A sweet adventure

With a rare Sunday sans football, John and I decided to make it special. We woke up early, went out to breakfast (Pancake Mill!), and drove past Florence to this great little web of hiking trails. We discovered them with the South Coast Striders many months ago, and I wanted to go back, just us, for more exploring.

We stopped off a Beaver Creek Falls first (and for some reason, my photos loaded out of order a bit, so there's another photo of Beaver Creek Falls later).

If you climb out onto this huge tree that fell across the creek, you get a great vantage point. The view was worth the bushwhacking we had to do to get here — the trail was a bit overgrown.

Then we drove down to the Homestead trailhead of Sweet Creek Falls, which takes you through this gorgeous canyon for about a mile, ending at Sweet Creek Falls itself. The last time we were there, the water flow was much higher, as it was late spring. Right now, the creek had to deal with a very dry summer, and will soon be up and at 'em. 

Low water flow, we discovered allowed us to sneak down by the creek and wander around much more.

More mini waterfalls along the way.

This stop off was my favorite little side excursion. There were three waterfall tiers (which I couldn't quite get into one photo, as the lower one was quite a bit lower), and how beautiful is this? We were right on the water after a little climbing off the trail.

Here's the random photo of Beaver Creek Falls that got stuck in the middle. Ha.

And back to the off-trail excursion. We found this crawdad wandering about aimlessly. We watched him for about five minutes as he decided where he should re-enter the water — it's a treacherous area for such a little guy, and he eventually (and cautiously) tumbled into a pool.

Here's the lower portion of Sweet Creek Falls. There's a small trail that leads you to the upper viewpoint and upper tier of the falls, but it's running awfully low this time of year, so no photo of that. But this little area was quite pretty. We sat on some rocks in a quiet pool of water right below the falls; this area hadn't been touched by the hot sun, so it cooled us off from the 70-plus-degree day.

And here are a few more photos on the hike back, when the light was better to capture all the beautiful falls along the way. A few of these looks quite impressive with higher water flow, but look delicate at summer's end.

Oregon's winter waves

If you know me, then you know one of my favorite activities in Oregon is watching stormy seas.

Well, we got lucky today. We traveled to Shore Acres for one of my few and far between days off to watch whales, as it's the first day of Winter Whale Watch Week. We were greeted by fog. Darn.

Then I stood there for a few minutes before the waves started picking up — it was nearing high tide. Perfect.

The sun tried to peek out for a bit, but it didn't win the fight. It's OK, the fog and deep gray clouds were a great mood to a winter day by the sea.

Love watching the water cascade over the rocks right here, just like mini waterfalls.

An atypical Oregon Coast December

On the day after Christmas, we're finally receiving some winter weather. It rained on and off all Christmas Day, and that was the first significant rain we've had since before summer. And it wasn't even that significant.

It's been an atypically cold and clear December, but you won't find me complaining. I love crisp winter weather, bright blue skies and chilly temperatures.

Here's an above shot of Cape Arago a couple weeks ago, with a cute doggie in the way.

No idea what I'm looking at here, I just thought it was a pretty birdie. Saw him (or her, I suppose) on the trail down to Cape Arago's south cove for tidepooling last week.

Ah, the beach all to myself. Nothing better.

Winter's low tides are extra low, and high tides are extra high. That makes for great tidepooling AND wave watching (photos you'll see soon enough).

I'll miss the gorgeous weather we've had (and we've all but kissed it goodbye), but I'll welcome a little rain. The rivers need it, after all, for the fishies.

Silver Falls State Park camping

Silver Falls State Park quickly became one of my favorite places in Oregon in a single weekend. Fall colors were bright, cool temperatures kept most tourists away and the campground was nearly empty.

Here's South Falls, a highly-photographed area, as you can see. It's actually really tall, but it's difficult to see that without some perspective. So trust me, it's huge.

You could walk behind it! I love when you can do that. If you click on the photo and look really close to the right of the waterfall, you can see little people on the trail, which should offer some size perspective.

Stopped for lunch on a bridge overlooking the creek, where we had Empire Cafe sourdough bread with homemade blackberry jam (courtesy of the Gunthers).

Gratuitous moss shot, just for Mom.

North Falls from an overlook just off the road. I think you can walk to it, but we were kinda tired by this point.

So we drove to Upper North Falls, which was just a short stroll from the parking lot.

