Oregon Coast Romantic Rock Hounding
When things get a bit stressful and
life is pushing in on you past your accepted boundaries, it may be
time to consider an Emergency Coast Rendezvous (ECR). As one might
suspect, ECR requirements tend to soar as the After Work Sun
Availability (AWSA) dwindles. This is how my Kayak Partner and I
found ourselves on the road to the coast on an early Friday afternoon
just around the equinox (autumnal). She had suggested a yurt with
kayaks. I had agreed. She had revised to a condo with Kayaks. I had
agreed. We ended up in a plush resort with no kayaks. I also agreed.
I mean...... you get your own Robe !! And they have a spa!! And there
is a rumor of..... wait for it....... Agates!
(Editor's note: the reservations were a direct result of what happens when life is pushing in on you past your acceptable limits)
(Editor's note: the reservations were a direct result of what happens when life is pushing in on you past your acceptable limits)
(Special Alert for those of my readers
that have some off color expectation for blogs that have the word
'Romantic' in the title: “Robe” is all you get. Perhaps later, in
my Novel)
Clouds and perhaps threatening rain in
Portland. On the Coast? Sun, Sun, Sun!! It is like a weather
inversion weekend. You will hear more non-complaining from me on
this.
Sun on the Beach (At Fogarty Creek) |
There are a lot of places to stay up
and down the Oregon Coast. Some are modern establishments, and some are old
kitsch 50's style mom and pop joints left over from another age. This
weekend we are staying in yet a third type of place, the “old posh
golf club resort”. This arose out of logging fortunes and was
actually built on an old logging site. The great big tree stump out
front has a great big brass plaque celebrating the life of the stump
as a WWI fighter plane.
Yes, you guessed it, we are staying at
Salishan on the bluff's overlooking Siletz Bay in the south of
Lincoln City. Not only is it built up on the hillside, it is sort of
built up in the Trees. With the building designed to fit around the
majesty of the old growth forest. Well, unless the old growth forest
got in the way, then we would have the majesty of an old dead stump
in the breezeway. Still, you gotta admire wood.
My first thought upon driving up was
noticing the many people out on the putting green in their Resort Robes.
“Oh,” I thought, “This must be a custom of the insanely rich to
go golfing in their Robes. They certainly seem to be having a great
time.” I mentioned how cool I thought Robe Putting was to the front
desk clerk and she frowned and hurried off out the back door. When
we emerged from the lobby with our room keys the Robe Putters were no
longer visible. Perhaps they had moved to the driving range (kayak
partner points out that “drinking range” is more likely).
Our room was very nice. Up on the third
floor with a view of the upper canopy and a fireplace. There may have
been a bed. I will have to consult with my kayak partner about that.
For once I was really glad we did not
bring the Kayaks. Lugging those things around takes a lot of work.
But that isn't the bad part. The bad part is that once you have gone
through all of the work of lugging them you feel obligated to use
them. And using them just eats a day. Good exercise, good fun, great
adventure, but eats the day. We were looking for something more open
ended and relaxing. We went rock hunting.
There are a lot of resources you can
get on finding interesting minerals on the Oregon Coast. All of those
resources advise that the best time to go is “in the Late Winter or
Early Spring after a Storm”. The idea is that you want to get there
after the storm surge and rain have washed the top level of sand off
of the beach and exposed the underlying rock and newly churned
gravel. You also want to get there at low tide and before anyone else
gets there and takes all of your good stuff. If you read between the
lines here, you will see that the WORST time to go is in the late
Summer or Autumn when the sand has washed in and covered the rocks
and all of the readily available good stuff has been previously
scoured or buried. So the haul we are going to get this weekend is a
data point for the Worst Time.
Duly Noted.
We picked out a few beaches up and down
the coast from our base of operations and set out on a mission of
discovery.
I wanted to make a point here. Have you
noticed that I keep referring to the “Oregon Coast” and not “The
Beach”? This is a distinction that Oregonians insist on making. I
believe this is partially to discourage people from California from
showing up on their waterfront but it is also to draw attention to
the fact that you don't go to the ocean to go sailing and surfing and
swimming and laying in the Sun. Not In Oregon. You go to take long
walks in the rain and enjoy the stark and majestic Coast Line. My Son
learned this idea one Spring Break when he visited me from Southern
California. I asked him what he wanted to do and he said, “Let's go
the beach!!”. I figure he wanted to see bikinis and I was new
enough to Oregon to entertain that as a sane idea in April. So we
packed up the car and headed that way. Going over the coast range on
Highway 26 the temperature dropped 20 degrees and it started to snow
so hard that we had to detour into the Rest Stop for a while. We
built a snowman. First one he had ever made. Spring Break on the
Oregon Coast.
