Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

We set off from Myrtle Creek to go east on OR 227. Well, that was fun. Lazy turns and pastoral countryside whilst we followed the South Umpqua River east towards its source, but then, when we split from the river, it was twist and turn, twist and turn, to the summit, and an easy grade down to Hwy 62, and shortly thereafter, our destination, Joseph H. Stewart State Recreation Area.

Which is a very pretty campground, with lots of space between sites, and a view of the Lost Creek Reservoir:

It also has a bunch of trails, which we started out upon:

More importantly, there’s a bunch of fellow Lance Trailer users here this weekend for some brand based fellowship and it’s wonderful to see some faces that we haven’t seen for a while.

There’s a potluck tomorrow, and that will be great fun.

We treated ourselves to a really good breakfast at Little Suzie’s cafe. This is just the place to come to if you want to be shouted at by Suzie! In not a nasty way, though. 🙂

Then, just because they were nearby, we visited Myrtle Creek’s two covered bridges.

It was still early, so we went hunting for a bookstore since we were out of reading material.  We’d read it all waiting out the rain.

There are no bookstores left in Roseburg!  So we headed north to the Costco there for books, samples, and gas.

Later, we swabbed down the trailer and tow vehicle, to make them seem less shabby after all this rain, for when we meet the other Lancers tomorrow.

Leaving Bullard State Recreation Area it was rainy, and continued so as we headed East, following the Coquille River.

We had prioritized things, we needed a place with a laundry (we had a huge load of laundry to do), a place with decent wifi (my Surface Pro needs a huge update), and a place which will allow us to wash all the grime off the Xterra and trailer.

2 out of 3 . The wifi sucks here at “On the River Golf & RV Resort” at Myrtle Creek on the beautiful South Umpqua River:

That’s the view from the back  window of the trailer.

And because the guys here are great, they’ve said it’s OK to wash the grime off. Laundry was fine, too, especially as B. did it whilst I made lunch.

As I write this, it’s 9 pm and *still* raining. Forecast looks better for tomorrow.

We’ll see.

Still damp but not quite the incessant rain of the last day.

So we set off south on Hwy 101 Coast Highway. An easy jaunt into Coos Bay and Sunset Bay State Park. We pootled around the park for a look, and decided to take a gander at Bullard State Park, a little south from there.

The GPS  took us along Seven Devils Road to Hwy 101.  I pondered why it was named 7 Devils, but here’s the thing; if you were on a sportbike, you’d whoop with joy around all those curves.

On arrival at Bullard, we decided to stay there (here) a couple of nights – nothing against Sunset Bay, but it didn’t seem sufficiently different/better to backtrack there.

We took a look at the now unused Coquille River lighthouse:

and marveled at the collection of driftwood near the mouth of the river:

and clambered over the dunes:

Then we went back to the trailer and chilled.

Not sure what we’ll do tomorrow, but that’s OK 🙂

Edit (10/4/2016):

We asked the really lovely lady at the Visitor Center in Coos Bay what 7 Devils Road was all about, and she had no idea, but pulled out her phone and Googled it. Which resulted in a long treatise about the area, but no answer. We asked the equally lovely lady in the History Museum in Coos Bay the same question, and she said it was because of the ‘devilish’ curves on the road.

In that same museum was the explanation that the ‘7 Devils’ represented the 7 hills along the road  linking Sunset Bay to Bullards Beach. So there you have it.

We also went to the Bandon Museum: These folks don’t seem to be able to learn lessons about about having town fires.

On a more poignant note, the guy who filled up our tank in Bandon told us that he gave up catching crabs for a living (and a seriously good living) because so many of his coworkers were losing their lives in the treacherous sand bar waters nearby. Sad reflection.

Deities, the skies opened last night.

Several problems:

We left stuff outside that got soaked, shoes, mats, fire logs, that stuff – and it took ages and quite some ingenuity to get them dry – involving the use of space heaters and microwave ovens.

The trailer leaked. One we knew about, the front window, and we managed to sop that up OK. The other was new, coming in through the central overhead light fitting, which should be sealed, so there must be some of sealing around the ac unit or somewhere else on the roof that is allowing water to  get into the light fitting. The symptoms were weird. The light decided that it was a nightlight – a couple of LEDs came on in without human intervention. All was gradually resolved when we unscrewed the fitting and dried out the electronics.

