Leaving Gold Beach

We moved north. Just a little. 27 miles on the first leg. We have almost three weeks before our next commitment, so we are not in a rush. We will miss and remember our two weeks on the Rouge. We have photographed and hiked every nook and cranny of this section of the coastline.

The redwoods of northern California barely extend into southern Oregon where the Doug Firs take over and dominate for a short distance. The coast of southern Oregon is called the Banana Coast because it’s the warmest section for hundreds of miles – north or south. The dense forest of the extreme southern area gives way to totally different flora only 30 miles north. The tall trees are replaced by low growing, wind swept juniper like plants and ferns are replaced by sea grass.

Two more pictures from near Otter Point. The second one has some kind of zen thing going on with it. I rather like it.

All the Oregon county sheriffs' with marine patrols are in Gold Beach this week for training. One motel has about forty jet boats in the parking lot. They go up the Rouge to learn how to maneuver in rapids and perform rescues. I would guess the engines are not over 250hp and they are a lot louder than the triple 400hp engines used on the sight-seeing jetboats. Not as well muffled I suppose and a lot slower.

Now for a review. Since we could not recall for sure which of the state capitals we visited this trip, I will list them here so maybe we can remember them.

Arkansas

Kansas

Colorado

Wyoming

That leaves California and Arizona on our bucket list.

Lots of outrage about kids crossing the border, but where is the concern about Europeans' roaming around the country in Cruise America RV’s?

We spent one night at Cape Blanco SP where it’s always windy. Then moved a few miles father north to Bandon. We found a boon dock place on another river, the Coquille. It’s just a paved parking lot with a boat ramp, but we are backed up to the river, with two bars of coverage and two miles from town. We are the only ones here and it’s very quiet. It seems that every where we go this year we could enjoy the kayaks.

We checked out the campground at Floras Lake. A nice location, quite scenic, but the spaces in campground are close with no privacy and it was near full. A great location for hiking between the lake and the coast.

We have had two full overcast days, but the forecast is to be clear Sunday.