Stopping for the view.

Having previously embarked on a ‘Goonie’ pilgrimage about 14 years ago, I was delighted to again quickly whiz by some of the hills of Astoria and the haystack rocks of Oregon’s ruggedly gorgeous coastline with Greg. Surviving the possible threat of being forced to pull over to see the Goondocks first hand, Greg humored me by listening to my favorite lines from the movie.

At McMenamins Lighthouse Brewpub

We love Oregon. Not only did we admire the views from our rainy windows during our southward 101 trek, but we also pulled up to a McMenamins pub just in time for lunch on our last day in Oregon. How convenient. And so we enjoyed some lovely sandwiches and beers while Greg daydreamed about ditching our pre-planned day to stay at the nearest McMenamins establishment for the evening. Greg was even tweeting about his McMenamins love affair. We abandoned the fleeting thought when the receptionist on the phone explained that they did not allow pets and that the height of the parking garage was about six feet. Another day Scarlet.

Entering northern California, we were halted at an agricultural checkpoint where we were asked a series of questions by a seemingly retired dairy farmer sans overalls. When we reached to question about carrying firewood, we eagerly answered, “NO!” in unison and had to explain our earlier Canadian firewood woes. Passing the test, we rolled into the land of the red woods, or as Greg proclaimed, “definitely where the Ewoks live.” Boy, it sure was dark by 4:30– but I guess when the prehistoric canopy of trees reaches heights of hundreds of feet the shades are always drawn early. We settled into our bare bones state park next to the elk prairie and prepared for our one night stay and our next day’s hike (finally on foot!). Greg foraged in our rapidly emptying fridge for dinner ingredients and managed to whip up a lovely salmon stew accompanied by rosemary potato bread and a pimm’s cup. We are steadily chipping away at our stash of leftover wedding beverages.

Dreams of bears clouded my mind all night so my inspection of the ranger station’s posted bear and cougar encounter procedure posters further exacerbated my anxiety about our imminent hike.

Entering the forest

Entering the trail head, a ranger and a corrections officer warned us to make way for the convicts in orange jumpsuits (each with ‘PRISONER’ printed across the back like a sports jersey) pushing boulders, one at a time, in wheelbarrows to a pile about .5 miles into the uphill trial. Several friendly prisoners offered to park their wheelbarrows along the side of the path while we passed, and others offered to snap our picture with my camera. No thank you. I am sure they were all good people at heart, maybe committing minor offenses or white collar crimes, but there is something alarming about an orange jumpsuit.

Where the Ewoks live. And Predator.

So, anxious about not only the bears and cougars, but also about prisoners taking hostages, I forged on hesitantly while Greg lightened the mood by pointing out the large piles of animal poo, and by finding new ways to pronounce the word ‘mush’. My fears were allayed as the ancientness of the gorgeous trees and the stillness of the forest silenced my racing thoughts. We hiked the 4.3 miles over the ridge to the ocean. There, we unpacked our modest lunch of apples, snap peas and peanut butter slathered english muffins.

Zenny

Exploring the flat beach for a bit we found a sad fly infested sea lion disintegrating on the sand and a billion sea-smoothed pebbles. All too quickly, our refreshing lunch break was over and it was time to hike the 4.3 miles back to our camp site. I held my breath half the way back, hoping no wild animals were disturbed by our earlier passing and were waiting patiently for our return trip.

Elken neighbor

Mid-hike photo op

Of course, all went well, and we returned safely to our sleepy site in the elk prairie, which was now host to about 7 grazing elk with fantastic antlers! Ahh, finally we had achieved muscle soreness from some activity other than overeating.