In The Shadow of Longs Peak
Tuesday 08 September 2015
On Monday, we pack up and head to Eugene. Here we sorted thru Lucy’s belongings that have been in storage since her passing in Spring of 2014. This exercise plus my recent move is good reason to sell or give away all my stuff.
But south of Crescent Lake (and north of Klamath Falls) there is a lake named Lucille. Here is my ode to Lucy:
I will hike to Lake Lucille and see your face reflected there. And in Gary: The same gray hair, the same ruddy complexion. You grabbed life like grabbing a bull and never gave up; always taking care of yourself until the end when you could not. There things of yours is not where your life is captured but in the memories of you – good memories since I came along late in Gary’s (and your) life. I would only like to leave such good memories as yours.
Though honestly your china cabinet always makes me thing of you.
Wednesday 09 September 2015
We arrived at Florence Oregon late Tuesday afternoon. Our destination was the camping area at the south jetty. Gary was none too thrilled about paying for a camping site without a table. I was none too thrilled about having to drive over sand drifts to get there. And neither of us was thrilled about camping in a constant stiff breeze.
So we headed south a bit on hwy 101 on to Honeyman State Park and got a wonderful site (#260) for 2 nights. It’s heavily wooded so the sites are very private. A clean bathroom and showers at no extra charge. We can hear the traffic out on hwy 101 but it is very muffled.
This morning is overcast but no fog in camp. We are hoping the sun will come out soon. Our plan is to paddle the Siuslaw, catching the incoming tide. We shall see.
The map legends show 2 boat ramps on the Siuslaw, one about where Hwy 101 crosses the river and another on the north side a bit further upstream. We travel over the bridge, see a sign for the Port of Siuslaw and turn there. After some exploration, we find the boat ramp. It is free and there is free parking not too far off. We head back to the free parking and gear up (so as not to take up parking at the ramp).
I pull on my wetsuit and it actually fits! Hooray!
It’s warm out so I wear the lighter top but bring the heavier one along. We pack a lunch, some fruit pouches, and the new camera then drive back to the ramp and unload boats and gear. Gary drives the truck back to the parking area. In the meantime, I strike up a conversation with a woman who is helping to launch a motorboat. She recommends the north fork of the Siuslaw, more scenic and much less boat traffic as this is salmon fishing season.
Gary returns and we decide the north fork is today’s destination. It is just past high tide. We put in and paddle east past several sets of moored boats and a number of post for what look to be like old piers.
Before long, we turn into a side pool rounding a set of electrical wites and head for the bridge which marks the North Siuslaw. Gary points out that there is only about 2 feet of water and we may not be able to paddle this way on the way out.
Soon we are under the bridge and heading up the north fork and an area braided with islands and channels. We chose the right channel and paddle up a ways but it begins to seem like a dead end but we spy an opening to sneak thru. We get back into a more main channel then take another side route. Eventually we come to s stretch which is more river-like and paddle up and under an old wooden bridge then past another put-in. We’ve been on the water about 2 hours (paddling upstream against a mile current) and start looking for a lunch spot. We find a likely place to get out (with effort) and have lunch, topped off by a desert of fresh wild blackberries.
After lunch, we head downstream, carried by the current and outgoing tide. We are back to the bridge in about 45 minutes and indeed the tidal flat we paddled thru on the way is barren.
Observations: Egrets and herons abound. There is an additional 8 ft of bank on the way out. Not much in the way of beaches to land on. There is grass down to the water. No obvious camping spots.
Another day, it would be nice to put in at that inland boat ramp and paddle upstream from there.
Thursday, 10 September 2015
Our plan today is to see if we can launch our boats in the ocean at the South Jetty.
We drive down there after a nice breakfast. From my first visit here with Gary and Lucy several years ago, I expect to come to a big paved parking lot and then just carry our boats a length or two to the waters edge.
Instead we drive thru a fee area (the OHV area for the dunes). The Siuslaw is on our right and dunes on our left. There are several pull outs but we do not stop to investigate. We continue on. Gary points out a nice beach on the river side that would be a possible alternative.
It is very foggy and windy and I am glad we did not camp here…one would need to be much hardier than I am.
We continue thru another fee area to a large parking lot though the road seems to continue along the jetty. We park and get out for a stroll and within minutes see the waves breaking on the beach. This may be our launching point though we would have to carry the boats a good distance.
