My Trails

Flown by two famous aviators

One thing I’ve noticed about the back roads in Oregon is the lack of any shoulders. Only inches from the edge of the blacktop and lane marker the ground falls almost vertical to a deep ditch or dropoff. There is hardly any place to safely pull off the highway. In the event you are startled by a deer, or nudged over by a large truck in your lane, or suddenly had a flat tire, you would surly suffer a calamity of great proportions down some unearthly embankment. Even when the road is on the level the builders decided to raise the grade six feet to make sure there were dropoff on either side. If you showed any normal, highway superintendent a section of this road, they would ponder only a second and say, “We should put a guardrail along here.”

All this got me to thinking today as I drove back to the coast from the Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, OR. The road over the coastal mountains was smooth but curvy and narrow. I was going the speed limit but several cars would pile up behind me anyway. If I’m going the speed limit I usually don’t worry to much about holding up traffic, but after a while I want to pull over and let them go by before someone gets too impatient and tries to pass on a curve. It sometimes was many miles before I could find a good place to pull over.

More airplanes

The museum in McMinnville is where the Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes gigantic wooden airplane is kept on display. It was a little expensive to get into the museum but worth it. Not only is the Spruce Goose on display but hundreds of other aircraft and rockets. I spent four hours wandering through the place. You can see inside Hughes plane but it cost an extra $25 to go up to the flight deck and sit where Howard flew the plane.

STOL airplane

I’m back over on the coast near Florence. It has been raining today so I have been hiding, but maybe tomorrow I will check out the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area. I have come half way down through Oregon. My plan is to continue slowly down the coast and then gradually ease up on the pace.

Making cheese.

I drove back towards the coast and found a free campsite in the Tillamook State Forest. From there it was only 15 miles to the town of Tillamook and only 8 miles further to the Oregon Seashore. From my campsite here it is an easy ride on Honda to explore the coast.

Tillamook has a cheese factory that is somewhat famous in this area. They brag about there cheese and ice cream being the best around. The factory where they make everything has a visitors center where you can watch people make cheese and, of course, purchase some to take with you when you go. They have a line you can move through and sample the different kinds of cheese they make. I thought the cheese wasn’t nearly as good as Cuba Cheese but I did buy some curd to take home.

Curd

From there I rode over to the coast to look at a lighthouse. As I got closer to the ocean a thick, cold fog enveloped me and all views of the Pacific were lost in the mist. The lighthouse was cute, definitely smaller than many I have seen. It is called Cape Meares Lighthouse, and is one of many in a row that are either abandoned or automated. Modern navigation doesn’t need them much anymore.

Cute Lighthouse

On my way back I stopped at a state park that has camping. I thought that maybe prices would be better as we get into October and I could stay one night and use the hookups. No one is ever in the booth at the entrance to state and federal campgrounds anymore. The usually have an honor system self registration board to collect your money and a ranger to drive by once in a while to catch the cheater.

It would add up in a month.

I’ll be here through the weekend and head down the coast next week. I may stay at a casino for my next sightseeing romp. I read where they are used quite often by rvers looking to see the area on a cheep budget.

One thing that seems strange is the way they sell gas in this state. It is against the law to pump your own so you must wait for the attendant to come out and pump it. I thought gas prices would be higher here because of the extra help but they are the same or cheaper than they were in Washington. When I pulled in on Honda the attendant set the pump and then handed me the nozzle.

Big building.

Seattle is no fun to drive around. I stayed overnight at a Walmart a few miles north of Everett Friday night, took the tour of the Boeing plant the next day, found a fairground where the guy let camp for $5 Saturday night, and got up early to drive around Seattle on Sunday morning. Now I don’t know where everyone was going on Sunday morning – I can’t believe they were all going to Sunday school or out to get an early parking spot at the Seahawks game – but the traffic was so bad I even ran into a traffic jam! I was never so glad to get by a city.

I really enjoyed the tour of the Boeing plant. The building where they build the airplanes is big. Over 100 feet tall almost 100 acres inside. I forget how many football fields he told us you could fit inside the building but it was a lot. Maybe I will look it up before I post this, or you can. I just remember if you want to buy one of the finished 747s, they are about $400,000,000.

After the Boeing tour I just wanted to find a Walmart where I could get a few hours sleep. I tried three stores on my way down Interstate 5, but they all had no overnight parking signs. After I struck out the third time I noticed a fairground and pulled in to ask if they had overnight parking.