This was such an awesome weekend away. We ate at the best little bakery in Elkton to pick up breakfast for our camping trip, and tried out a new restaurant in Salem on the way home (http://wordofsalem.com/). Just check out that menu, and get the creme brulee french toast — it was incredible, as was their corned beef hash. Might have changed my life. Might have to stop there anytime I'm driving past Salem. Or near Salem at all.

Rolling on the river

Here are long overdue photos from our weekend trip to Brookings/Gold Beach! We camped in Brookings at a really nice state park, then drove to Gold Beach to ride the famous jet boats at Jerry's Rogue Jets! They still deliver the mail upriver — that's how remote this area is. And the boats take you through all that remote wilderness, which would be difficult to see otherwise.

You can take longer, rapid-running trips, or a shorter, leisurely trip. We did the shorter one, mostly because it was cheaper. But I feel we need to do a longer trip at some point — it sounds like so much fun, and you get so deep into the woods.

Here's the Gold Beach bridge from the boat at the start. We saw a guy hook his first salmon when we drove by him! There were tons of anglers out there, fishing for Chinook salmon.

Further upriver, we came across a ridiculous amount of osprey (as well as other wildlife I couldn't get pics of — lots of deer, and one black bear)! Here's a couple osprey up in a tree, guarding their nest.

The trip was about 40 miles upriver, and the scenery pretty much looked just like this the whole way (with the occasional bank fisherman waving as we passed). There were tons of salmon rolling in the river.

And you know powerlines that have those colored floats on them that always span rivers? Well, we passed a few of them, and our guide said they released salt to help the salmon acclimate to the freshwater in the river.

That's obviously ridiculous. Salmon have been here far before we figured their life cycles out. But too many people in that boat completely believed him. Hilarious.

Here's the view from dinner, where we had an awesome blackberry cobbler. I could eat it every day, truthfully. But it's in Agness, population less than 100, and it would take hours to drive there along the Agness Highway from U.S. Highway 101. Hours.

Our boat, from the bank of the river. We were enjoying nature before we hopped back on the boat — it was HOT there.

Another view from where we ate dinner. There were tons of incredible house along the river as well, but I don't have photos, sorry. Some of them are only accessible by boat, if you can believe it.

View back upriver as we headed back toward the ocean. Just a perfect day.

And the bridge, with fewer fishermen, as we made our way to dock.

When we got back, we were met by this gorgeous sunset at Harris Beach State Park. We stuck around for awhile before heading back to camp.

On our way home the next day, we stopped at Whaleshead Beach, a park just north of Brookings, that I was recommended to see. It was incredible. Nice wide beach, warm sun and incredible vistas. Did I mention there was basically nobody there?

And the waves crashed thunderously on the beach heading south, creating this enchanting mist. It was a wonderful way to stretch our legs before the long drive home.

My first fish

I went ocean fishing for a story, thanks to Betty Kay Charters out of Charleston. First of all, they are just the NICEST people. Seriously. And so helpful, even for beginners.

So you have to get up super early — I had to be there before 6 a.m. Ugh. I was tired and a bit nervous I wouldn't catch anything. That was silly thinking.

Once we got to our first fishing spot (they have fish finders in the boats so they know exactly where the rockfish are hiding), we were taught how to let out the line until it hits the bottom. As soon as Captain Kathi was done showing me, my line had a bite. My first cast.

I reeled and reeled and reeled and reeled, and when I was too tired to fight this fish, I reeled some more. I was breathing hard as if I'd been running, and my arms were burning. When I finally pulled the fish above the water line, Bam Bam (the deck hand, he was great) netted it and flopped it on the deck.

It was huge. And it was eating another fish. Both were ling cod, the best of the best for these rockfishing trips. I had hooked the smaller fish, but it was too small too keep. Luckily, the big one wasn't letting go of its breakfast, because she got tossed right in my bucket!

Many hours and different fishing spots later, I had my limit of seven rockfish, plus one ling cod. We scooted back to the dock, and they rushed my fish to get weighed. Twenty-nine pounds. Twenty-nine pounds of delicious fish.

Here's the beast, barely fitting in my bucket full of other fish.

A nice guy named James, who was on the same boat and took my pic with the fish after it got weighed, held open its mouth for me. Those teeth are sharp.

Here's me with my fish! Lots of people were taking my picture, and even more were stopping by and asking me about it. Beginner's luck, I tell ya.

Overall, that was one of the most fun things I've ever done for my job (yeah, I was clocked in while I was on the water). I can't wait to do it again.