It’s quite foggy. We cannot see clearly beyond the 3rd or 4th breaking wave and there seems to be a series of very tall breaking waves beyond.
I remember in Hawaii, there were a few breaking waves at the shore then a line of larger waves that we had to dive thru but I wonder how you would negotiate the wall of waves in a sea kayak.
I expect Gary is disappointed as we turn back to the car, not sure of our paddling plan. I feel like this is beyond me but more importantly how does one deal with the bigger waves breaking over you?
We return to the car and retrace our steps, keeping an eye out for the beach that looked like a launching zone. Gary spies it before I do. Turns out it is at a named dock where people ‘crab’. We watch a couple of ‘crabbers’ setup. Each have a smallish sized cage with a good sized chicken hind quarters.
We decide this is doable. There is a somewhat calm spot between 2 jetties where we can launch and it is not too far from the car…(no further than the north parking lot to Lake Macintosh).
We carry our boats, prepare, and attempt to push off but the boats have created a vacuum in the sand and we are stuck! But we un-stick and are off. The water is quite choppy, I take one picture of Gary and decide that I will not be taking pictures en-route today.
Once out of the jetty, we turn upriver. We have a pretty strong tailwind but, being near the jetty, are at least somewhat protected from the full force of the wind and waves.
I am a bit chilly to start with but warm up as we paddle. Note to self: wear dry-top!
At one point we are beyond the jetties. There is a fallen tree up ahead. I suggest we turn around there. Gary suggests continuing forward to the next point. The wind is not letting up but this is a very pretty route, very different from the inland route of yesterday. It has the sense of ocean and dunes and coast and is very Pacific Northwest!
We reach the point and do turn around, now feeling the full force of the wind which we paddle into. The waves roll toward us. Despite the white-caps it is challenging but doable. I stay pretty focused.
On the return, we stay nearer to the shore for starters for then approaching the first jetty we point our boats at its end. As we round the corner, it seems like the wind increases. This seems like the case each time we round the end of the jetty and I wonder if there is a Bernoulli effect…or merely perception. At one jetty I drift for just a second and it seemed like the wind increased to the point where I was pushed backwards. I paddler harder for a minute or so and soon regain my momentum.
Soon we see the dock. The wind has not let up though it seems like the waves are not as big. We swing wide away from the dock then back into the cove where we started.
A fine very challenging paddle, 30 minutes out, 45 back.
06 September 2015 - 07 September 2015
At Crescent Lake in Oregon with Gary at his family's reunion. We boated each day, including an outing of high winds. In retrospect, good practice for our upcoming days at the coast.
Friday, 11 September 2015
We pack up this morning. Before hitting the road, we stopped and hiked up the dunes for a couple of hours. I was amazed at their expanse and could see the appeal of using and OHV for exploration. One intriguing spot was a spring-fed oasis of trees with a pond at its bottom edge.
After getting supplies in town, we head up hwy 101. Our next destination is the Alsea River. We decide to try and first get a camp spot. We are thinking an inland area would be nice so we pick out a state park along the Alsea River but arrive to find it is only a day use area.
Now what? We head back down hwy 101 to a forest service office. There are a couple of possibilities: South Beach and Tillicum, both further north (check this!!) so we head this way and as it turns out both are full.
Now what? Gary calls his cousin John (aka Jack) and we spend the night in Newport with him and his significant-other Pamela.
Monday, 14 September 2015
Today we pack up and head to Lacey, WA to see Celia. We head north to Newport then west to Corvallis where Gary attended college at Oregon State.
At first the landscape is much like any seaboard area including Connecticut and I am reminded of the Housatonic Valley and driving along the River Road.
Then we head down into the Willamette Valley which is wider and flatter here than in Eugene and I am reminded of the Snake River Valley in Southern Idaho.
Then north on I-5 thru Portland , then Olympia, then Lacey.
We arrive about 4:30 PM. A nice drive, a nice down day.
Tuesday, 15 September 2015
Our first Puget Sound Day. It’s temperate but overcast.
Celia suggested a kayak put in along Woodward Bay road at the Woodward Bay Resource Conversation Site but that put-in is seasonal and it closed on September 1st.
We check the Gazetter and head to Boston Harbor. It’s quite calm so I am elated. We head west, turn at the point, then head south toward Olympia. The wind picks up some but seems quite moderate. We pick a point and continue south. It seems like the wind is picking up; it seems like the waves are higher; it seems like the point is no closer. But I preserver and concentrate on the color of the water: medium grey with dark patches where the waves break.