I don't know what all this talk about The Beach is about. I went to The Beach in California a few times. Once I went to Santa Monica for a training. The beach was beautiful except for the two feet of trash that lined the entire coastline. So much trash that I couldn't walk in the sand safely. So I thought I'd walk in the park on the bluff. There was a beautiful grassy park running the length of the beach. Full of homeless people. Not a few, mind you, but on every bench and on the grass and all over. Not a very pleasant early morning walk for a woman alone visiting The Beach in California. This past May I was in Carlsbad, during a heat wave. We had a beautiful room with an ocean view. I went to The Beach to play in the ocean. It was full of people. I mean, there may have been some sand under them all but who could tell? And they weren't doing anything! Nothing at all! Just laying around, looking at their phones, and each other. I don't even think they knew there was a Huge Ocean right there! I, of course, went swimming, with maybe six other people who dared to touch the water. OK, it was warm, I must admit. And the waves were great. Big, fun waves. When I'd had enough, I got out and couldn't find my stuff. Where did I leave my stuff?? There are acres upon acres of people laying on the beach, how am I ever going to find a little towel that is mine? In Oregon people go to the beach to be out in nature. We play in the sand, get wet in the water, and the rain, and get sandy and sloshy an walk on rocks and try to stay warm (or just get numb quick, that's my best motto). And there are rarely any other people there, unless you go to Seaside in July...
I don't know what all this talk about The Beach is about. I went to The Beach in California a few times. Once I went to Santa Monica for a training. The beach was beautiful except for the two feet of trash that lined the entire coastline. So much trash that I couldn't walk in the sand safely. So I thought I'd walk in the park on the bluff. There was a beautiful grassy park running the length of the beach. Full of homeless people. Not a few, mind you, but on every bench and on the grass and all over. Not a very pleasant early morning walk for a woman alone visiting The Beach in California. This past May I was in Carlsbad, during a heat wave. We had a beautiful room with an ocean view. I went to The Beach to play in the ocean. It was full of people. I mean, there may have been some sand under them all but who could tell? And they weren't doing anything! Nothing at all! Just laying around, looking at their phones, and each other. I don't even think they knew there was a Huge Ocean right there! I, of course, went swimming, with maybe six other people who dared to touch the water. OK, it was warm, I must admit. And the waves were great. Big, fun waves. When I'd had enough, I got out and couldn't find my stuff. Where did I leave my stuff?? There are acres upon acres of people laying on the beach, how am I ever going to find a little towel that is mine? In Oregon people go to the beach to be out in nature. We play in the sand, get wet in the water, and the rain, and get sandy and sloshy an walk on rocks and try to stay warm (or just get numb quick, that's my best motto). And there are rarely any other people there, unless you go to Seaside in July...
But the weather this weekend was sunny
and hot and wonderful. Why..... it was Beach weather!
We had set out pretty early on Friday
from Portland. I think we just barely stayed ahead of the wave of
traffic toward the shore (not beach). We made such great time that we
had some sunlight left to go out and look at some beaches. My MIL had
said that she has found some nice agates down at the mouth of Schooner Creek, by Mo's. That was only 10 minutes away and so we head
over there. On the way we had to drive along the road that runs on
the shore side of Siletz bay. This is a really nice tidal estuary
area. The bay is typical of many of the Oregon Coast tidal bays.
There is a river that dumps in (usually at the north end) and this
seems to create a sand buid up that grows into a barrier spit that
defines the bay. If you look on the map and follow down the coast you
will see this kind of bay pattern repeated a number of times. This
one has some really nice dead logs out in it. It also has some rather
fierce tidal changes.
So, we park close to Mo's and then walk
out on the beach near the mouth of the bay. We got there as the
tide was right at its max flow going out and the water was really
roaring along. Much faster than you could swim or kayak. There were
seals out on the other side playing in the current. We found some
little gravel beds and a few nice but tiny stones. We also had a very
nice walk down the beach to The Inn at Spanish Head. We got back near
the car just in time to watch a wonderful Sunset.
My Partner took this one. |
“You know where the good agates are?”
asked my Partner. “Over there on the other side of the channel. On
the Spit.
