9/6/2017 - Drive to Patricks Point State Park, California

Wednesday - Well, we are done with Oregon.  We loved our time there, all except for the smoke the last week.  Fortunately, we got up this morning to heavy sea mist coming in off the ocean, no smoke.  Winds must have finally changed.

We had a short drive today, so we decided to run into town and get the laundry caught up, especially since we had some wet things from yesterday's boat ride.  By the time we got that taken care of, de-camped, and fueled at Fred Meyers, it was 11:40 before we finally got started.  In Oregon, gas stations still have attendants who pump gas for you.  Some stations have self-service islands too, but not all of them.  So this was our last chance to take advantage of the attendants, as well as pay Oregon price instead of California price for gas ($2.889 with our 3 cent discount).

Heading south on the 101, there were a couple of things I wanted to get pictures of.  My camera did not want to focus, so my pictures aren't great, but I did get something.  The first one is a field of some "red" crop, which they had harvested since we drove through here the other day.  I have no idea what they were growing here, but it looked like it had been combined.

The other picture is of statues of horses at a horse stables.  The interesting thing about these metal statues is that they were made from horseshoes.  We had seen these twice before but not got a picture then either.

We crossed the California state line about 11:45, it's only about 5 miles from Brookings.  There is a fruit check here, but fortunately it was not doing inspections today, so I got to keep my peach, 2 oranges, 4 tomatoes, and grapes.  We passed a herd of elk (30-40) in the front yard of one ranch just outside Crescent City, but we saw a lot more elk in California just before we reached our campground.  And we saw 2 deer in our park (or the same one twice).  There's supposed to be bears around the park, so we will be on the alert.

We got checked in and found our campsite about 1:45.  Joe had to get some wood out to level us, so our front right tire is off the ground again.

And then he got his tinker toys out to get our step put together.  Since we are a little high, it took all his boards.

 Our drive was only 85 miles, - took us 2 hours, but we did have some road construction that we had to stop for 3 or 4 times.  We are dry camping in Patricks Point State Park, where there is an agate beach (of course, there's a steep trail downhill to it, which means it's uphill on the return -- we can't just drive to it). 

The Visitor Center here in the park was closing at 3:00 today, so as soon as we got set up, we drove up there and got some maps and information.  I even got an identification card for agates!!!  Then, of course, we took a drive!  We went looking for Trinidad to get some lunch, then stopped at the Trinidad State Beach and walked down to the water.  We didn't see any agates here. Then we drove around some scenic road that needed some work on it, came out in Westhaven, got back on the 101 and returned to the campground. 

We decided to drive around the park here a little, since we now had a map, checking out the scenic points which apparently all require hikes.  We walked down the agate trail a little bit, met a couple coming up and she had 6-7 rocks, some agates, in her pocket.  Then we headed back to camp.

We are in a pretty tight campsite.  In fact, Joe maneuvered it a little to get the slides out and allow us enough room to walk around.  Since we are dry camping, we pulled in, rather than backing in.

We got back to the RV about 5:00 and were in for the night.  It was about 64 degrees all day today, and sometimes we were driving through sea mist so heavy that Joe had to turn on the windshield wipers.  Seemed like a good night for chili, so that's what I made for dinner.  We weren't sure we would have phone or internet signals at our campsite, but we do, so that's good.  Now if we can just find some agates tomorrow!

9/5/2017 - Rogue River Boat Trip

Tuesday - Today's adventure was our jetboat ride on the Rogue River, 52 miles each way.  We were up and on the road early, our check-in was 8:30 but we were there before 8:00.  Joe checked out the boat first, then, of course, I had to get in.

Actually, here's the fleet. 

While we were looking at them, we heard sirens and could see smoke, then fire, just across the Rogue River.  Just what Oregon needs - another fire!  Looked like a house or vehicle fire, and they got it out pretty quickly.  We could see 3 fire engines over there, we were surprised that many were available, with their fire resources stretched so thin fighting the Chetco Bar fire here.

