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Published: January 17th 2008
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I have done it again, and left it too late to update the blog. I didn’t keep a diary, and dates and a lot of details have escaped through the sieve of my mind. So, I am bunching the rest of our Oregon holiday into this one entry.
Three Capes Loop: Cape Mears State Park, Cape Lookout State Park, Cape Kiwanda State Park
When we woke up in Pacific City, we went back to the Pelican pub brewery where we had dinner and were blown away with the views that were just a curtain of black when we had had dinner. The brew pub is right on the beach front, and what an amazing beach. Unfortunately they let 4 wheel drives on this one to. I get quite upset about this. Beaches should be left alone. Also unfortunately they have let development happen right on top of some of the tall sand dunes. You can just see that in ten years time, there will be a concrete wall holding the bank up, and no more sandy beach. But, right now, there was a beautiful sandy beach, a rocky island catching the swell, beautiful, pocketed, sculpted sandstone (though not quite solid
enough to climb - we checked it out!) and, over the headland into Cape Kiwanda, a beautiful, captivating, wild, hypnotic (OK, enough adjectives - my old writing teacher would shoot me by this point) coast to gaze on. There was quite a big swell, so I let my eyeballs catch a few left handers and wipe outs. There were some watch volunteers, as apparently it was a good time to see grey whales, but we did not see any.
Then we jumped back into our petrol guzzler (actually, it was pretty fuel efficient, but still…) and drove along a scenic loop, which included stops at two State Parks - Cape Meares and Cape Lookout. By the time we got to Cape Lookout Park, Jono and I were hanging for a little exercise, so, braving (or simply ignoring) the menacing clouds, we did the “challenging steep” 1 ¾ mile walk down to a secluded beach. It was incredibly beautiful, and though the fog and mist and rain gave it a certain mystery, it would be a great place to come and camp in summer. It was great to stretch the legs too. Then, back in the car and off to
Cape Meares park, home to the very amazing Octopus Tree - a gnarly old Sitka Spruce that did not conform with its peers and grow straight, but instead grew with six candelabra trunks.
Then a few more roadside views as we headed inland on our way to Bend / Sun River.
Sun River
Finding the house that we were staying in was a little challenging, as we were arriving in the dark, and the snow covered roads went round in circles with circles within circles and we did not have a map. Imagine a less organised and condensed Canberra, in the dark, without street lights and Snow covering everything. But we eventually found it. A nice, cozy lodge with a hot tub, a BBQ, a real open fire, lots of delicious food in the kitchen and tons of people, including, of course, Jane, Paul, Attikus and Aislinn. We based ourselves here for a few days, and while everyone else went skiing / snowboarding at Mt Bachelor during the day, Jono and I went and did some sight seeing and less neck-breaking activities:
Smith Rocks
We couldn’t come so close to the first Sports climbing area in North
America, and not at least visit it. We had pretty much given up on the idea of climbing due to the whether and temperature forecasts, but being ever hopeful, we had our stuff with us anyway. And luckily so, because we did end up getting a day of climbing in. It was cool, and fingertips went numb, but it was splendid rock, and while ever the sun was out, it really wasn’t too painful. Great to climb scoops, edges and pockets again. Great just to climb again. It had been a while. One of the locals we met there noticed my repeated putting of hands under naked armpits manoeuvre and gave us some heat pads that you put in your chalk bag and they warm up your fingers. As soon as the sun dipped down behind the rock, it was instantly bone achingly over. At least we got to experience the place, though it was short and sweet. In Autumn or Spring, it would be an awesome place to camp and climb, with a river running right under the cliff line to cool off/clean off in. I’d never get sick of looking at how the dramatic escarpment cuts jagged lines
in the blue expansive sky…
The High desert
One of our other sojourns was to check out the High Desert. Amazing that, in less than two hours you can go from snowy valleys to high desert. As a friend from Canberra (who grew up in this area) said, “Oregon has it all”. It really does: wild coast, lush forest, mountains and desert. It was great to get some more big blue skies. I love the expansive vast horizons in the desert. Freedom to move and roam. Even though the air was cold, I was enjoying feeling sun on my now-pale skin. The high desert was a real mix of beauty and ugliness. Harsh and fragile. Beautiful grasses and flowers and trees growing out of cracked and windswept earth. Blood stained snowy roads. Hunters on 4 wheel motorbikes with carcasses draped over the back, toothy (and toothless grins). Big blue skies. Deep volcanic canyons. Snow covered sand dunes, scared by 4-wheel drive tracks. A dead baby wolf on a fence post, the wind ruffling it’s beautiful coat. Rusted out wrecks - cars, tractors, busses, trucks - depressing looking caravan houses, with hasty fibro extensions, rotting, falling down, going mouldy. Birdsong
and gunshots. Cigarettes butted out into the otherwise clean, pure white snow... just to name a few images that are imprinted in my mind. It would have been great to have a few more days to explore this “other world”.
New Years
We spent New Years Eve in the Lodge that we were all renting out in Sun River. Jono didn’t quite manage to stay up until midnight, and I went to bed within an hour after mid night. I guess this is what happens after you turn 30… haha. I was pretty impressed that I managed to stay up though. We fooled around and drew moustaches on each other with the burnt end of a Champaign cork. Good times.
Saying goodbye to Jane and her family was hard. It was so good to re-connect with her after all of these years. Goodbyes are the hard part of travelling, and I don’t think they ever become easy.
Then it was back “home.”
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