Pacific Northwest Random Ride 2014 - Oregon

Our first stop on the Oregon coast was Crissey Field State Recreation Area. This 40-acre state park has beach, forest, and wetlands that stretch from the California border on the south to the Winchuck River on the north. The beach trail took us to a wide, expansive sandy beach, with a scattering of oddly-shaped driftwood logs, where the Winchuck flows into the Pacific Ocean. We took up a comfortable seat of sand with a log to rest our backs and watched a group of brown pelicans forage for fish on the surf. Watching a pelican go fishing is amazing. The pelican flies above the surf, generally in a circular motion, searching for schools of fish. Once the fish are spotted, the pelican generally dives into the water head first to grab its fish. Here, however, with plentiful bounty near the surface of the shallow water near the shore, the pelicans gracefully landed on the surface of the water, and hunted from their sitting position by submerging themselves and seizing their prey, then reemerging with the flopping fish inside the expanded throat pouch. The brown pelican is truly an elegant and beautiful bird. It was removed from the Federal List of Threatened and Endangered Species in 2009 because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined it had been recovered. It was considered one of the Endangered Species Act's success stories; however, it still faces serious threats.   Climate change, for example, could deplete the abundance of herring and anchovies it requires, and of course human disturbance and coastal development on breeding grounds could continue to threaten the species, so it needs careful monitoring, respect, and consideration.

But pelicans weren't the only critters we encountered; check out this very handsome longhorn beetle: 

Banded alder borer beetle (Rosalia funebris)

Nature's art: the dog and the seal in the driftwood

We could have stayed here all day, but hungry stomachs edged us to move on. I quickly took the trail to the river, just to do it, before leaving the park.

The reason for the beeline to Oregon was everyone's desire to get seafood at one of our favorite little lunch stops in Brookings, The Hungry Clam. A friend recommended it to me when I lived in Humboldt County and ever since, we make it a point to enjoy delicious baskets of lightly fried fish, calamari, clams, and oysters whenever we are in the area. The restaurant sits on the Port of Brookings Harbor, where we could walk along the marina and get ice cream. It's also a good place to view the Port of Brookings Lighthouse.

With full stomachs, we resumed our random ride from the harbor, which sent us up the narrow, scenic, and windy South Bank Chetco River Road along the Chetco River. The road follows the river but then winds up doubling back in loops and dead ends. We ultimately had to turn around and return to Brookings and continue our original trajectory north on Highway 101.

Just a few miles north of Brookings lies the very long and narrow Samuel H. Boardman State Scenic Corridor. This state park spans 12 miles of rugged Oregon coastline of forest, rock, and beaches between Highway 101 and the ocean. There are a few entrances into the park and we grabbed the first one we could. We turned into the Lone Ranch Beach and picnic area and walked down to the beach.

More of nature's driftwood art sat perched along the rocky shoreline. Pelagic islands of rock shot into the sky like wizard hats, and smaller boulders closer to the shore caught the breaking waves and turned them into an incredible display of white ocean foam. It's a rush to sit on one of the rocks, with feet in the sea water; however, some leachy little sea creature bit a hole in my toe and so I retreated to the shore to videotape a group of ravens who happily made this beach their home.

Driftwood man walking on the beach. Is that art by nature or by a human?

View of Pacific Ocean from Lone Ranch Beach

After such a long, hard day on the beaches (yeah, right), it was starting to get to the point of having to figure out where we were going to have dinner and stay for the night. I had to make an 11-hour trek the next day back to Sacramento, so one option was to turn back and start towards home. What fun is that? Instead we continued north to Gold Beach and spent our last night of the trip in the lap of luxury at the Gold Beach Inn. We rented the cabin for five, made dinner, had a drink, and soaked in the outdoor hot tub overlooking the sunset over the beach. 

Gold Beach Inn cabin. This isn't an ad, but it's a cool place to stay.

The adventure wasn't quite over yet. The next morning we were up bright and early to make the long journey back home in time to get up for work the following day. Mom had the brilliant idea of taking a "short cut" across the Siskiyou Range from Gold River to Grants Pass. The only problem was the "short cut" involved navigating very slow, small Forest Service roads, including taking a wrong turn and having to backtrack to find our way over the mountain. I believe we followed forest road #33 along the Rogue River, made the wrong turn around Agness, but then followed the river back on track on road 375, which made a bit of a detour to the north, finally winding up on Galice Road and  the town of Merlin hours later. Too bad I was too stressed out about getting back in time to thoroughly enjoy the incredible scenery of the Rogue River wilderness. I'm hoping to revisit that route in 2015, but the lesson learned is if you're in a fantastic place you've never been, don't stress about getting where you need to go. Turned out I needed to buy a headlight in Grants Pass, and we had a nice lunch at the Sunflower Thai Restaurant. Then we sailed down Interstate 5 towards home, and in spite of the stressing, I was still home at a reasonable hour. 

So stay tuned for Random Ride 2015, which will begin at Samuel H. Boardman State Park, Oregon.