Here's a map of our route.  This river actually comes from a spring whose headwater comes out of Crater Lake.  The Illinois River comes in from the bottom of the picture to join it.

We got loaded, 27 total I think.  I chose an inner seat, Joe wanted to be on the outside of course.

Our boat driver worked his way out of the dock area and through all the fishing boats at the mouth of the river.  And they were seeing some action!!

There were a lot of fishing boats out here.  We actually thought about coming back here tomorrow and hiring a fishing guide, but the prices ($150/person for 1/2 day) persuaded us not to pursue that idea.

Our driver was good, did quite a bit of narration, had a sense of humor and a sense of adventure.  We got to see a myrtle tree, which Joe had been curious about because a lot of the gift shops have myrtle wood pieces (bowls, etc.)

We saw an eagle pretty quickly, then 2 coyotes, then a black bear.  We also saw a river otter, several deer, a turtle, a couple more eagles, several osprey and hawks, Canadian geese, blue herons, egrets, and various other birds and/or water fowl.  Most of that we didn't get pictures of, but here's what we got.  Between my camera acting up and the animals not cooperating, we missed most of them.  (Those river otters are FAST!)

We came upon Fish and Wildlife seine-netting, looked like they had been pretty successful.  They told us the water temperature was 62 degrees.

We saw several little waterfalls on the river, here are a couple.

The river was slick as glass, except where the rapids were.  Our driver liked to spin the boat too, which created its own rapids, so we definitely got wet.  We had a lady in front of us who cackled and hid her face every time we spun or hit rapids, and her companions all laughed loudly at her -- got a little annoying after several hours of that.

We passed one sandbar set up with tents, and a young boy across the river from them with a fishing pole.  Didn't see him catch anything, unfortunately.  We met another boat a little later that had landed a beautiful salmon, which the lady proudly showed us.

We passed fish camps, lodges, and RV parks in the early part of the ride, but after about halfway, there were no roads to the river.  The river is divided into 3 sections -- recreational, scenic, and wilderness.  Jerry's Rogue Riverboats are the only commercial company with licenses to go into the wilderness section. but we did see several other rafters and one other private jet boat upriver.  The first section ends after 32 miles at Agnes, where we made a pitstop and a 300-ft hike uphill to go to the bathrooms and the restaurant.  An SUV was waiting to haul anyone up the hill who was unable (or unwilling) to make the hike.  We of course hoofed it right up there.

We shared a muffin, then loaded back up. At this point, we had to put on life jackets for the next 50-miles of the trip.  Our boat was 32 ft long, 12 ft wide, and had 1100 hp provided by three six-liter Vortec Chevy engines.

Here come the rafters.

At our turn-around point, we had crossed some class-3 rapids, but ahead of us were class-4, so that was as far as we could go.  The rafters had probably come through them, but our driver said they usually get out and walk around them.

We passed this awesome tree, that our driver called a "pinosaur (rhymes with dinosaur) tree.

We stopped back at our Agnes stop for a buffet lunch (back up the 300 ft hill).  The smoke seemed to have worsened on our way back downriver.

We got back to the boat dock about 3:30, but it was a fun day.  We were still a little wet, even though we wore our raincoats (first time this trip) and our zip-off, nylon pants (first time this trip).  There was a photographer on the bridge so we got a picture of our boat load.  I was a little apprehensive about this jetboat ride (well, maybe a little more than a "little"), but it actually was fun, not bumpy, comfortable, and we saw beautiful scenery and some wildlife.  All in all, an excellent adventure!

On our way back to the campground, we stopped at a couple pull-offs that we had missed before.  Arch Rock was a nice one, and it even had some wildlife!

Visibility had improved somewhat here on the coast, and the ocean color was actually showing signs of emerald (as opposed to gray, same as the smoke).  We are moving on tomorrow, about 60 miles south to the Trinidad area, hoping to get into Patrick Point State Park, where there is an agate beach.  We hope to be out of the smoke!!