Finally we reach the point, some 2 ¼ hours later. I am pretty well used up but rejuvenated after a pouch and some gatorade. We have a nice tail-wind on the return trip which takes about 1 ¾ hours.
A nice introduction to paddling on Puget Sound.
Thursday, 17 September 2015
Today we paddled at Nisqually Delta, our last day of paddling together.
Nisqually’s source is one of the glaciers on Mt. Rainier. I need to look back on my notes and see if it is one of the two I climbed many years ago.
We first stop at Fred Meyer and purchased a Discovery Pass and head back to Luhr Beach.
We put in as the tide is going out. We paddle up the first inlet, knowing that eventually we will reach the boundary of the Wildlife Preserve and would have to turn back.
Gary spies some seals sunning themselves on this cloudy day on a close by bank. They look at us with a wary eye but for the most part are unmoved.
We sneak into a side-pool for a bit but with the outgoing tide, it seems prudent to return to the main channel and head back to open water. We turn and head east across the mouth of the delta. The color of the water changes to that glacial silt color and we in the outflow of the Nisqually River. We cross and continue, setting our sights on the far shore which we reach.
It’s taken us forever to get here and I expect it will take forever to get back. We turn into the tide and wind and head across and are back to Luhr in 20 minutes which takes me by surprise. There is much more of the delta exposed and now I am glad we did not explore those marshes.
Now we explore west of Luhr. At one point we spot a number of buoys and I investigate. We guess that they are oyster traps. We maneuver around a floating dock and a couple of associated boats. All the time, there is a utility boat putting around but we cannot tell exactly it’s purpose.
We head back and load up boats.
My mind wanders to my return trip as I am flying back to Colorado tomorrow. Kari came down and got me. I spend the night with her before the flight home on Friday.
Sunday, 13 September 2015
Today, Waldport and the Alsea River is our destination. We expect that there is a public boat launch so head up the river road. We drive 10 miles up but no put-in so we turn back and find a public boat ramp at Alsea Bay. It is already windy but there is a nice jetty-protected beach so we park and get ready to launch, including me in a dry top.
I push my boat out a bit (remembering the vacuum effect on the Siuslaw) get in and start to paddle. We decide to go up bay, even though its down wind, hoping to stay close to shore and be in its lee. But it’s pretty breezy and there is no lee. We continue downwind. It seems like the waves are getting bigger and the wind is getting stronger so I suggest turning around which we do. We’ve been out 30 minutes. We turn into the wind, a bit crosswise as it seems like the wind is not coming up the bay but rather across.
There is a time or two when I feel that I am not making progress but somehow I persist and push thru it.
Gary spies a cove off to the left and we take a breather, take a sip or two of Gatorade and a snack. After about 10 minutes, we give it another go. The wind is still hard, the waves high, but we preserve. We go by the boat dock but there are at least a half-dozen boats waiting in line so we continue and pull into our starting bay. Its pretty quiet here so we decide to make a run toward the Alsea Bridge. We are still paddling into the wind but we are in a tidal pool so the waves are much diminished. We approach the bridge, head under, around and back again. And back up the bay to the put-in. The last 15 minutes are difficult and I am out of steam.
A hard day but good practice. We paddled a total of about 90 minutes.
Friday, 18 September 2015
After a hike with Kari in one of the Seattle's coastal city parks she dropped me at the airport and I flew home. Took the shuttle from the airport which worked out nicely.
Saturday, 19 September 2015
Home again, at my new Silver Meadows townhome. And it does feel like home in a way that the Estes Ct Property never did. Unpacking is definitely easier than packing, though having music helps!
I am in purging mode, but I do not want to get rid of things only to replace them in the future so I am trying to be thoughtful about it. But already there is a box or two ready for donating, even after purging before the move.
I was going to make some food but realize that I need to unpack all my kitchen stuff as I left my emergency cooking gear in the truck with Gary.
I setup the old table from the Stonewall Place condo so have a place to work and write and eat and draw.
Another purging project is going thru the CD’s and deciding who’s in and who’s out. So far, keeping three out of the first four.
