Oregon coast random ride 2015 - Ashland to Harris Beach

Shasta-Trinity Forest

July 5-7, 2015. In 2014, our random ride had left off at Samuel Boardman State Scenic Corridor on the southern Oregon coast, and this year's trip was to continue north from there. But since then I had gotten a little mixed up. I confused Samuel Boardman with Harris Beach State Park, which is farther south, and made the advance camping reservation for two nights at Harris Beach. Harris Beach is just north of Brookings, Oregon, not far from the California border. First, I chose a rather long route. Instead of coming up through Humboldt and Del Norte counties again from California, I chose to take Interstate 5 north to where it meets U.S. Route 199 in Grants Pass, Oregon, not realizing we were going a good distance north to go south again. Then we had a bit of a mishap on that route, giving this trip a nickname of the Ashland bookends. My Dodge truck overheated on Interstate 5 in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest just south of Dunsmuir, California. The water pump went out. We waited several hours for a tow truck from Mount Shasta City, and he towed us to a recommended service station in Ashland, Oregon.

A wild hippie van where we broke down

It was late and we had to spend the night in Ashland. I lost the first night of my reservation at Harris Beach. Because we were broken down, we got a decent rate at La Quinta Inn and Suites across from the service station, which is now apparently closed. Deciding to make the best of the tiring day, we enjoyed the indoor pool and jacuzzi before retiring for the night. The next day, the mechanics seemed to take forever to exchange the water pump on the truck. Since we had to check out of La Quinta, the mechanics shuttled us downtown to pass the time at Lithia Park. In the past, we had made annual trips to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in Ashland and had spent a lot of time exploring this park. It's a beautiful, peaceful place still holding strong the ambience of Oregon artists and hippies. But it also attracts a good amount of wealthy tourists that come to see the plays, so lunch at Louie's Bar & Grill was delicious but expensive. We were a little lazy to do much exploring and spent most of our time at the duck pond behind the outdoor Allen Elizabethan theater.

Lithia Park duck pond, Ashland, OR

The truck wasn't ready until 4:00 PM and we had to make it to Harris Beach to secure my reservation for the second night. Worse, the host wanted us there by 6:00. We wasted some time in Medford trying to get gas and a map to determine which way to go. My mother wanted to cross the Rogue-River Siskiyou National Forest on forest roads, pitching a fit that if we took Route 199 back into California, the agricultural inspectors would take away the produce she brought. That was not going to happen without us getting lost and getting to the campground too late. So I took Route 199 anyway and the agricultural inspection station was closed. However late we got to Harris Beach, maybe about 7:00, we kept our reservation. The trip didn't seem to start too good with the timing being disrupted by an expensive auto repair; however, once we set up camp, made our dinner, had our marshmallows, and curled up in our tents to the sound of the Pacific Ocean, we were feeling fine.

In the morning, my brother and I took a walk down to the beach with a docent-led group for some tide pooling, We wandered the tide pools with children and their parents, finding sea anemones, mussels, limpets, snails, and other interesting creatures. The docent had a sea worm in captivity to show us and talk about.

California mussels

Giant green anemones with ribbed limpets and black turban snails

Aggregated anemones

Anemones with algae and rockweed

Then we hiked back up to strike camp and take mom to the Harris Beach overlook, taking in that spectacular view until our tummies started rumbling for the Hungry Clam in Brookings, our favorite seafood place in the southern Oregon area.