Small Things on the Oregon Coast

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Only two and a half miles north of Depoe Bay is Fogarty Creek Beach, the destination for today’s morning walk. Specifically, we are visiting the south side of the creek and arrive with big expectations of seeing small things.

Sea Star during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

This morning was low tide, so low that it’s referred to as a negative tide, meaning even more seafloor than normal is exposed. This phenomenon will be continuing through the weekend, though we are expecting throngs of people to show up on Saturday and Sunday to visit the tidepools along with us. Today, though, we were nearly alone out here, just us, the sea stars, some cormorants, and a few people here and there during the nearly two hours we peered into pools, cracks, crevices, and right upon the surfaces where the exposed sea life clings fast waiting for the return of their universe.

Mussels during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Blue mussels had me feeling inspired to buy a harvesting permit from the state of Oregon, but Caroline reminded me that there was a warning sign, which I even took a photo of (see above), that there is a toxin in shellfish along the coast that makes them too dangerous to eat. Drats.

Lined chiton during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Caroline was enchanted upon learning that the German name of chitons is Kaeferschnecke or beetle snail. If you are wondering why that’s special, you’d need to know something about her childhood family nickname: Schnecke (snail). The specimen seen here is a lined chiton (Tonicella lineata).

Sea anemone during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

While there were only a few tide pools holding enough water for the sea anemones to be open, what there was can only be described as perfect. Such beautiful animals.

Sea anemone and Starfish during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

A scene of relative calm, tranquil even, just some sea stars and anemones living as neighbors.

Gooseneck Barnacles and Starfish during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

The same cannot be said for the crowd here at the buffet. Sea stars love eating mollusks, and of course, YouTube was happy to oblige me with a video, replete with menacing music, a haunting voice narrating the horror about to unfold (meaning the stomach of the sea star), and some obligatory sound effects of sloshing and slurping to accompany the sea star monster turning the nice pink mussel with no means of escape into a nutrient-rich soup, a broth quickly absorbed by this terror of the ocean.

Black Katy Chiton during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Chitons, on the other hand, eat algae, which I’ll trust Claude to have figured out correctly and leave YouTube alone, as I’m sure some macabre idiot probably gave these black Katy chitons (Katharina tunicata) the sensationalized treatment, too.

Striped Shore Crab during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

The closer I moved the camera, the deeper this striped shore crab crawled into the crevice it was inhabiting. I probably stood on a nearby rock waiting for a solid 15 minutes. During that time, he couldn’t help himself as sea roaches passed by, and he lunged to nab one, remaining cautious about how far he exposed himself.

Sea anemone during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Anemones control the universe; each anemone is a universe unto itself. God is a psychedelic anemone.

Sea anemone during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

But not the green ones. Green anemones are the sports fans of the aquatic world, just hanging out, drinking, and telling stupid jokes.

Ligia exotica a.k.a. Sea Roach or Sea Slater during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Ligia exotica, a.k.a. the sea roach or sea slater, is a tasty morsel for striped shore crabs.

Gooseneck Barnacles during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

These gooseneck barnacles cost about $100 a pound in Spain and Portugal, but here in America, there is no market for them. Good thing for the sea stars who have them all to themselves. Yep, I turned back to YouTube for an old video I had watched some time ago about eating these. It is the peduncle and what they hold that makes them attractive for eating. If the shellfish ban wasn’t in effect right now, Caroline and I would be adding some of these to a collection of mussels for dinner.

Sea anemone during low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

I should have used fewer images of anemones; I’ve got nothing to say about this cluster except to state the obvious: they are pretty.

A pair of nesting Cormorants at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Every time we are on the coast, we learn something new, many new things really, such as that breeding cormorants have a tuft of white plumage. The other day, we learned about their eye color and how it helps them while hunting underwater, and now we discover an iridescent sheen on their necks. When the mate flew into the nest, I was able to watch and listen to their cooing, rubbing necks and beaks, and all that flirty stuff that lets other cormorants know that these two are a pair.

Low tide at Fogarty Creek in Depoe Bay, Oregon

So, this was Fogarty Creek during low tide. It’ll be difficult not to return tomorrow, but choosing another site means we might see and learn about other new things.

