A Visit from Family...

June 6, 2013

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

I had a special visitor yesterday.  My son Sean, who lives and works near Port Angeles, WA, drove down to visit me for a day.  He is the Sous Chef/Chef de Cuisine for the Lake Crescent Lodge in the Olympic National Park.  He has the same days off this week as I have so he drove down to visit yesterday.  We haven’t seen each other since last November and it was certainly pleasant to spend some time with him.  Unfortunately, he had to leave about an hour ago to drive back to Lake Crescent.  And it is about an eight hour drive.  It was most fun, but way too short a visit.

He had not been in this area before, so I gave him the dollar tour.  We drove down by Winchester Bay, about six miles south of Reedsport, OR, to show him some of the Dunes, up close and personal.  We drove out the Umpqua Beach #3 Dune camping area.  This is a somewhat developed parking/picnicking area about 5 miles south of Winchester Bay, nestled in between the ocean

and the Dunes.  There are about 50 Dune camping sites along this stretch…no water, no electricity, just sand on which to park your camper or tent.  Today the wind was fairly fierce.  I would not have wanted to camp anywhere close with all the sand and dust blowing around.  To provide you with a sense of the scale, the Dunes in these pictures are about a half mile away (or more) and probably rise to between 200 and 400 feet.  The greenery you see on the Dunes is fully grown pine trees.

On the return from the beach area, we drove up to the Upqua Light House.  The Light House is an operating Light House that still shines out to sea to assist boats and ships approaching the coast.  It sits on the bluff, overlooking the entrance from the Pacific Ocean to the Umpqua River.  The surf today, at the entrance to the river, was fairly mild.  I have seen some days where the curls of the waves at the entrance were as high as the jetty protecting the mouth of the river.  Wind was up today but apparently blowing in the right direction to less the impact of the river flowing out to meet the ocean trying to flow in.  The Umpqua Light has been around for quite a while, and according to the sign out front, was the first light on the Oregon Coast.

Insert pictures of Light house and view…

While driving back through Reedsport, we stopped for a visit to the Reedsport Skate Park.  This is a rather elaborate skateboard/skate/bicycle park with both Street and Vert areas to skate.  For those of you with no knowledge of the terms Street or Vert(icle) types of skating/skateboarding, look at the pictures and you can probably discern the different portions of the park.  

The Vert sections are like swimming pool depressions that allow the skateboarders to drop down into the bowls and make jumps or ride the interiors of the bowls.  The Street skateboarders use the flat areas around the rim of the park for conducting the tricks with the skateboard.  Notice that there are some rails, a bench or two, a handrail down the steps, the steps (to jump down or up), the ramps with the metal edges for sliding along with the skateboard.  This park is a very elaborate and extensive park.  Sean has been skateboarding since he was about eight and enjoyed the tour of the park.  The big circular ramp, that looks like a bridge is used by the skaters/skateboarders to ride both the inside tube and the outside ramp down into the bowls.  A good skateboarder (or maybe a little crazy skateboarder) can actually do an entire loop around the inside of the tube.  I have seen it done, but they were very, very good.

On the drive back north to the campground, we turned off and stopped about three miles south of the Tahkenitch Landing, on FiveMile Rd so that Sean could get another view of Tahkenitch Lake.  The lake is not very wide but is extensive.  There are three or four major arms of the lake with another half dozen minor arms.  With 25+ miles of shoreline, the lake seems to go on for a long time.  There are railroad tracks that span most of the lake with five trestles winding their way from the south to the north.  I can see one from the boat launch area of the campground.  The one in the picture is another.  One of these days, I am going to find a way to get a tour of the lake.

So Sean has left for the great North Woods and I am here in Irv, looking out the window at the lake and I miss him already.  I am going to try and go visit him if I can in the next few weeks.  But now I have to run an errand to Roseburg, OR, to return something that I bought for Irv, but don’t need anymore. 

