Getting There - Aneel's Travelogue

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Into Oregon

Patrick's Point, CA to Eel Creek Campground, OR, Tuesday, 09 August 2011 10:00pm

Packing up went pretty smoothly, and I managed to get underway before 10:30. I think it'll go more quickly once I'm practiced at it.

I swung by Hawg Wild, hoping they served a venison breakfast or something. It's not clear if they are closed because it's too early in the day, because it's the wrong part of the year, or for good. I ended up having breakfast a couple doors down at a cafe.

I stopped for a few minutes in Redwood National Park to watch a small herd of wild elk grazing in a meadow. They seemed utterly unconcerned by the traffic on US 101. I left the highway for a while and took the scenic route through the park. It's a gorgeous road alongside huge trees.

There was an electronic sign warning that there were people on the Klamath River Bridge, and sure enough, there was a small crowd looking off of the bridge at something in the river. I stopped on the far side and walked back to discover that there was a whale swimming in circles below the bridge. It would surface a couple of times in its circuit and blow water into the air.

I left California at about 1:15. This is the first time my motorcycle has been outside of California for years (it stayed in California the whole time it was in Mexico). I stopped at various scenic overlooks in Oregon. The coast is breathtaking. There were some llamas by the Pistol River, for no apparent reason.

The place I'd hoped to eat in Gold Beach turned out to be dinner-only. I had my late lunch at the Y Knot Cafe, a Hawaiian-themed lunch spot with very friendly staff and good crab patty sandwiches.

In order to get my serving of kitsch, I stopped at the Prehistoric Gardens, a collection of life-sized concrete dinosaur sculptures in the forest. They were pretty cool, and included some fun factoids, including which species was probably T-Rex's favorite snack.

I made a quick stop at the Botanical Garden at the Shore Acres State Park, which had some pretty flowers, but less variety than I would have liked.

I'm camped at Eel Creek, a US Forest Service site. My campsite has a private path up into the dunes. Tomorrow morning I mean to do a hike duneward.

218mi in 8:15

Comments

	g-na (Anonymously) Thursday, 18 August 2011 6:52am
Sadly, the whale died not long after you saw her :( http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-16/us/california.gray.whale_1_gray-whale-adult-whale-killer?_s=PM:US