Iris in Depoe Bay, Oregon

As if I didn’t have enough to write about, I thought about all the flowers I see here at the house, and after thinking about the photo of the iris I took last night, I felt inspired to capture the various blossoms while the weather is nice and the flowers are still in good form. Sure, this is the same iris I photographed yesterday, but this is in morning light instead of late afternoon. Plus, I couldn’t have a comprehensive visual list of the flowers without including it.

Aster flower in Depoe Bay, Oregon

With my eyes darting to and fro, scanning the property, it was this aster that caught my attention next.

Blackberry blossom in Depoe Bay, Oregon

A blackberry blossom teases me because we’ll likely be gone before this summertime fruit reaches peak sweetness. Good thing I have a sweet wife to turn to when the rest of nature isn’t ready to share yet.

Rose in Depoe Bay, Oregon

It is the roses that I see first when looking over my right shoulder and out the window next to the front door.

Lily in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Just a hint of the lilies can be seen over the rail of the deck on the western side of the house, in front of the roses, but mostly out of view until I stand up.

Escential Raspberry Lemonade flowers in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Seriously? This is Escential™ Raspberry Lemonade, yep, a trademarked plant.

Veronica Snow Candles in Depoe Bay, Oregon

According to visual search functions, these are Veronica snow candles.

Hydrangea in Depoe Bay, Oregon

While hydrangeas might be obvious to others, again, I needed to turn to the internet to identify these blossoms.

Azalea in Depoe Bay, Oregon

The older I get, the dumber I must become, as even the common azalea was outside the sphere of my knowledge. I’m groaning here admitting this as I just know that my wife will come over while editing this post and, in her thickest German accent, say, “Really, John, you didn’t know that those were azaleas and hydrangeas? You probably had to look up the rose, too, huh?” [Truthfully, I did not recognize the azalea but was able to identify the hydrangea – Caroline]

Meadow buttercup in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Finally, we arrive at the meadow buttercups that are in abundance here, and this concludes the first part of the day. In a minute, after putting my writing fingers away, I’ll get to taking care of portioning our leftovers from yesterday’s lunch, and then for the next nearly four hours, we’ll be either up or maybe down the road. I leave that choice to Caroline as she scours options while I ready our dinner.

Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

How often has it happened to you that you were on your way to the photo shoot, and at the last second, you decided to load up some Kodak Tri-X instead of the old Kodacolor? Everything old being new again, I suppose I shouldn’t joke as it’s within reason to assume I could be shooting with my old Ricoh KR-5. As a matter of fact, it’s a bit sad that I no longer possess those skills to manually set everything on a camera and then developing the film it at home. All that aside, the truth of this switch to black & white partway through the day is actually mundane. There were a few images below that played well sans color, and I didn’t like switching back and forth between black & white and color, so the rest of the day had to be desaturated. We are visiting Moolack Beach north of Newport this afternoon.

Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

Where are the marine biologists when you need one? For years, Caroline and I have been enamored with these patterns in the moist sand that, if I think hard about it, are seen following the tide going out. We’ve never seen them being made, that was until today. In the lower right corner is a small beetle-like thing, not the blob on the far edge, that is walking around but doesn’t seem to be making a deep enough impression. After a ton of research, maybe more than 5 or 10 minutes worth, it appears that these impressions are being made by foraging sand hoppers, a.k.a. the lowly sand flea. This would make a lot of sense because, as I said, we never see what’s making the patterns, and it is a characteristic of the sand hoppers that, when threatened, such as when humans approach, they jump away. Add to that that they are scavenging organic matter on the beach: as the tide recedes, debris is often left behind, so the sand fleas are out wandering the domain of where their tiny legs will take them without having to expend the energy required to perform those fantastic leaps out of harm’s way.

Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

This was the image that started the whole black & white sequence of thoughts. The gull was standing on a still wet edge of the shore with a perfect mirror of itself. I set my exposure for that image, but then the gull started flying away, and I felt close enough to get a nice photo of it in flight. Obviously, I was overexposed for anything other than shooting against the darker background and sand, and as I panned with the camera to capture the bird flying away, I got this blown-out image where only the yellow-orange of the beak had color. While I liked that, I liked the high-contrast effect of the black & white ‘Punch’ filter even more, and to have some uniformity between these afternoon images, I treated them all with the same filter.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse seen from Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

I intentionally set my light balance on the sky after zooming into a brighter area, as I wanted to achieve a silhouetted image of the lighthouse against the overcast sky. Between the time we walked down on the beach and the point we arrived as close as we’d come to the Yaquina Head Lighthouse, the sun had been blotted out by a thick band of fast-moving clouds that also dropped the temperature enough that we were nearly frozen by the time we got back to the car. Thank you, Kia, for putting heated seats in our car.

Gooseneck barnacles at Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

Earlier, I wrote about my desire to try eating barnacles and wondered out loud why we don’t eat them in America. Well, it’s a day later when I’m finishing this post, and I’ve had time to think about that. I’m no longer interested unless I’m in Spain or Portugal, where they cost $100 a pound, as the high price would dissuade people from over-collecting them. Why the change of heart? A gooseneck barnacle needs 2.5 to 3 years to reach a couple of inches in length, and they can live for up to 20 years, compared to cattle that we harvest in about 18 months, collecting about 720 to 896 pounds (327 to 406 kg) of meat from the 1,200-pound animal. Then there are chickens that we slaughter at eight weeks, providing us with about 5-6 pounds (2.3-2.7 kg) of meat. I guess I’m happy we’ve not found a market for barnacles, otherwise, there’d be none here at the shore during low tide to admire.

Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

This was the photo that absolutely convinced me that it was going to be black & white.

Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

As the cloud bank ripped by on its way south, there were fleeting moments where a muted image of the sun could be seen with the naked eye. There was no risk of rain, though this heavy, dark cloud might suggest an imminent downpour. It is merely an effect of the photographic technique and post-processing.

Clover blossom at Moolack Beach in Newport, Oregon

You’ll have to take my word for it that this clover blossom was a riot of color; I couldn’t very well jump out of the aesthetic sense I was using to finish the day now, could I?

Finding Routines on the Oregon Coast

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Harbor in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Wake up and check the weather. No rain. The sky looks clear. Let’s go. The harbor looks nice; let’s walk from here. Brrr, it’s cold in the shadows! How can it be only 41 degrees (5 Celsius) on a summer day? We should walk in the sun. But if we walk south, we’ll be on the road. Okay, let’s turn around and head for Boiler Bay. Oh, look, that coffee shop is open. Mmmm, marionberry scones.

Depoe Bay, Oregon

Following our amazing week on the Oregon Coast, we shared an even amazinger weekend out here. Maybe it was the amazingest even. But now it’s Monday all over again (oops, I mean Tuesday), so this might start to be seen as some kind of routine for us. Wake, walk by the sea, have homemade breakfast (the scone was pre-breakfast dessert), work/write, eat homemade lunch (today it was cold corona beans with fresh chermoula), work/write, make dinner, walk, sleep, repeat. That sounds like a good plan to me, but please keep the rain away.

Depoe Bay, Oregon

There is one thing that is not becoming the routine I’d hoped for, and that’s working on the draft of my novel. As important as I might want to find that project, being here with Caroline and being present for the two of us has more significance in the scheme of things. Some photos of how and where we are sharing our time before and after the work day, some memories of those experiences noted, fresh homemade meals (outside of our routine menu), and extra smiles at one another due to our proximity are all taking precedence over my desire to have found an abundance of opportunity to visit great settings for multi-hour writing sessions. At home, Caroline and I are always apart on weekdays, but here in Oregon, we’ve always been connected at the hip, 24/7, as they say. To break with that tradition while here at the seashore would feel counter to every other day we’ve spent out here.

Depoe Bay, Oregon

These places on the coast have been experienced by the two of us precisely equally. To disrupt that balance would be a kind of sacrilege to all that is perfect between Caroline and me. As I sit at a dining room table in the house we are borrowing for this excursion, I can look out the window, such as now, when the weather is perfect and the trees are blowing. If I go to the kitchen window and look through some branches and over the leaves, I can catch glimmers of the sea out on the horizon. Nature beckons, but Caroline must tend to her computer and the job obligations she has, and while I know she’d never ask me to suffer on her behalf, there’s something reassuring in knowing that we are fully sharing in our experiences while up in Oregon.