If you have any questions, or would like to know more about my summer,  leave a comment, ask a question, let me know what you think.

Until next time…

Alone again, Naturally...

June 3, 2013

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

It is the beginning of a new calendar week, but for me it is Friday…!  The weekend was a busy one with the Florence, Oregon, Lions Club hosting their 31^st Annual Bass Fishing Derby on beautiful Tahkenitch Lake.  There were eleven teams/boats for the contest and every team/boat caught some bass.  The winning team, over the day and a half tournament, caught six fish for a total weight of 17 lbs, 12 oz.  The next closest contestant bagged four bass with a total weight of 13 lbs, 15 oz.  The number 11 team caught one fish that weighed in at one pound.  Besides all the bass, the teams also caught trout, perch and crappie.  Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves and the trophies were passed around. 

In addition to the fishing tournament, there were some non-participants staying in the campground also.  In fact, this weekend was the most crowded the campground has been since my arrival at the beginning of May.  No fewer than eight campsites were in use this weekend, a regular crowd.  We even had a visitor from British Columbia in the camp.  Wow!

But, alas, by 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, I was alone again, just the motor home (Irv) and me.  The wind was blowing pretty hard on Sunday afternoon and quite hard again yesterday afternoon.  There were white caps on the lake.

The advantage to this location, especially when you are the only person in camp, is that at night, there is no light pollution.  So, on a clear evening, stepping out of Irv for a walk or just to look at the stars is quite spectacular.  The wind normally dies down approaching sunset or just after sunset.  I enjoy the quiet look at the night sky.  The full dark doesn’t come to my location until between 9:30 and 10:00 p.m.  And in the dark sky the stars are very bright.  I could stand (or sit) for hours just looking at the stars.  And if you move down to the boat launch area, you have no trees nearby to block your view.  When there is no traffic on the highway (U.S. Hwy 101), you can hear the surf from the beach beyond the Dunes, almost a mile of horizontal distance west. 

I have some bad news.  Remember the picture I posted last time, the one with the family of geese?  There were two adults and four juveniles.  I had taken the picture about four or five days before my last post.  The geese were very shy around any human.  I would walk around the campground and they would head for the lake as soon as I came into view.  Well, I saw them again last Wednesday evening and the family had lost two of the juveniles.  Mom and Dad were now escorting just two little ones.  I don’t have any idea what may have happened, but there are several Bald Eagles in the area and many other predators, so I would have to guess that something bigger and nastier was at fault.

Irv is parked at the entrance to the campground so that I can be available to anyone who has a question about the campground or directions or questions of any kind.  Irv is parallel to the highway facing north.  This means that as I sit typing this story, I can watch the lake, in all its windy glory.  On these clear days, then, as sunset approaches, Irv is in shadows behind the trees and bushes lining the highway.  Later on, as the sun gets lower in the sky, the shadows move toward the lake.  The Dunes to the west of the highway are substantially higher than the land/trees on this side of the 101.  So, as the sun reaches for the horizon, the trees on the other side of the lake show quite vividly in the setting sun.

This is the beginning of my second month as the camp host here and I have enjoyed each day.  I meet a lot of folks, work with some good people in the Forest Service and have a stunning place to live and work.  If you are planning a visit to Oregon, please don’t hesitate to stop by.  I’ll give you the tour.   

Until next time….

June 4, 2013

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

Ok, it’s next time already.  The juvenile geese I spoke of, well, Mom and Dad were down by the docks near the boat ramp, and the two juveniles that I saw last week have been working out, obviously, because they are more like middle teens now.  Boy have they grown in the last week.  They appear to have almost doubled in height and weight in the last seven days.  They must be living right.  Or at least the surviving juveniles are living right.