The rocks are always better on the oher
side of the impassable stream.
Impassable stream |
So, we went back to the Resort and had
dinner. The food was great, the service was a little iffy. They like
to give you plenty of time and not pressure you. While they were
doing that we got bored and went and found the hostess and paid her.
We could walk back to our room along
this outdooor corridor. It started out at ground level but then went over a bridge through the trees to the other side of the
property where our room was located. Very swank. We sat up in our bed
later and planned our attack on the rest of the weekend.
The next morning we ate breakfast at the resort. The service still sucked. My partner used to run a place like this and she said it is very hard to get trained waiting staff outside of a big city. Instead of getting the professional waiters, you get the kids that didin't get out of town and go to college.
Oh well, Time to go.
First we headed south, through Depot
Bay (Whale watching capitol of the world. Home of the worlds smallest
Harbor) to Beaverly Beach State Park that had beach access that was
listed as a good spot to rock hound. We found a few pretty stones, but no agates.
Next we tried a creek (Fogarty) on the way home. Some interesting
gravel beds, some red jasper.
Beaverly |
Funny ways to Die at The Coast |
We moved on. I wanted to hunt for
stones at “Roads End” so headed out there. Roads End is, as one
might surmise, the end of the road. I am guessing that at one time
this was the actual end of the paved road as it was hard to get
around the Cascade Head headland that starts up just north. Perhaps
you had to go inland a ways and that was just the end of the beach
road (sorry, The Coast Road). Hell, it is still that. Sort of a cool
place, you drive out past the Road's End park down a row of cute
little beach houses. (Most of these places are for rent, which is yet
another way to stay on the beach. We picked a couple out that we
might want to try in the future.) Eventually we came to a little 3
car beach parking lot and we set off from there. We picked this
weekend as a matter of anti-stress need, we really lucked out with
the Sun and More Sun, but the tides were not in our favor. The place
we really wanted to get to, which is beyond the end of the beach
north of Roads End, is really only accessible during low tide. So,
when the tide is low, you can get out around the rocky point into the
agate infested beach and cove on the other side. But if you get
trapped there by the rising waters you die a horrible death which is
filmed by people at the top of the cliffs and posted to You Tube.
(or, as happened last week, rescued by helicopter. I will see if I
can find that video). However, we were spared that fate by the fact
that low tide wasn't going to be until after sunset. Not very easy to
hunt Agates in the dark, you know.
These are Rocks embedded in solid (once Molten?) rock |
However, we did have a really nice
walk down a beautiful beach. The tide was (at least) going out, so we
did have a chance to get some of the first occasional stones on the
sand. Some of them were very pretty (nice grain) and others were even
agates. We went as far north as we could and then started back toward our
car (we were getting a bit peckish). Then in the waves ahead, we saw
this guy. He was, well, perhaps fishing? He was struggling mightily
to do something and he was concentrating on something out in the
waves in front of him. Cold waves that were lapping up to his waist
but not stopping him from his work... what was that? Something in the
water. We were getting closer. There WAS something in the water. It
was a dolphin!! NO..... a fish of some........ It is a Mermaid !!
Yes, and he wasn't fishing, he was
photographing. He was taking pictures of a Mermaid. We walked closer
and took picture of him taking pictures. The mermaid turned out to be
a girl in a Mermaid fin and wet suit, but it looked so adorable and
fun that we watched for awhile. And then, since it was going to
happen whether we participated or not, we stopped and watched the sun
set. It was a really great sunset. That was our second one of the
weekend.
We had dinner at 101 Roadhouse. Or
maybe not. Let me check a map. No, it was Pier 101. This is a quaint
local watering hole containing lots of quaint locals. The place was
really hopping when we got there and so we ended up in eating at the
bar instead of waiting the 20 minutes for a table. I like eating at
the bar (on occasion). The people in the bar are usually happy and
talkative, they all know the bartender, and the bartender gives
good service. The people watching is good too. We had the very young
girl (why didn't she get carded?) out with the older guy with a very
big beard. Second Date thinks my partner. I was thinking first date.
