The newest addition to the family is: a truck. It's cool and I'm a little jealous. It makes me want to put my stuff in storage and be a bum in the woods, or on the coast, or... I've always had a pull to just go somewhere, anywhere, on adventures largely unplanned to see new people and places and really just to see how those journeys unfold. So the night before my week of vacation starts we agreed to make a trip to the coast. With a small number of places to see at some point, we packed up and went. We meandered from Ashland to Gold Beach, north to the Oregon Dunes, and then through Eugene to finish with some brewery tastings. It was really nice to not have a schedule.
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| "One of the world's largest myrtle trees, 88' tall and 42' circumference" |
After an afternoon beaching it in Gold Beach, we drove inland through the dark to camp out in national forest. I kind of like finding camp spots before dark, but it was pretty cool to wake up in the morning to see our surroundings for the first time. It turns out we were near a trail head for a stand of myrtle trees that has a really big blob of connected trees that gets some tree people excited enough to make interp signs about it. We took a pre-coffee picture and headed back to the coast for a tailgate breakfast viewing the ocean.
Later in the day there was a little sign for the South Slough Reserve, and without a schedule to keep we stopped to check it out. There's a great trail system there that winds through a series of different ecosystems, with interp stuff and all sorts of vistas to keep you wondering what was next.
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| Spring |
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| Really neat boardwalk system over stinky cabbages... |
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| Tunnel trail |
Finally after checking out a bunch of campgrounds like Goldilocks, we settled on a great little campground by the dunes and took a last hike before the sun went down and spring rains resumed.
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| Happy face |
The camp ground we stayed at was pretty rad- Oregon does it right. The rains started in the night and stuck around, making me happy to be snug in the truck without a wet tent to fold up in the morning! After a leisurely morning we headed to Eugene for a dose of good beer and coffee before deciding to just head home. That's it. All that and not a single truck picture.
