After I wrote my previous post on Sunday, Donna and I went out to do some more exploring. We went south through town and crossed the Siuslaw River. The South Jetty area is part of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area in the Siuslaw National Forest. It’s a day-use fee area – you’re allowed to enter and drive through, but you need a $5 pass to park.
The paved road is about 5.5 miles long before it becomes a dirt road. In one section, where an off-road vehicle trail is by the road, there are tall, sharp speed bumps. They’re ridiculous actually. I had to use extreme care to get Midget-San over them without scraping the floor pan. I could see where they had used an asphalt grinder to lower and attempt to smooth the aggressive bumps.
South Jetty is the northernmost section of the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. There are three other locations with this designation within the Siuslaw National Forest – Siltcoos, along the Siltcoos River and beach area, Oregon Dunes Overlook and Tahkanitch.
We drove to the end of the pavement and turned around. We saw a few trails going up the razorback dunes that separate the road from the beach and the Pacific Ocean. We stopped at one and climbed the trail. It was much harder than it looked. The trail was steep. The sand was soft and I sank nearly to my ankles at times. It was also much taller than it looked. I started out climbing the trail too fast and my heart rate immediately elevated. I had to slow down, catch my breath and plod up the trail.
On the beach side of the dune, the face stair-stepped down to the beach. It was much taller and steeper than it appears in the photo.
Next we stopped at a parking area where people trailered in their off-road vehicles. There was a huge dune next to the parking area and dune buggies, ATVs and motorcycles were climbing up and down it.
It was a lot like the Imperial Dunes area in the California desert west of Yuma – but the sand is finer.
We headed back across the bridge to town. Donna wanted to stop at the Boardwalk Market again and see if there was anything new or interesting there.
While Donna was perusing the market, I wandered away to check out the boats docked at the marina. There was a mix of boats – some fishing vessels, some pleasure craft and a few that looked like live-aboards.
During the day, access to the docks is open. This allows the public to access the fish market on the dock. At night, a key code is needed. I went down and checked out Novelli’s Crab and Seafood market. They had a large pen with live Dungeness crabs. They were mostly sold out of fish.
The owners of Novelli’s are commercial fishermen. The fish is literally taken from the boat right at the market.
When Donna finished browsing the market, it was time for a late lunch. We walked a couple of blocks down Bay Street. As we passed our car parked on the side of Bay Street, we saw a girl posing by Midget-San while her friend snapped a photo.
We thought about getting lunch at ICM – a restaurant on the water with outdoor seating on a deck over the river – but their menu didn’t appeal to Donna. We walked to the Beachcomber Pub. I mentioned in my last post that this establishment was opened in the 1960s by the father of our friend, Scott Hicks.
Donna had a salad with shrimp and a bowl of chowder while I went for the fish tacos. The fish taco portions were large and very filling. I paired the fish with an amber ale while Donna enjoyed a chocolate porter. The food was good, but I think the fish and chowder at the South Beach Market in Newport was the best.
On our way out of town, we made a detour to check out the Three Rivers Casino. It’s a fall-back plan if we need to find a place to dry camp for a few nights before we leave. The parking situation there is good with large, marked RV stalls. They allow one night free parking, then you need to earn 50 points per day in the casino to stay for additional nights. I don’t know what earning 50 points entails, we might have to find out.
I needed to get back to our site. I had to set up the Traeger wood-pellet fired smoker grill. I planned to make the babyback ribs I bought at Fred Meyer. I had prepped them the night before – the ribs were well-trimmed already, so I only had to remove the membrane from the bone side and season them with my Memphis-style dry rub. By 6pm, we had yummy babyback ribs for dinner.
Yesterday was a laid back day. I mostly read while Donna did some work on her laptop. I made one trip to the grocery store and gassed up the Midget, otherwise I was a homebody. Donna has been diligent at practicing her clarinet daily. She’s hoping to get good enough to join the orchestra at Viewpoint Golf & RV Resort when we move to Mesa, Arizona at the end of the year.
Some of the trees around here have interesting shapes. The prevailing wind comes from the west, off the ocean. It shapes some of the trees into weird and unusual forms.
The weather has been consistent – warm and windy days with highs around 70 degrees – cooling to the mid-50s at night. Today the wind is supposed to be calm and rain is coming tomorrow. We’re hoping to get a boondocking site at Winchester Bay’s Salmon Harbor Marina on Thursday. We won’t know if one is available until Thursday morning. We hope to spend a few days there and then leave the coast and move east to the mountains.