And I bought some apples at ya-ya orchards
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Today is a rest day. Gary is complaining of back pain, so we go for a stroll at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge which is at the south end of Puget Sound and is a federal area so my national all parks and recreation area pass sufficed. The interesting thing is that this was an old agricultural area where dikes had been built in the early 1900’s to dry out the land for crops which also created a non-salt habitat. The area is being reworked but I find it interesting that letting it revert to a salt water estuary is not part if the long term plan.
All the strolls are along specific paths or boardwalks. This is a cool, place, very interesting and very, very pedestrian.
At the end of the day, we drive down to Luhr Beach where the map shows a boat ramp. As it turns out, it is a Discovery Pass aka Washington State Parks and Wildlife Area. There is also another building related to the Wildlife Refuge.
I also got caught up on journaling for our trip and dedicated some time to my thoughts and feelings: As endeavors get hard (like yesterday’s paddle) and I want to give up. Basically, this is my MO: Learn something. Become somewhat adequate. Get in a situation that is uncomfortable. Give up. Try the next thing.
Pacific Northwest
04 September 2015 - 18 September 2015
04 September 2015 - 05 September 2015
Despite closing on the new townhome, moving some stuff from the storage unit, unpacking and actually living there and getting ready for this trip, we are packed up and underway at 10 minutes after 11 AM on Friday morning.
We head over to Main Street to pick up 287 north to 14th Street in Loveland to Wilson which turns into Taft Hill Road. We pop out on the north side of Ft Collins then swing back onto US 287 and north to Laramie WY. This is still one of the prettiest around and I am impressed that even in September the grass is still mostly green.
At Laramie, we pick up I-80 West. It’s somewhat windy though the boats are pretty snug.
Our first planned stop is the Flying J just past Rawlins. Besides gas, we were going to get pizza for lunch but somehow we got a bag of chips instead.
We grab some supper at a Burger King in Wendover. Gary would like to drive straight thru to Crescent Lake but we end up getting a place in Winnemucca after being turned away in Elko and Battle Mountain. We replenish supplies and then head north on US 95. Our plan is to pick up Hwy 140 to Denio and take 140 to Klamath Falls. This is a very cool drive lots of high desert, open space, rolling hills.
At Klamath Falls, we again resupply then headed north to Crescent Lake and Gary’s Family Reunion.
Saturday, 12 September 2015
On Saturday, We head north to give Beverly State Park a try which is also full. Now we head again to South Beach site their website showed a couple of sites available. There is one that we sign up for immediately. Hooray!
Our trip today, recommended by Jack, is up the Yaquina River starting at the town of Toledo. We drive up hwy 20 toward Toledo and wig-wag around the town, past a paper mill and lumber mill, over a bridge and up River Road. We pass one put-in but it is private so we continue up to a county park with a boat ramp. We park, get ready, and are quickly underway.
I note that the property just upstream from the park has 2 old VW beetles and a half-dozen machines that look like steam shovels and wonder about their purpose. Looking up, I think I see balloonists but they are actually high-tension wires with balls attached. Beyond is a recently logged ridge and I think of Ono in Northwest Washington where there was a huge landslide in spring of 2014. The hill leading up to the ridge is pretty steep and I image such a slide is possible.
In general, the landscape along the river is very similar to that of the North Siuslaw: open flat grassy meadows close to the river that butt up again rolling tree-covered hills.
We thought we were getting there after high tide but there is obvious floatsum moving upstream which continues for quite a while.
There is a railroad track on the far side which generally hugs the river…as Lawrence Ferlinghetti would say ‘hung to the river as if my magnets…’
Gary points out and old wigwam burner nestled in the trees. I scoot over to take a photograph then take another of a turkey vulture on the tree in front. Both are a real treat.
We continue upriver. After awhile, we start to see homes along the road side of the river. One person motors across the river and tells about the Lenard Skynard concert he attended the previous night at a nearby casino.
We continue on: There are more private docks and more homes along the river. Then, before long, we spy a boat ramp which is the public ramp at Elk city. We stop for a lunch break. There is a campsite here with clean facilities – good to know for the next trip.
After lunch, we continue upriver and before long are at a fork. We take the left, following the railroad track and after about a mile we meet a river wide snag: our turn-around point.
Back we go. The tide now is going out and the flotsam has disappeared. I am surprised at how much of the bank is showing – a good six feet or so -- and we did not expect to see much of an effect of the tide this far upriver.
Eventually we come to the logged ridge, the overhead power lines and steam shovel / VW coolection. We pull up, unload…a great day out!