Seals in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Sometimes, a not-so-great photo must be shared because it’s the best we’ve got. We’d stood on an overlook high over the cove and watched a few seals coming and going in the water while on a more distant shore, maybe a dozen were congregating in the sun under a cliffside covered with no less than hundreds of birds, but if you told me it was thousands, I’d likely have believed you. We both thought the smaller seal had died, so this photograph came about as Caroline took my phone and zoomed in to somewhere around 30x, and we learned that it was apparently asleep.

Taft Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

Then the whole day goes by, and even dinner has already been had before we find ourselves back out in the world where other stuff is happening, and we become part of that parade of things in nature.

Taft Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

To the trained eye it is obvious that we are looking at seals, not driftwood, on the northern end of the Salishan Spit. Those with untrained minds might wonder why we are out here on such a windy day. For my eyes and imagination, I have to wonder why we chose to live in Phoenix, Arizona, though I don’t really, as it’s a simple equation. When where you live is relatively benign, with wide streets, not grand boulevards, strip malls, and enough cinderblock to build 1000 pyramids, that banality exponentiates the charm of everywhere else you go.

Taft Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

It’s possible that as an amateur photographer, I’ve come to rely on the silhouetted image a bit much, but when you are confronted with the glistening, almost blinding reflection of the sun and its silvery scintillations on the surface of the ocean, there’s really no other way to convey how stark and seductive the image is.

Caroline Wise flying her kite on Taft Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

We might be exploring some photographic/thematic redundancy here during our stay in Oregon, and while novelty might wear thin for the repeat visitors to this blog, these reminders of how often Caroline was able to fly her kite, how frequently we walked the same stretch of beach or similarities between forest walks will all be powerful recipes for putting smiles on our faces in the years to come.

Nelscott Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

We walked north along Taft Beach, passed by the Inn at Spanish Head and crossed over to Nelscott Beach. A bit farther up north, the beach is bisected by a small stream not far from where we the other day we had descended the cliffside on a set of stairs that includes all the stairs ever.

Jellyfish on Taft Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

For us, seeing this jellyfish on the shore, magnifying the sand below and amplifying the light ahead, makes for an interesting sight. As for the experience of the jellyfish being out of the water and likely either at the end of its life or about to kick sand, I’m guessing things are going poorly for it right now.

Purple Iris in Depoe Bay, Oregon

June, the host of our June getaway on the Oregon coast, asked that we pay attention to the irises in her front yard and send her a photo of them should they bloom. I didn’t look at them yesterday, with the rain and overcast sky and all, so they might have bloomed then, but it was only today, getting back to the house shortly before 9:00 p.m., that I reminded Caroline that we need to remember to check in on the flowers. She looked over and thought that they might have flowered, and obviously, on closer examination, we found they indeed had entered the state of ultimate beauty.

Late Day Adventure at the Oregon Coast

JWise Photo of the Day, Rant, Travels

Depoe Bay, Oregon

Waking to rain this morning made our decision to lazy it up an easy one. Who wants to wander around at 5:30 in the morning when the sky is leaking? Plus, it’ll stop in a minute, right? By 8:00, still without having stepped a foot out of the house, Caroline went to her temporary office on the veranda while I grabbed an umbrella and headed up the road for some requisite shopping. It felt like we could afford to squander a day in which zero steps might be a reasonable goal. Heck, in our first week hanging at the Pacific, we’ve averaged more than 18,000 steps a day, or about 8.5 miles (14km). Regarding shopping, life on the coast in a small town had a particular reality crash into me this morning; unless you eat SAD (Standard American Diet), you are going to spend a good amount of time tracking down your groceries because there’s not one store where you can get everything you need if you enjoy a broad-spectrum diet influenced by other ethnicities. Two hours later, I was back in Depoe Bay, and while the rain had stopped, it was still cloudy. Caroline was working, so walking would have to wait. And then it happened: after dinner, flipping the coin to see if we should hit the trail and move the needle to at least a minimum of movement, we opted not to go full-on lazy. At the oceanfront, we turned right, but not before grabbing this photo of the silvery sea.