Because we’re camped under tall pine trees, what happens is that when it rains, the pines absorb the water, and then, over hours, drop that water in big gobs on to the trailer which sounds like a bunch of woodpeckers playing random snare drum solos on the roof!

We had brunch at the ‘Little Brown Hen’ in Florence, which was really good.

So, the day wore on and dried out a little and we got some nice photos:

As B sez, a little like ballet dancers.

Florence Beach

Florence Harbor

We broke camp in Lincoln City to light rain, and headed south towards a campground which we visited about a year ago. Jessie Honeyman State Recreation Area, about 80 miles south on Pacific Coast Highway.

We expected the journey to be tiresome with lots of ‘pottering’ tourists (like us), but what was absurd was that a group of motorcyclists (actually, the one at the back of the pack), who seemed unable to go around any curves at much greater than walking pace. An utter embarrassment to my fellow motorcycle riders, this one.

Anyhow, more haste led to less speed, as we arrived at the campground before the previous occupant of our reserved spot had left, so we had to hang around in the day visitors area for a couple of hours, made a sandwich for lunch and then hiked a few trails.

The sand dunes are huge here:

Today’s Lake Photo:

Today, B is baking more white bread. It smells delicious 🙂

The skies were grey and the temps were in the mid 50’s. Winter draws on!  Spotting with rain, but no big deal.

We took the sphagnum bog boardwalk ….

… to the beach, and by the ‘Smallest River in the USA’, the D River. We walked a mile south to J’s Fish and Chips, and for $6 each we got 2 big pieces of deliciously fried cod, curly fries and a soda. Fantastic! – and this coming from an Englishman by origin, who grew up in post WWII England when fish and chips was about the only fast food you could get.

We drove south to the Devil’s Punchbowl, and ambled around for a little while in the cold wind, and then to Yaquina Head.

There were keen surfers (in the cold wind)….

… and although the light made everything seem a little foreboding, Yaquina Beach was beautiful…

Today we set off from LaPine State Recreational Area, near Bend, OR in freezing conditions, North through Bend and then on Hwy 20, then 126 and 22 to Detroit Lake SRA.

Oh boy, what scenery! The Cascades, Three Sisters, Mount Jefferson and Mount Washington. And all the trees. The road winding down from the high plains, all so beautiful.

Then the camp site overlooking the lake. Temperatures warmed up to T-shirt conditions (and we sneaked a clean up of the trailer with buckets of water and brushes and chamois leather).

This is paradise.

So there I was, watching the thermometer creep up, from 31 degrees overnight to a balmy 69 or so.

I made lunch out of assorted bits and pieces of left-overs, and then off we set to explore.

After trying the Lava Cave and the ‘High Desert Museum’, what we found was the unbelievably beautiful state park: Smith Rocks.

Then we went on a glorious local road to Prineville, and its museum, which was splendid.

Thursday morning, we woke up to rain in Junipers Reservoir RV Park near Lakeview, Oregon.

No matter, we decamped, and headed north on US 395, after waving at an enthusiastic Lance owner as we exited the park.

It was rainy, cold and dirty on the road and then on OR-31, so the Xterra and trailer became pretty darn filthy.

The rain eased, but it was still cold, and we turned off to where we thought we might stay – Ana Reservoir RV Park, and oh dear, it was just a parking lot with no visuals to redeem it. So, we backed out of there quickly and headed to where we had reservations for Friday and Saturday at LaPine State Recreation Area. There we found a spot to stay in (but we had to move to our reserved spot today), and it was cold. We lit a fire, but that only worked for a short time to keep us outside.

Eventually, we scuttled back into the trailer and its warmth.

Overnight the temperatures killed our traveling Basil plant (but they are only $3.99 from Trader Joe’s), and in the morning it was cold and damp, again. I guess that this is Oregon.

Changing topic. This state campground is wound around the Deschutes River, and boy, is it ever pretty…..

Here’s me, by the river

Back at the campground, we saw a coyote twice just wander into our site and mooch around for a bit. B went and told the camp host, who said that the campground closes at the end of the month, and the wildlife seems to know that it’s about to happen, and they start regaining their space. Cool.