Setting the alarm to get up in the morning is as foreign as fighting traffic. I had forgotten how much I despise both. So this morning when the alarm sounded I had the same desire I alway have....to turn it off and go back to sleep. But we had a plan for today, and I didn't want to miss any of it, so I made myself get up and took a shower....something that's been rare since starting the trail back in April...and even rarer since having the foot opened up to drain. No, I haven't been stinking up the place...just taking baths instead of showers to keep the foot dry!
So, business before pleasure...I followed Ashley to the Honda dealership where we dropped off the hybrid for some software updates and an oil change...sticker shock for me on the oil change....$42!!! It was explained that hybrids cost more, since they use zero weight oil. Still, that seems way out there on the scale for an oil change.
Then we stopped by the United Methodist church where Ashley's job is to change out the signage by the highway...that was a fun job too...I was feeling devilish (was it Satan?) to change the signage to something really eye popping and attention getting, but couldn't go through with it. We swapped out letters and finished the job and returned the previous week's letters to the church office. This week's message: Don't live in the past, learn from it. Good theorem. I might add....live in the present, not the past or the future.
Business completed, we returned to the homestead to retrieve the Retrievers. We loaded them up as well as ourselves and some day trip gear and began the hour plus drive to the Oregon coast. As many times as I've been to Portland, I've never seen the Pacific ocean here and this was going to be an eventful trip for me.
Our first stop at the coast was Ecola State Park. We drove into the densely canopied rainforest full of Sitka Spruce trees with an undercanopy of ferns and moss, my kind of place for hiking. There were trails leading through the woods to beautiful beaches, but I didn't need to be pushing miles on the tender foot. Instead, we walked with the canines out to Ecola Point where we could see the ocean waves rolling in and smashing into large rocks off the point. Sea Lion rock was a focal point out at sea, along with the Tillamook Rock Lighthouse several miles out at sea. Fog and low marine clouds loomed just off the coast and tried in vain to make their way to land. We took some pictures of the beautiful place where deep blue ocean meets jagged cliffed mountains that are eroding and falling into mother ocean. A large distant beach, Cannon Beach, was off to the south, another beautiful scene as a backdrop to the rocky coast in the foreground.
From the point we drove to Indian Beach and walked to the far end away from the surfers and the sun worshipers to the rocky tidal pools. I spent some time exploring the tidal pools, full of anemones, clams, crabs, and starfish. Then we took a giant risk, allowing Maggie and Lucy to run free of their leashes for a few minutes. The crazy canines did a great job of running wild within shouting range, and only had to be reeled in a couple of times before we put them back on the leashes to avoid possible trouble.
From the park, we drove south to Cannon Beach, a popular high end tourist town which was bustling with pedestrians and cars. It was lunch time and we needed something quick and easy so Maggie and Lucy wouldn't have to sit in a hot car in the sunshine. Ashley dropped me off in the center of the chaos so I could try to get a couple of slices of pizza to go...the line was long and not moving so I flagged Ashley down as she circled the block. We drove up a few blocks and found another pizza joint a little off the main street, where I was able to get us some veggie goat cheese slices to go.
After lunch, we drove south on scenic Highway 101, stopping periodically at viewpoints of the magnificent coast. Eventually we reached a winery which was open for tastings, but had nary a vehicle in the parking lot. I wasn't feeling like listening to their hype and coughing up some money for less than stellar wine, so we bagged the idea of the winery visit and kept driving south.
We made another beach stop on a fairly desolate beach that was wide and flat. This time Maggie and Lucy got their chance to run amok. And they did. They spent almost 45 minutes running up and down the beach, chasing each other and doing their very best to run down seagulls who taunted them. I was worn out just watching the frolic and mayhem. Lucy even tried to run down a kite or two thinking they were large birds. The strong afternoon winds blew lots of sand along the beach and it was quite chilly despite the hot sun inland.