WARNING: The rest of the post is not really about the joy of being out here. It’s a rant and one that’s probably been said far too often on this blog. Skip the rest. Oh,  you can look at the photos and enjoy them. Allow the images to inspire you to visit the Oregon Coast, but leave the words unread. Grumpy old John was in lamenting mode.

Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

Caroline identified the Agnes Creek Open Space up the road as somewhere we might want to take a short walk, and so without a better suggestion, it seemed as good as anything else. Except, it was a wonderful little enclave of nature being restored after having been clear-cut somewhere between the 1940s and 1960s. The date range is so wide because, apparently, nobody knows exactly when that was done. This brings up another opportunity for me to kvetch, this time about the nature of people and what we do in the name of progress and in the name of the lord. Inspired by the adage, “Idle hands are the devil’s tools,” Protestants and their industrious ideas of hard work having spiritual qualities created a kind of thinking that as long as a man was working, he was moving closer to God. But instead of honoring God’s creation, he’s been busy trying to scrape clean the Garden of Eden he’s been supplied.

Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

We tear down nature to build churches and temples but end up destroying the safety net of Earth that sustains life. For at least 10,000 years, and up to possibly 20,000 years, the various Salish tribes, including the Tillamook, Siletz, Yaquina, Alsea, Siuslaw, and Coos people, lived here along the coast in all seasons without having to deforest the land, clear large areas so individuals could have palatial oceanfront mansions, and turn beautiful, wooded areas into golf courses. The idea that God imbued the land with a bounty for our taking is a manipulation that clears our consciousnesses of guilt for having such greed. It seems like self-evident truth that living in a balance of harmony with not only the land, sky, and water but also with the people who first called these places home would be in keeping with the alleged lessons of God, where in Genesis 2:15 of the Old Testament it says, “And the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” It does not say to rape it, shit on it, and turn it into some de Sade-like pornographic horror of satisfying the whims of commerce, but that’s what we do.

Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

By and large, it’s what we are doing to this day. Women in our country are free for all appearances, but 101 years after the Equal Rights Amendment was proposed, it is still not ratified. It was only in 1978 that the American Indian Religious Freedom Act allowed Native Americans to practice their traditional religions. And even here in the early 21st century, we had a recent president who rolled back laws that protected the climate, clean air, clean water, endangered species, and opened up more offshore drilling. That man was applauded for his actions by the religious right and captains of business who have everything to gain by employing their minions to keep taking more as long as it benefits the bank accounts of those who can never be satisfied.

Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

Elon Musk stands in front of his phallic spaceships, Mark Zuckerberg flaunts international law to privately move his super yacht, and Larry Ellison buys the Hawaiian island of Lanai as the system of wealth grows exponentially for a few and the masses continue to toil for a relative pittance while doing the bidding of those who gather opulence while not giving a care if a wild mushroom still grows in a rain forest. I’m not against capitalism, I’m NOT for communism, I generally enjoy the way life is, but I also feel like we need to make concrete moves to restore vast parts of our landscapes, not just 54 acres like here at Agnes Creek Open Space or some other random number of acres in various locations across America.

Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

With the help of maybe somewhat questionable artificial intelligence found in Claude, it seems that we set aside between 10% and 15% of the space in a city for parks and recreation sites. San Francisco seems to lead the pack, with 19% of its lands dedicated to parks and open spaces, and with the environmental awareness of California being what it is, I’m guessing that maintaining a healthy ecosystem within those lands is a paramount concern.

Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

I’m considering the arguments that could be made with my post so far: my perceived anti-capitalist stance, the anti-God stance, not taking into account our insurmountable drug problems, affordable housing problems, poor job opportunities, lack of education, the strain that a growing population would put on resources and infrastructure that many would say are presently inadequate, but reading off the litany of issues is simply a smoke screen to mask that we are doing next to nothing on all fronts. Small blossoms of growth needn’t be denied due to larger, seemingly intractable problems that fall on the shoulders of the common person instead of being driven by those extracting the kind of wealth that can build $500 million yachts because they have the voices and audiences of those who want to watch and listen to their musings.

Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

And we are two of the lucky people. Caroline and I have the means to put ourselves in these environments where they do exist. We are able to carve out the time and see firsthand what the natural spaces between represent of our past, away from where the majority now live. This weird emphasis on a personal, private space called the single-family home for many arrives with a bizarre sense of ultimate freedom that can only be had behind bolted doors, clutching a weapon, watching our theater size TV screen, with a garage full of stuff we’ll never use can only be characterized as a madness brought on by the mass-hysteria instilled by advertising-driven engines of non-stop consumption. Try to notice how you are never enticed to visit free places where things such as moss-covered forest beds grow vibrantly green, well, unless it were part of a resort, which obviously isn’t free.

Empty crab shell at Agnes Creek Open Space in Lincoln City, Oregon

Caroline collected the scattered parts of this crab that, for some peculiar reason, a seagull must have dragged into the nearby forest for its lunch. After putting the crab back together, she took a photo with her phone; I came up and took this one.

Caroline Wise at Nelscott Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

This tiny pocket kite was likely the driving reason behind buying the other kite, which flies nicely indeed. This one, on the other hand, belongs in the trash and is a waste of resources. This is an instance when novelty and perceived convenience went awry in the design process, but the creators knew that suckers would buy the cute little kite with dreams of things taking to the skies like an underdog finding its mojo. Near the short trail we were just walking was a small beach access path to Nelscott Beach, where we were doing our best not only to get this kite to go aloft but also to catch up with our step deficit.

Nelscott Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

We tried rescuing the mussels and their attached barnacles that had broken free of their moorings, but once on land, they seemed to want to remain on shore.

Nelscott Beach in Lincoln City, Oregon

Should you have gotten to the end of this post after being warned not to go further, and you are wondering what happened to the prose extolling love, beauty, passion, and the intensities of vacation-like days, that writing is being saved for my novel. This stuff, when need be, is the exorcising of demons to allow the catharsis of spirit to explore beautiful ideas and sentence structures. Writing this, I’m brought to thinking how the majority of my work on this novel I speak of is written in a coffee shop with no view, with no inherent special qualities; for that, I have to look deep into my mind and imagination, likely the place where our experiences in these environments live.

Sunday in the Coastal Woods of Oregon

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Before ever arriving in this lush coastal forest setting, Caroline and I left Depoe Bay this morning for Yachats to fetch a yummy seafood breakfast at the Drift Inn Restaurant. That almost went according to plan, except they didn’t have the Alaska Fish Scramble available, so I opted to have the razor clams as Caroline had ordered. Not a minute later, our server returned and regrettably informed us that those weren’t available either. Breakfast might not have been everything we’d hoped for, though it was A-Okay; what really worked out though, was our server’s endorsement of the nearby Amanda’s Trail, which is where this photo begins our strenuous day hiking up a mountain.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Near the beginning of where we joined the trail, you’ll find a statue dedicated to a Native American Coos woman, one of many indigenous people who in the 1860s were force-marched to what, in effect, was a concentration camp. Reading up on the fate of the coastal tribes is a depressing story that largely feels unresolved here in 2024, which means that we are essentially carrying on the policy mistakes of our ancestors while simultaneously trying to blame long-dead people for these atrocities and absolve ourselves of taking responsibility for our ancestors. [Maybe I’m more hopeful here – I enjoyed reading about the Yachats community coming to terms with the shady past of this area. There have been apologies and attempts of atonement – Caroline]

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Walking away from that symbol of shame, the rest of the hike was amazing, enchanting, and spectacular. This poor attempt to describe a fraction of what we felt might be a reflection of my lack of writing skills; it may also be because it is past 9:00 p.m. on Sunday that I got around to trying to capture some of the sense of our forest encounter.

Salmonberry on Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

This is an unripe salmonberry during the last 15 seconds of its existence. It may maybe a tragedy that we picked and shared this somewhat sour berry, but it also represented the very first fresh salmonberry either of us has ever tried.

