We made it to the coast at Florence and headed a little north to explore Cape Perpetua at Andrea N.’s recommendation. We got to the beach around mid-morning and warmed up in the sun as we walked down the beach finding little jellyfish, crab shells and even watching a seagull make breakfast out of a crab in the surf.
There was a loop hike that we decided to do, going down the beach, up the Hobbit Trail to the road and then across to the forest to make our way back to the car on the Valley Trail. The Hobbit Trail was certainly the most magical part – moss-covered trees, thick rhododendron and dappled sunlight. It was delightful to be in moist air again and have the sun to warm us.
We hung out on the beach to soak up some sun and enjoy the sound of the waves before we turned the car south to try to find a place to be for the night. As we looked at iOverlander, we found that there weren’t a lot of decent boondocking sites that were big enough for us to park or that even seemed appealing. We wound up making our way toward a beach access, but parked quite a ways down the road as reviews said the road got pretty rough and it didn’t sound like we would be able to get the trailer down to the beach anyway. The spot we found was big enough for us, but that was about all it had going for it. We were at the mouth of a giant sand pit which seemed to get a lot of OHV use and also acted as a place for target practice. We think someone was trying out some sort of small cannon or hand-packed rifle while we were there.
We did drop the trailer for a while so we could drive down to the beach and Mike got to do a little beach driving in the truck. It was quite windy, so we found a sheltered spot for a bit, but then decided to move on to find a place where we could enjoy being in and out of the trailer where it was parked.
We scouted out a couple of places with sand camping, but they were not for us. We couldn’t get the trailer onto the beach and the spots we first found seemed to be full of people pulling trailers with all of their OHVs- basically big parking lots. We eventually made our way to the Eel Creek Campground, which was more our speed – private little campsites and not too many people in the whole park.
Part of our desire for a nice place was to allow us room to take care of some projects – installing better gear storage in the truck and cleaning and reorganizing the whole back, installing wind guards on the truck, and figuring out the slide wiring problem (Mike had been hotwiring it every time we needed to pull in the slide).
The next day, we worked our way through projects and cooking (curry) and Mike tried to keep his back pain in check. It was still giving him quite a bit of trouble, getting better for a bit and then regressing. Our campground was near some dunes that led to the beach, but while walking felt good, Mike soon figured out that walking in sand did not. We explored the little walk around the campground and I headed across the dunes to the beach. We have done dune walks before that were very taxing because of all of the shifting sand, but this one was lovely. It had rained the night before and so most of the walk was on pretty firm sand.
When I got back to the campsite, Mike informed me that he had fixed the slide. Yay! We packed up and headed south once again, this time hoping for a site closer to the beach.
We had been on the lookout for a way to be on the beach. I had misgivings, but also trusted Mike to know what the truck and trailer could handle. After scouting out the approach, Mike decided on a course that could get us down to the Whiskey Run beach. Right next to the road, a little stream ran down a steep hill and then made its way across the sand to the ocean. This meant that the sand right around there was very firm. Mike found a little dune that would provide some shelter from the wind that often blew from the north and with the trailer as a wind block too, we had a quiet place to enjoy the shore even in the now cooler and windy weather.
Right after we parked, we saw some people trying to get a van unstuck from the sand and headed over to help. A local, Jarod, was trying to pull out the Californians who tried to drive through sand that was too dry. We helped push them out and were rewarded with a nice IPA before they made their escape. We talked to Jerod for a while and got a nice piece of local flavor. As soon as he heard we were from Wisconsin, Jarod was convinced we read the Bible and from there we got all sorts of thoughts from him about his libertarianism, the fact that you can’t catch COVID while sitting down in a restaurant and some recommendations about what to explore in the area.
We spent three nights at Whiskey Run, reading, walking, and exploring the area a little before the wind got to be a little too much and we decided to move on in search of a warmer, calmer site.
