Headed down the Left Coast

When we left off a week ago, we had just arrived at the John Day dam on the Columbia river, on the boundary between Washington and Oregon. Having just arrived, there were no photos added, so here are some now!  Ms Hailey was glad to be outside doing some hunting among the rocks along the shore.  No snowbanks here!

There are often barges going up or downriver through the locks at the dam, but this time there was only one transiting down river, and it was so stealthy I didn’t get out in time for a decent photo.

There are numerous native fishing platforms along the river banks here, but none being used at present.

We crossed the Columbia at Biggs Junction, after taking on a little water at Maryhill park, and continued on to The Dalles where a fuel fill was in order.  Leaving there we took a winding, scenic ‘long-cut’ on highway 30, leading to a nice view of the river valley at Rowena Crest viewpoint.

And that was about the last sun we saw as well .  Traffic wasn’t too bad passing through Portland, but there was some stop and go in places.  After a quick visit at the Frys Electronics store just south in Wilsonville, the night was spent in our usual spot at the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum in McMinnville, Or.  There was a ‘new’ 747 parked out on the front lawn, as well as one at the water park nearby, but the built in safety restrictions for my UAV would not even permit a takeoff.  Safety first!  It also made me pass a UAV knowledge exam before flying the next time as well.  So no photos here.

We made it to the beautiful Oregon coast, but didn’t get to see much of anything.  It was mostly rain and fog and rain and fog, if you get the drift.

The forecast showed much of the same for most of the next week or two, so reluctantly we just kept motoring south into California, where the weather was predicted to be quite a bit nicer.

In southern Oregon, we topped off the diesel at $3.46/g before the higher prices in California.  ‘California Fruit Customs’ was closed when we got there, so my strawberries were safe!

Someone was in ‘my’ spot along an old section of highway near Orick, but we found an even better place down the road.  All was peaceful and quiet, save the distant roar of the surf below, that is until 0712 in the morning when I guess duck season opened.  After that it was non-stop shooting.

We pulled in to Trinidad, hoping for maybe a little hike up the hill overlooking the harbor, but parking was at a premium, so we opted to look at the area ‘remotely’.

Outside Eureka, my regular overnight spot was sporting a shiny new ‘No Camping’ sign of all things, so we had to be a bit more ‘innovative’ in finding a spot.  It was a challenging evening, as I was forced to watch both my Saskatchewan Roughriders and Toronto Maple Leafs online at the exact same time.  Managed to pull off two wins though!  Hailey was unimpressed.

Not wanting to overstay our welcome, we moved just a few miles to a spot we had scoped out a couple years back.  That was an eventful time that resulted in us having to back up the rig for well over a half mile on two separate dead-end roads!  You can read about it <HERE>!  But this time, we knew where NOT to go.  Plus, we had the secret aerial reconnaissance weapon at our disposal.

There is a very narrow one-lane bridge over the Eel river.  Hint: check the video at the end of this post!

Here’s the key!  Turn around, while you still can!!

Okay, so here’s a short video clip of some of the spots in this blog post – enjoy!

https://youtu.be/BT3h-0mbW2s

And, here’s a bonus map for y’all!

Till next time …