04/28/03:
A light rain fell for at least part of the night and into the morning. Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area begins on the other side of Coos Bay's bay and runs 47 miles north to Florence. The other day I stopped at the Horsefall section but turned back at the 'NW Forest Pass required' sign. I saw this sign at Gold Beach back past where I was camping. I finally found out this is a $30 annual pass to day use of all Oregon and Washington National Forests.
Anyway, today I headed north from Coos Bay and stopped at the Ten Mile Creek section, a few miles farther on. Signs down here said no camping within 200 feet of the road but that was all loose sand, no place for a 2WD. Lots of ponds within the dunes. Dunno if that's from the rain or from being fed by streams.
Found the beach and thought I better get a little exercise and turned south. A jetty protected oyster farms to the north. 4-5 surfers caught waves right by the jetty. A couple of California sea lions kept a wary eye on them as they went about their business.
I didn't go far down the beach before finding a nice sand dollar. I noticed lots of bits and pieces of broken ones too. I didn't get too far before it clouded over and looked like it was really going to rain. I turned back and drove to the end of this road. Here I found an automated machine for buying passes and got the Annual NW Forest pass because they wanted a pass for this section too.
Saw a few more heads bobbing around in the surf but couldn't tell if they were seals or lions. A couple of osprey circled overhead while clam air holes bubbled as the tidal flow moved in and out.
I popped over small sand dunes to the beach and continued south. I had my eye out for shells but someone else had beat me too it. I kept going anyway for the exercise. By the time I got back a trailer had moved in with a generator and a dirt bike and a van with 2 ATV's was just pulling in. That convinced me this was not a place I wanted to hang out.
Hiking Three Mile Lake Loop (6.5 miles round trip):
Dunno why they call it that, it doesn't go around a lake. I saw a hiking sign and pulled into the parking area proudly displaying my new NW Forest Pass because one was required. I debated with myself about doing the hike. One side of my brain said I already hiked a couple of miles on the beach and the other side said yeah, but you've been pigging out and haven't been getting much exercise the past week or two. The clincher was the trailhead sign said there were river otters along the way... so off I went.
Some of the sand dunes rise up 500 feet in the rec area. I didn't have to climb any dunes but a big one towered over the trail. The trail itself was a humid jungle. Douglas firs, Sitka Pines, moss and rhododendrons everywhere. Farther on the rhododendrons gave way to ferns and they were as thick as in the Redwood National Forest.
The first 1.5 miles the trail went steadily upwards and the second 1.5 was mostly back down again. I got to the otter stream but no otters, no ripples no nothing so on I went. I got to an overlook of the ocean and looked around. I couldn't see a trail but the only way it could go was down into the sand and dunes. I really didn't feel like slogging through a mile or two of loose sand so I turned around and went back the way I came.
Saw several more trailheads but it was getting late and I was looking for a place to camp. Still nothing free. Checked out a couple of NRA (National Recreation Area) campgrounds. Most were closed and the ones that were open wanted $15... yeah, right. Just north of the NRA is Jessie M. Honeyman State Park, $13/night with hot showers.
04/29/03:
Hit the South Jetty section of the Dunes by 7:30. An hour's walk along the beach netted me a couple of sand dollars, a nice razor clam shell and an odd looking stone shaped somewhat like a woman. Some kind of idol washed up from Tahiti? I don't think so.
Had to climb a steep little sand dune to get to the beach. On the way back I stopped to look around. Didn't see anything in either direction to excite my imagination so decided to head north.