He said. “Yes, and for $25 I could have electricity and water.”

I told him I didn’t need all that so he let me dry camp for $5.

Afterwards, I was wishing I had paid for the electricity and given my batteries a good charge. I still haven’t figured out why my alternator won’t charge, but I put a jumper wire from the solenoid in the battery compartment of the coach, and now get a charge.

Today, I stopped at Lewis and Clark National Park at the mouth of the Columbia river. Most of the park was dedicated to the history of the winter they spent at the coast and interactions with the Indians that lived there. A replica of Fort Clatsop is built on the site.

I drove down the coast a ways but there was nothing to see or do. I could have paid $40 to stay at one of the state parks along the ocean, and then walked out to look for shells or whales, but I wasn’t in the mood so I headed inland. I passed over the coastal mountains and stopped at a rest area in the Clatsop State Forest, about 50 miles west of Portland OR. I will stay here tonight and decide if I want to continue down the coast or explore inland.

I baked a ham.

Washington State is the location where the books and movies of the Twilight saga are based. The pacific northwest, because of its cloudy and rainy weather, is supposed to be the best place for vampires to live. We all know how vampires hate the sun and I’m getting to understand why they like it here so much.

Even if there was any sun I would not hardly know it. I’m camped in a national forest campground surrounded by towering mountains and tall cedars that blot out every section of sky. This far north and this late in the year means the sun is already low in the southern sky, and if it ever penetrates the clouds, it has to fight through an impenetrable forest canopy to ever reach my solar panels.

North Cascade National Park is very pretty. The Glacier carved valleys are filled with cascading waterfalls and greenery hanging from shear cliff faces.A lot of the park can only be explored on foot. You get a glimpse of the beauty as you drive Route 20 through the park but no roads take you into the wilderness. I learned there are over 300 glaciers in North Cascade compared with 9 in Glacier NP.

Where Vampires live!

The Pacific Crest Trail winds up through the park. I stopped and talked with a couple of thru hikers who told me you have to hike 8 miles into Canada before you come to a back road where someone can pick you up. Hikers that arrive late to the Cascades are faced with the dangers of winter storms and ice.

The PCT

A lot of the campgrounds are closed because of fires. The campground near the visitors center was in no danger anymore from fire that had passed through, but trees were still burning and the air was filled with the noxious odor of smoke. It is hard to comprehend that the Northwest with all its stigma about rainy weather could be in such dry condition. Washington has had a bad time with fire this summer. My hats off to the firefighters who battle these fires, but when you look at the perpendicular slopes of these mountains, you wonder how they can do anything on the ground to stop the blaze from spreading.

I enjoyed my drive through the park but there is one thing that put me off. A lot of the markers along the road are not information plaques at all; they tell of some poet that stood there and wrote this inspirational poem while gazing across at a mountain. I’ll get my own inspiration, thanks. I don’t want to stop my rig on a winding mountain road to read a poem. Maybe I’m wrong to feel that way.

I’m in Arlington, WA for the night. It continues to rain. Wispy fog banks swirl around the surrounding mountains and the temperature stays in the low 60s. I was thinking of driving around Puget Sound and visiting Olympic National Park but I will probably save that and head down highway 101 into Oregon. It is time to start the southern migration.

I thought I was in Georgia.

State Route 20 is a very scenic drive across northern Washington State. The highway snakes it way over passes and through meadows, meandering only a few miles south of British Columbia. I drove by pristine lakes, wide rivers, and dense forests that stretch for miles and miles on end.

I would have liked to have spent more time in the forests of Washington, but unfortunately, a lot of those forests are on fire. Washington has had its share of wildfires this summer and is only now starting to get most of them under control. Someone told me today that three firefighters from this town had died this summer while fighting the fires.

I spent last night in Coleville, WA and tonight I am at a place called Omak. I looked for a forest road to camp on as I drove through the Coleville National Forest today,but most of them were closed.

The Walmarts up here seem to be pretty welcoming. I don’t set my dish or solar panels out, but there is usually good cell signal and a few over-the-air stations. I have to admit I feel a little nervous about sleeping in the forest with fire in the area. I’m sure they would come and tell me to pack up if the fire came my way…. if they could find me.

I should reach Cascade National Park tomorrow. There is fire there, too. I don’t know what there is to see and it may be too cold to explore much on Honda, so it might be a quick visit.