in front of me would be the one I would stop at to take in the anticipated view, and then we would turn around. But at the crest of every hill was a new hill until I realized I was running out of energy, we were running out of time, and the mother and husband left behind were probably getting annoyed having to wait. So I rested while my more fit and adventurous brother scouted ahead to confirm the view of the New was still a ways off, and we turned back. I think we hiked far enough west to have left the ACEC and enter the southern tip of the Bandon State Natural Area, a roadless forested dune wilderness between Lost and Laurel lakes and New River. Halfway back, I noticed I had left the lens cap of my mother's camera at my resting spot. So we had to backtrack to find the lens cap and double-hike that portion of the dune system before our worn out legs met up with a little more solid ground. That was quite a workout.


Bandon

Sore and getting hungry, we reached our car and left the ACEC to head north towards the town of Bandon. We got a nice room at the La Kris Inn, owned by a couple of professional photographers, Steve and Susan Dimock, who displayed their beautiful work of Oregon coast birds, landscapes, and wildlife--and that work was temptingly for sale in the office. We satisfied our hunger by getting some nice Chinese food just down the street from our motel at the Asian Gardens restaurant and lounge. The evening was still young and there was still a good amount of daylight to do some exploring. To my absolute delight, we stumbled upon one of the many units of the Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge at Coquille Point. We walked a portion of the interpretive trail and saw a rock topped with gulls and common murres, as well as stunning views of the rocky coastline.

As it started to get dark, we enjoyed an incredible sunset over the Pacific.
I decided this would be our first stop of the following morning, and we returned to our motel. The night wasn't over yet. My brother likes to party when we travel, so we set out to find a nice local bar to top off a great day with a couple of drinks. We heard about some good places in the old part of town, but didn't know exactly where to go or how long it would take to walk there. We ended up back at the Asian Gardens chatting up a storm with the bartender about music and being in bands, and after our drinks, stumbled back the block or two to our room.

It was a fantastic day of experiences I never had before and may not ever have again. Although, some day I might realize the goal of actually seeing the New River. There are a couple of roads that get pretty close to it, but who would have known when using chance and randomness as our mode of travel.