The next stop was the Tillamook Cheese Factory, on the edge of the town of Tillamook. I had heard of this place and had sampled more than one of their cheeses since hiking on the PCT. The factory was a huge facility that produces over 78 million pound of cheese a year. And the tourists were as thick as mosquitoes along a High Sierra meadow in snowmelt. Ashley dropped me off to survey the scene. They were, in fact, making cheese and had an observation area to watch. And they had two ice cream stands with over 30 flavors! I returned to the car and Ashley joined me to watch the cheesemaking process....which was actually the end of the assembly line where large blocks are cut into store sized blocks then packaged for distribution. There was an obvious problem on the line and it reminded me way too much of my days as plant controller at a beverage bottle facility, so we didn't hang around too long waiting for production to resume.
Instead, we found the ice cream and man was it fresh and tasty, especially on that freshly made waffle cone! While eating the fresh ice cream, we stood in a relatively short line to sample free cheese. I was feeling a heart attack coming on from all that saturated fat, but felt a compelling need to try the cheese curds anyway since I'll soon be burning off that fat again.
After a complete saturation of cheese, ice cream, and too many tourists, we again drove south to a little side road about 7 miles out of Tillamook. The largest waterfall in the Oregon coastal mountain range was just a mile and a half down this little road and then only a quarter mile hike. As we drove down this road which quickly became a narrow, pot holed laden road, there was a vehicle stopped ahead of us with some pedestrians talking to the driver. Ashley pulled up and we stopped to talk as well. A man and his daughter reported that a tree had fallen across the road and they were trapped on the other side.
Ashley turned the car around and we stopped about a half mile back down the road where we had seen a house under construction. I got out and approached a man who was taking his construction trailer off his truck at the hitch point. I asked him if he happened to have a chainsaw and some time to come remove a tree from the road. Surprisingly, he had the saw and the time and said he'd be there in just a few minutes. And in few minutes, the lumberjack showed up, cranked up the saw, and took it to the tree. I and a couple other men who were trapped on the other side gave him a hand with tree and limb removal. In a matter of five minutes or less we were done with the project.
So we drove down to the waterfall trailhead and encountered a very friendly white rabbit, a natural cousin of mine. Maggie and Lucy were about to go crazy wanting to chase the little fella, but Ashley held them steady as I got close and almost succeeded in touching the rabbit before it lazily hopped away. The quarter mile walk to the waterfall was an easy walk and a good test for the foot. The waterfall itself was quite impressive, not for the volume of water, but for the distance it fell and for the lushness of the surrounding landscape.
By the time we were back on the highway, it had been a full day and we all were tired from the adventure. We got back to Portland in the evening and were whipped. Mexican leftovers came in handy and after we ate I spent some time working on restoring some of the missing journal entries and photos from the AT website.
Soon it was time to call it a day. The foot did fairly well getting some exercise but remains open and tender.
Doodlebug called today and is flying home Thursday evening from Reno, NV. I made a reservation to fly to Reno early Thursday morning. I am planning to have her pick me up and shuttle me from there to the trail at Tuolomne Meadows. It is doubtful that the foot will be completely healed, but it would take another two weeks to completely heal and I need to resume hiking sooner than that if I hope to make it all the way to Canada. I will be doctoring it a lot while hiking the first few days and will be doing slow and small mileage while it heals and I get my trail legs back.
Happy called today as well, she and Phantom and Bad Moon and Whoop Ass are at Tuolomne Meadows and will be leaving there most likely tomorrow. So I'll be a couple days behind, but it'll probably be Bridgeport or Lake Tahoe before I catch up to them.
My friend Hip that I hiked with on the AT for many Virginia miles called today as well. He shared the very sad news with me that his mother passed away. We caught up a little bit on trail news and reaffirmed our plan to see each other again in the fall for our traditional fall hike once I complete the PCT.
So the plan for now is to fly out early Thursday morning and resume hiking on Friday....subject to change if the foot doesn' cooperate. I'm excited and nervous about getting back on the trail, especially without any hiking partners for the next stretch!
