Oregon Coast - Bay Area - Crater Lake

15-21 August 2012

(photos to follow)

The trip to visit Paula and Stephen on the Oregon Coast near Waldport had been on our agenda for months but a call from Ginny on the way through Oregon inviting us to visit San Anselmo while sister Mary and brother Rob were there was a surprise. It was farther than we had planned to go but it was a great opportunity to get almost a majority of the Farnsworth siblings together. Crater Lake happened because we needed a place to camp at the halfway point on the way home and it just seemed like a good idea.

15 Aug, Wed - We got going at a reasonable time,stopped for gas at Costco Tumwater, picked up a new radio antenna at HRO Portland (actually in Tigard) and then continued down to hit the coast at Lincoln City. Somewhere south of Depoe Bay C.J. caught sight of a whale not far off shore and we pulled off to watch it spout and breach. We made one more stop to pick up some fresh tuna at Newport before arriving at the Goldman's vacation rental just south of Waldport. Stephen and I made a great charcoal fire for grilling the tuna but then we made the mistake of covering the grill with aluminum foil so it wouldn't stick; that smothered the charcoal and we had to resort to broiling the fish in the oven. It was still very good!

16 Aug, Thu - We spent the day visiting, eating and walking on the beach. Heather made homemade pizza for dinner then we had s'mores cooked over a campfire in the chilly mist.

17 Aug, Fri - Since it was a Friday we assumed there would be no campgrounds available along the coast or in the Redwoods so we just bit the bullet and drove straight on down Rte 101 to San Rafael and on to Ginny and Wally's place. Rob, Mary, and Mary's friend Andy were there as well and shared some of the delicious dinner they had prepared using some of Ginny's line-caught salmon (even though we had stopped for a Quiznos flatbread sandwich in ___ not to mention an ice cream bar at Costco Eureka where we had also tanked up).

18 Aug, Sat - Around mid-day Ginny led the whole group (except for Wally who was working at Ed Levin) on a hike through part of the Marin watershed above her house. It was a  hot day but there was a pretty good breeze up on the ridge where there was a view of the Bay, especially of the Richmond Bridge. Later, after cleaning up we all met at Alma Via for dinner with Mom F. who seems to be holding her own although looking frailer than she was when we last saw her in June. Dessert turned out to be a surprise birthday cake (cakes! one strawberry, the other dark chocolate) for me - well, it was close to my birthday, anyway.

19 Aug, Sun - Mary and Andy dropped by before heading to their respective flights. [Andy, who is a graduate of the Ranger School at Cranberry Lake, NY, is the head arborist for the city of Orlando.]  Since Mary wanted to buy some gifts for her sons, we all went down to San Anselmo to a nifty-gifty shop. Afterward Ginny led C.J. and me on a road/trail route back to the house. Ginny went to Alma Via and we hung out until Wally got back and then C.J. prepared a dinner of steak and more of Ginny's salmon. Rob came over late and got the leftovers.

20 Aug, Mon - C.J. and I left San Anselmo around 1000, stopped for gas at Costco Vacaville and then pushed on up the increasingly-smoky Sacramento Valley. There were fires burning east of Redding so roads to Hat Creek Rim through Burney were closed to traffic. The temperature got up to 100 deg and the Outback's temperature gauge showed that we were close to overheating. We stopped for a break in Mt. Shasta then pushed on to Klamath Falls where I thought we would find gas at a Costco. No Costco! We had to settle for a relatively low price (3.799) at a Pilot station just north of town. We pulled into Mazama Campground at Crater Lake around 1800 just as the Xanterra agent was putting out the "Campground Full" sign. I guess he didn't really mean it because there were still a number of the more expensive RV pull-through sites available. It was pleasant to eat dinner outside in the evening light. Later we took a walk around the campground and discovered a trail along the bluff above Annie Creek which we determined to explore the next day. We got back to our site in time to grab a flashlight and a fleece vest for the campfire program - Statesmen and Photographers (and how they helped lead to the creation of the National Park system in the US).

21 Aug,  Tues -Up early (before dawn, for us very early), we followed the Annie Creek trail along the lip and then down into the canyon eroded in the welded ash of one eruption or another. We didn't spot any early-morning critters but the sun rose as a glowing red ball, the result of forest fire smoke in the air. Back at camp we ate, took down the tent and headed up to the Rim Drive. A few miles along the rim we stopped for a walk up The Watchman (named for the watchers who directed the first scientific expedition as they attempted to measure the depth of the lake). The fire tower on the summit was unmanned this morning but the view of the lake and Wizard Island from the rocks was pretty incredible. Heading north out of the park we turned NW to pass by Diamond Lake and Mt Thielsen. We ran into some construction which delayed us but the North Umpqua Hwy (OR 138) was still scenic enough to make up for the loss of time. In Glide, at Colliding Rivers rest area, we crossed to the north side of the Umpqua and joined I-5 north of Roseburg. From there it was just another long slog on the freeway to home with a stop at Woodburn Costco for gas.