Hard to see how that beard wouldn't be a deal killer. The older
couple next to us was dressed in their Saturday Night out Cowboy gear
including matching shirts, hats, and boots. He too had something of a
beard, but he was a old guy and looked more refined in it. They were
pretty cute. The young woman next to them (and they themselves) had
just come back from a psychic reading. The young woman was not very
impressed. Didn't think the reader was much of a psychic. She put her
hand on my shoulder to ask if she could sit beside me, bought herself
a shot of whiskey, conversed with the older couple and then
disappeared. I find it strange that a seemingly self possessed young
professional woman, buying her own whiskey alone at a bar, would be
talking to strangers about her expectations vis e vis psychic readers
and their magic abilities. Does that show two ways of looking for a
man? (Magic and Bar) Or is that just me projecting my sexist
attitudes onto the limited data available. Please insert your own
interpretation in the comments below. Also please feel free to insert
your own facts including mysterious strangers and zombies.
Oh, we had fish for dinner. It was
really good. I recommend the place. You might consider shaving off
that beard, though (People will talk).
The next morning the sun rose bright
and warm once again. What is gong on here? We can't just let a sunny
day on the beach go. We must explore more. And it turns out.....
Salishan, the resort, is also Salishan
the Golf Country Club and Salishan the ritzydo House by the Golf
Course and Ocean place. As such, they have their own private road
that winds around the golf course and beach homes until it finds its
way out to the end of the spit across from Lincoln City. This spit is
a sandbar thrown up by the ocean and the Siletz River and is what
creates Siletz Bay. This is the very spit that my partner said the
good agates would be found on earlier is this very blog! You need a
card key to get through the gate off of the highway. We had one from
the Resort that they told us it would work until Noon.
We went through the gate, drove a ways, parked at the end of the road and walked the 100 yards across the dunes to the shore. There were a few people walking out there. But not many. It is, essentially, a private access beach. Keeps out the riff raff.
But first we had to pack our stuff and get out to the car. So I am carrying my bag down the stairs to the parking lot and I hear a something hit the roof on the landing above me. What was that. There it happened again. Sounded just like a golf ball hitting the roof. There was another one. What is going on? You know what it is..... this place is so swanky that it has a putting green or perhaps a chipping practice area in their top level rooms. How cool is that? Then I think about it and realize what a silly idea that is. So what is making that noise? Is the sky falling? I get in a positiion where I can see up to the roof and I see a pine cone rolling off the roof and falling to the ground. What? Then I see one fall from a branch. And another one falls. Then I see the squirrel. He is up going along the branch and cutting off one pincone after the next and dumping them onto the roof. Proabably for winter. Sneaky little bugger. He notices me watching him and starts yelling at me. Yeah, Yeah, I am going. Geeze.
We went through the gate, drove a ways, parked at the end of the road and walked the 100 yards across the dunes to the shore. There were a few people walking out there. But not many. It is, essentially, a private access beach. Keeps out the riff raff.
We were directed by a fisherman with a
popeye corn cob pipe (perhaps not all of the riff raff) to a little
bed of gravel. This was in the sand a few hundred feet south of the
parking lot. The gravel was pea to lima bean size and was just below
the high tide mark. The tide was making so we had a few hours. (Editor's Note: The tide was flood, which means coming in. I can't find anything online about a "making tide" except the title of a fiction book) Turned
out the gravel was full of little agates and it was a little wet
still so it wasn't too hard to find them. We ended up laying down in
the rocks and digging through the stones and filling up our pockets
with treasure. Such fun. Nothing big. Nothing too exotic. But lots of
little very round orange and yellow agates.
There Be Agates, ARRRRRRRR |
Seals on the Beach. |
When we got tired of that we walked out
to the end of the spit to see the seals. They were just lazing
around. At this point we were across the mouth of the bay from the
place we went walking on Friday evening. This time the tide was
coming in and the current was not quite as daunting as it had been
the other evening. But still, it didn't really look like ideal Kayak
Portland Meetup type conditions. I was thinking that we might like to
host a KP event out here some time, but I need to figure out good
take-in and tide conditions before I do that.
We found a few more agates. We went
back to the car.
Then we headed North. Our plan is to
have a nice lunch at a place we like and then continue up the coast
to 100 Stair Beach and have one final shot at rock hunting before we
admit the end of the weekend and start home.
Our wonderful lunch place was right off
the road in Nescowin. The Hawk Creek Cafe. It is a very nice little
place. We sat on the patio in the last sun of the season and had
yummy sandwiches and great service. Go there. Tell them Jon sent
you. That always gets a laugh.
I think I want to end this here. I am
rambling and it is getting late. And we didn't find any agates at the
next place anyway......
Well, 100 stair beach is always scenic |
I think that is an agate still in the rock. Left it on the beach for another century or so |
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