2015 Road Trip: Part 29 (Pacific Ocean!)

Finally, the Pacific Ocean

Day 44

5.27.15

I woke up extra early on Day 44, and while cooking breakfast, I caught a glimpse of something bright through the trees.  I ran to a clearing to see what was up.  The sun was up.  Probably one of the best ones I've seen so far.

Sunrise from Barnhouse CG

This was an exciting day along my trip, since one of the major goals was to experience the Pacific Ocean, which was prior to today just a concept I had heard about.  To actually drive across the country from Maine, inch my inch, mile by mile, and see it I thought was very profound.  But there was yet another string of mountains in the way: the Cascades.  With Oregon being at a relatively low base elevation, ten thousand foot peaks tower over everything else, and you can see them from miles away.  I forget exactly where I was, but I crested a ridge and got to see the Three Sisters, some of the iconic peaks in the state.  (South Sister is on the left, then Middle and North Sisters are close together on the right.)

The Three Sisters

These mountains were so eye-catching that I probably looking at them an unsafe amount while on the road, so I stopped to look for awhile.

The route I was taking was along Rt. 126, which heads north of the Sisters, and looks a bit like this:

This was what I had come 8000 miles to see.  This is what I think of when I think of Oregon.  Tall pines and firs lining the roads and making you feel tiny.  Soon this road brought me through the heart of the Cascades, through many miles of forest and tight curves that reminded me very much of Maine.  Many parts of western Oregon remind me of Maine, though on a bigger scale.  The roads and lined tightly with trees of all kinds, depending on where you are, they curve next to rivers, and out in the country, there are small farms with people out doing the work that needs to be done.

My campsite for the next few nights was about 20 miles northwest of Eugene, near a small lake.  I passed through the city, and began the extremely windy road to the middle of the Coastal Range of Oregon. Here, there are lots of smaller mountains, but it is so dense with them that every major road has to follow a river gorge or else you'd be climbing vertically up mountains.

In some areas, it is far enough into the season that some farms are making hay, and my god, that smell is something that makes me think of home like nothing else.  Driving past with the windows all the way down is the only way to do it properly.

Soon I arrived at this lake, I think it's called Upper Lake Creek, so perhaps it's a creek instead.  After some scouting, I found an available camping site on the opposite of the river as all the others I had seen. What I didn't expect was there to be a trail that goes right to the shore, giving me what I consider free waterfront property for a few days.  Notice FREE.

Tent set up to claim the site

My "front door" view

Due to my early start, I arrived here around noon, which gave me an entire afternoon to play with.  I was still set on seeing the ocean, so with the tent set up and lunch eaten, I began the (twisty) drive to the sea.  I was entranced by every curve in the road.  (This is Rt. 36 if you need to know for some reason.)  It was warm, summery, and the smells of plants and trees were vivid as the miles rolled by.

Along Rt. 36

I arrived in Florence, OR, and from there, I was desperately looking for roads west that would bring me to the very edge of the land, and there was nothing, just lots of homes where people live semi-next to the sea.  I then realized that some parts of US-101 do actually go right along the coast like US-1 does in the east.  I came to one of the many parks that line the entire coast, and found myself some beach.  The sound was incredible.  I don't even consider myself an ocean fanatic, but this was just amazing.  To have finally reached sea level again after a quest of mountains for the past 8000 miles was very balancing, for lack of a better word.

It was not clear, it was not warm, but it was the Pacific Ocean.  I walked along it for a distance I don't even care to know.  I was just listening to it, smelling the salt, and feeling the sand underfoot.

I spent over an hour on the beach, maybe two...I lost track.  I was walking toward that little nub you see on the edge of the land in the picture above.  It was actually an island, but I got close enough to see it without fog.  On my way back, I found a tennis ball and an Aerobie frisbee.  I figure those can either be used as entertainment or as souvenirs.

After my short time with the ocean, I attempted to find my way back to the campsite.  This would be easy with a civilized GPS, but Edna wanted to play some tricks on me tonight.  I made it halfway there successfully, then the roads it chose got to be worse and worse, from double lane paved, to single lane paved, to dirt, to full on forest roads with trees down everywhere, some hanging over the road.  Then gated roads.  I was instructed to turn right or left at many gated roads.  You'd think that would be as bad as it gets.  You'd be wrong.  Then it was instructing me to turn at places where there were no roads, not even a slight trace of a path.  Just gullies, or a ditch.  Nothing.  But after battling with Edna for nearly an hour on forest roads, I saw pavement once again, and I was coming down the hill to the very lake by which I had set up my tent. There's travel with Edna for ya.

Here is today's route map, and what I consider to be the end of Phase C of my trip - hitting the Pacific Ocean.  Total miles from Monroe, ME to the Pacific Ocean is....wait for it....8586!  Hopefully I can make it back to Maine in a bit few miles.

Day 44: 431 miles.

And for a closer look at how wiggly the roads are out here, I took this triangular loop clockwise.  It's only about 30 miles as the crow flies, but from Waldport to Point E there where I am camped is over 60 miles of driving.  Lesson of the day: mountains make it hard to build efficient roadways.