Before, and During, Memorial Day Weekend

May 23, 2013

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR

 

I posted a new episode today on the Oregon Dunes 4 the Summer blog.  I am having trouble posting more often than once a week or so.  The opportunity for internet usage at the campground is intermittent, and certainly not strong enough to save and post a missive.  So I have to wait to go to town, 7+ miles away in Reedsport.   It’s amazing what you learn about cell service and wi-fi service and any kind of network availability in the north woods.  I use Verizon for my cell and network service.  In Reedsport, a town of about 2,500 folks, Verizon is pushing 4G service on their cell system.  In Florence, about 15 miles north of me, a town of about 4,500 folks, Verizon is withering away with intermittent 3G service that will just drop off without any notice.  Hell, I have as good or more consistent Verizon service in the campground.  

I am told by the Verizon folks, that they are upgrading the whole wireless system on the Oregon Coast.  They started near the California line and are moving north, up the coast, a town at a time.  They finished Reedsport and are now working on Florence.  Doesn’t help get my phone calls completed or my internet usage handled.  So, if I can avoid it, I don’t try to complete anything of importance with Verizon in Florence or points north, along the coast.

So let me tell you about the fun time I had yesterday.  My normal days off are Tuesday and Wednesday of each week.  On Tuesday, I woke up about 5:30 to rain, not just any rain, but solid, heavy rain beating on the roof of Irv (my RV).  Not a problem, rain here falls heavily, lets up a bit, stops sometimes, maybe all day, maybe not, rains some more, turns to mist, and so I wasn’t worried about it.  I had plans to drive to Eugene (It is raining now, but wasn’t a few minutes ago, but had been during dinner, hard).  I had a bunch of errands to run and didn’t mind the wet.  I have a rain jacket after all.  It rained all day Tuesday.  I got back here about 7:00 p.m., had some dinner, read and went to bed, listening (like now) to the sounds of rain on the roof.  I slept well, but about 6:30 Wednesday morning, I rolled over and realized that I was not only a bit chilly, but my foot was laying on wet sheets.  Irv apparently had a leak in the roof.  And it was still raining as hard as it could.  When I finally got hold of the RV shop about ten of 8:00 a.m., I was packed, unhooked from power, water, sewer and phone (I have a landline, courtesy of the Forest Service) and ready to drive to Florence.  I got there about 9:00ish and the RV wizard showed that it was not the window (on the front of Irv), but the roof seam on the front of the motor home.  While the repair was much less expensive and somewhat easier to accomplish technically, because of the pouring rain, Irv had to be moved indoors to be dried off and warmed up (temps yesterday hit a high of about 45 – 48 degrees).  In addition to being in a hurry to get the roof problem fixed, I sort of didn’t get or fix any breakfast.  As Irv was getting dry and warmed up, I also had no way to prepare any food in Irv, nor have any transportation to a food place.  My other vehicle was 15 miles away and useless to me at that moment.  Thank god for Triple A.  The RV shop is the emergency road service Triple A go-to place and they had just gotten a call for a person who had locked themselves out of their car.  So I got to ride along and afterwards, the road service guy took me to McDonalds for a bite.  The rest of the day, until about 5:00 p.m., I spent in the RV shop waiting room, trying to stay warm and waiting for Irv to be finished and drivable.  The interesting thing is that with all the waiting, the amount of labor expended on the repairs to Irv was only two hours.  Eight hours of time, two hours of labor, 6 hours of waiting for things to dry.  Not my favorite day in Oregon. (And it’s still raining)

May 27, 2013

Tahkenitch Landing Campground

Gardiner, OR  

Today was just beautiful, sunny, some breeze, cool and the beginning of the Memorial Day Weekend.  Last evening there was just one campsite in use by some folks who are down from Portland, suffering through their first furlough day of the work year.  The couple both work for the IRS and there are five furlough days ahead for  each of the employees of the IRS in Portland…and maybe two additional if the feds can’t come to some agreement.

