Sisters Creekside Campground, Sisters, OR

 

It was another scenic drive from Eugene to Sisters, crossing the Cascades at 4,800’, a fairly gradual climb. It was nice to occasionally get a glimpse of snowcapped mountains again.

Although we have friends camp hosting in a couple of the National Forest campgrounds at Camp Sherman, about 15 miles from Sisters, they don’t have useable cell or internet there so we decided to just spend a few nights at the Sisters Creekside Campground, owned by the city. It is just a short walk from here to the cute little downtown.

If you are 60 or older, it is $10/night to dry camp here, normally $15. They do have water, bathrooms, and a dump for $5 more. All of the other RVs are in the hookup sites around the perimeter, so we have the middle area to ourselves.

Just across a covered bridge over Wychus Creek is a park, and just a couple more blocks from there you are downtown.

We walked around town and looked in some of the shops, then had a beer at Three Creeks Brewery, which turned out to be a disappointment compared to the last couple breweries we’ve visited.

Yesterday we took a drive to Camp Sherman, where our Lazy Daze friends Chris, and David (minus Nola), are camp hosts. Chris took us on a great hike along the Metolius RIver to a gorge. That is a really pretty area, and there are some nice campsites right on the river.

Lots of nice vacation homes on the other side.

We made a friend on the trail. Russ and Donna, we thought of you!

David was home from work when we were heading back, so we stopped and chatted for awhile. We were all last together at Mittry Lake in February.

Me, David Chris and Debbie.

After we got home last evening we walked a couple blocks to Hop N Bean, a nice little restaurant with a bunch of great craft beers on tap. The pizza was very good, too.

We really like the little town of Sisters. Although the population is only 2,000, and tourism is the main industry, it is very quaint and rustic, no tacky tourist feel to it. There are also 25 miles of mountain bike trails and the trail head is just a few blocks from our campground, so that’s what’s on the agenda today. After laundry, that is.

Hanging At the Mall, Eugene, OR

 

It was a scenic drive along Hwy 126 east from the coast at Florence to Eugene. We had read about free camping at the Valley River Center on freecampsites.net and several blogs. This is just parking near a shopping mall where you can spend two nights in a quiet lot behind the center. We weren’t sure exactly where to park, so we stopped in the lot and a security guard pulled up momentarily. He had us fill out a registration form to put in our window, and told us exactly where we could park for our two night stay.

Since there were no other RVs there yet we pulled parallel to the Willamette River right next to the Ruth Bascom Riverbank Trail. How nice to have a view of the river and the trail. After lunch we went for a 12 mile  bike ride on the trail. Crossed over a couple bridges and even went through a bit of downtown and found ourselves in a rose garden. Eugene looks like a great place to live.

We really like the beer and pizza at BJs Restaurant and Brewery and noticed there was one in front of the mall, so we invited Russ and Donna to join us for happy hour last evening. They are fellow Lazy Daze owners living in Eugene who some of you may know from the blog Travels in Therapy. We had not met before but have communicated over the years through our blogs and emails. We spent a fun couple of hours getting to know them and hope our paths cross again one day.

Sorry guys, the “funny” picture didn’t turn out at all so I had to use this one.

Today was spent shopping at nearby Trader Joe’s and Safeway, a walk to the mall looking for a few things we didn’t find, and then a couple of walks on the trail in between some rain showers, It actually turned out to be a nicer day than the weatherman predicted.

This pretty area is just a short walk from our “site”.

Sunset from our living room last night.

Looks like there is a lot to do around Eugene but that will have to wait for another time. Tomorrow we’re heading to Sisters.

Oh, this fifth wheel pulled in this afternoon. He tried backing in behind Debbie but didn’t fit for the tree limbs. He managed to take a couple with him when he pulled out to move in front of us, and didn’t bother to remove them. We have no idea where the sod came from or why it’s there, but it appears to be tied down under the generator. And the driver was also wearing a hard hat. Quite peculiar.

Sitting at the Dock of the Bay

 

After waking to cloudy skies and drizzle, the clouds parted and we had a lovely Memorial Day. Suzanne, Debbie and I took a long walk to the Hughes House at Cape Blanco. Somehow we were there five days and just didn’t get around to it sooner.

It was a nice tour of a beautifully restored Victorian home. The Hughes family obviously had a very successful ranch. Their view was quite nice, too.

We said our goodbyes to Suzanne and drove another 75 miles north on 101 to Winchester Bay near Reedsport and the Salmon Harbor Marina. Basically a parking lot with picnic tables and grills for $15/night, no hookups, but there are restrooms with pay showers, potable water, and a dump for another $5. And we didn’t have to unhook.

After too much time spent under trees along the coast, the sun was much appreciated. We walked across the bridge to the small downtown of Winchester Bay and watched the gulls and geese. A nice relaxing place to spend the night.

Reflections on the Coast

 

I bet we’ve walked more miles of beaches along the Pacific coast in the short time we’ve been here than we did along the Gulf coast beaches of Florida the entire time we lived in Pensacola. There is a lot to be said for retirement.

We find the beaches here are much more interesting to us, with the rugged bluffs, rocks, wild surf, and tide pools. I noticed a small day use state park, Floras Lake, just a few miles north of Cape Blanco. Suzanne and Debbie joined us for a drive up there to hike the trail to Blacklock Point, where we were hoping to find some good tide pools.

After 1.5 miles through the woods we came to the point. Unfortunately there was no way down to the beach.

Nice views of the coast from the point. You can see Cape Blanco jutting out in the distance.

We finally located the steep trail down and found what we were looking for. Lots of sea creatures.

Yesterday we walked the beach just north of the lighthouse at low tide and found more and better tide pools.

There were also a couple surfers, though not much surf.

We continued walking down the beach and came to our turn around point, the mouth of the Sixes River.

We interrupted the vultures having a nice meal that washed up in the surf. Anybody know what this is? Debbie was afraid the dogs would roll in it, but Rupert just walked up and peed on it. You gotta love dogs!

We could not have picked a better place to spend this holiday weekend. It’s been very quiet, the weather has mostly been good, and we’ve enjoyed spending more time with Suzanne. Today we move on.