This morning was mostly clear and sunny.  By about 10:30 or 11:00 a.m., the day use area, boat docks, boat ramp and picnic area were in use by a couple of families, some kayakers, and folks just out for a visit.  There was a bald eagle flying around, a V of geese heading north, a float plane departing from one of the arms of the lake and a variety of boats heading out onto or returning from the lake.  Wow, real activity around the campground and the day use area.   It also looks like I’ll have some campsites in use this weekend.  For Saturday evening, there were four of 25 campsites in use, a banner weekend for the campground.  And, naturally, more rain, into the evening.

I finished up the weekend with 3 campsites used all weekend.  And it rained rather hard on Sunday evening and most of Monday.  But the campers forged onward.  Boating, fishing, hiking and sitting around the campfire between bouts of rain.  The folks told me they had  great time, but a bit damp. And some of the visitors had some success with the fishing thing...mostly trout, but some crappie also.

Thank you all Veterans and Active Duty Military for your service.  Thanks, Dad...

This process is interesting...

Sitting here in in the dinette area of Irv, I am looking out on the lake, watching the geese, boaters, birds of prey, the wind across the water, deciding what to write about today.  

It's been raining over the last couple of days.  Last night it woke me a couple of times with its intensity.  I am told that Oregon needs rain.  The folks who come to visit this lake and campground tell me often, that the lake is at the "lowest level they have ever seen" or "lowest level they have seen in years" or "they don't remember ever seeing the lake water level this low".  I have only known the lake for just over two weeks, so I have no opinion about lake water levels, or whether or not we need rain. Seems to be a lot of mosquitos around.  Sure doesn’t seem that dry.

Let me tell you about the lake…Lake Tahkenitch, my current location and home.  The lake is, I am told, the largest undeveloped lake on the west coast. Tahkenitch is 1674 acres and the shoreline is 25.5 miles long. According to the information I am using (Atlas of Oregon Lakes, Johnson et al. 1985;  http://www.aol.research.pdx.edu/?q=lake/383), the word Tahkenitch is an Indian word which translates to “many arms”.  When you look at an map or an aerial photograph of the lake, you can easily see the many arms.  Tahkenitch Lake was formed as a result of fluctuating sea level during and after the Pleistocene Epoch.  There is one resort on the lake, adjacent to U. S. Highway 101. There is also a Forest Service campground and boat ramp near the highway (The Forest Service boat ramp and campground are at my location) and a public launch provided by Crown Zellerbach (The primary landowner in the area).  I find it interesting to see the number of folks, in cars/trucks/vans/motorhomes, who drive in, stop for a brief view, use the public restrooms and depart.  Just this morning, there have been three trucks pulling boats, who pulled down to the boat ramp launch area, spent a few minutes (very few), and then pulled out, never getting their boats wet.  I guess I don’t quite understand why, if you have a boat on a trailer behind your truck, why not launch the boat and go fishing?

We arrived in Oregon, specifically Reedsport, Oregon, on April 29^th, after a relatively short drive from Roseburg, Oregon, and the Rising River RV Park, along the banks of the Rogue River. 

We had driven from Roseburg to Reedsport along the Umpqua River.  A beautiful and scenic route of about 70 miles, most of which was on a highway along the river.  Of course, prior to leaving Roseburg, we found it necessary to stop and visit with the folks in the tasting room at the Spangler Vineyards.  We met Pat Spangler, owner and wine maker, and had an enjoyable taste of his products, very enjoyable.  We favor reds and Spangler had some excellent reds.  We bought a bottle of their 2010 Malbec.

After our arrival in Reedsport, we were given a space at the Carter Lake Campground for a couple of days, until the camp host I was replacing moved out.  On the Thursday before my move in, we moved Irv to the Tahkenitch Landing Campground for the overnight and then drove the truck to Eugene in preparation for Deborah to fly back to Phoenix.  Very different climate between the coast and Eugene…cool, damp to warm, dry.  We spent the night in Eugene, ate some good food, went to a live broadcast of “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me”, and then, in the morning, took Deborah to the airport for her flight. 
So, now I am living alone for the summer.  More to come….