Fairy Inkcap Mushrooms on Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

These Fairy Inkcap Mushrooms are considered edible, but since we are no mycologists or even part-time mushroom foragers, the last thing we’d do is sample mushrooms we find along a trail. Photographically, I’ve never wanted to pass them up, but often, they are damaged by those who walk by and kick them over. Someone working at a park years ago told us of those who intentionally destroy other mushrooms, so they can spread spores of the varieties they want to wild cultivate because they have commercial value.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

While many mosses are considered edible, they are nutrient-poor, but what they lack in health benefits they more than make up in aesthetic benefits to the landscape. Please don’t go getting the idea that I walk through the forest looking at it as a grocery store, but I can’t help but think about what we don’t know or understand about the various plants that are supposed to grow wild across America and at one time helped sustain Native Americans who clearly had learned how to survive on these lands for 20,000 years before white colonialists arrived about 400 years ago.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

While out here, in addition to the wildlife you will see in my photos, we heard the songs of Stellar’s jays, hermit warblers, golden-crowned kinglets, and brown creepers. We also saw woodpeckers and chipmunks. Even later in the day, we saw a pair of bald eagles atop a tree and another flying somewhere unknown to us.

Sheathed Woodtuft Mushrooms on Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

These mushrooms might be the edible sheathed woodtufts, but they might also be Galerina marginata, commonly known as the funeral bell, deadly skullcap, or deadly galerina, which obviously refers to their highly poisonous characteristics.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Starting the trail where we did, as opposed to driving to the top of Cape Perpetua and beginning the hike up there, nearly the entirety of the first part of this hike is uphill, to the tune of about 1,000 feet (305 meters) of elevation gain.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Here we are at the halfway point of the hike up the mountain, crossing a very small stream cutting between the two ridges we were transversing.

Caroline Wise on Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Things had been fairly dry along the trail to this point, not desert dry like the version we are more familiar with, but coastal dry. The stream we crossed is just behind Caroline, but this photo wasn’t shared for that reason. Caroline couldn’t believe the size of the leaves growing here, so I asked her to stand there in lieu of a banana for a size comparison.

Banana Slug on Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Speaking of bananas, this slug happened by, but it would have taken forever to reach the stream crossing had we been able to coax it to come with us back down the trail, so Caroline had no choice but to be the stand-in banana.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Stopping to gaze deeply into everything is a surefire way to extend the time required to hike a trail. Somehow, we were even able to tack on at least a couple of extra miles to the 5.7 miles (9km) the full trail is measured at.

Red-Sided Garter Snake on Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

With Caroline’s propensity to pick up beach and trail trash, when she saw the pattern of this red-sided garter snake draped over a log, she was busy trying to figure out what the thing was that caught her eye before realizing that she was looking at a snake. At the time, neither she nor I knew what kind of snake it was; we only knew that we were fortunate to have seen it.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Pay attention here; that’s Caroline’s name on this photo; occasionally, we get fairly good results with our phones, and this is one of those times.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

So many things in bloom we never get to see during our November trips to Oregon, such as these candy flowers.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Trees often grow strangely in rainforest terrains. More than a few times, we saw trees growing out of other long-gone remnants of those that preceded them. I tried photographing these kinds of parasite growths, but the level of abstraction was undecipherable, and the aesthetic sense one gleans when present is lost in the still image.

View south from Cape Perpetua in Yachats, Oregon

We finally made it after hiking up the equivalent of a 100-story building to the Cape Perpetua Overlook. What we are on top of is actually a 45 million-year-old oceanic shield volcano.

Cape Perpetua Stone Shelter via the Whispering Spruce Trail in Yachats, Oregon

From this Stone Shelter built in 1933, one can see 40 miles (64km) out to sea and look up and down the coast for 70 miles (113km), that’s on a clear day.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Talk about being those people; when we left Depoe Bay for Yachats, the only certainty was where we were going for breakfast. Hence, we didn’t bring a seriously necessary item required on 4.5-hour hikes: water. Lucky us, a French-Canadian couple cooking their breakfast high up Cape Perpetua had water in their camper van and were willing to share with us. With no drinking fountain on the mountaintop, it felt stupid of us to have embarked on such a hike so ill-prepared. After a couple of large glasses of water, we were ready to start our downhill trek.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

Not an example of a tree upon tree growing, but something weird has happened here. Now try to imagine just how disorienting the other images are that didn’t make the cut for inclusion.

Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

During the last 10 minutes of the hike, the sun finally started peeking through the clouds.

Caroline Wise on Amanda's Trail in Yachats, Oregon

To Caroline’s right is the area where the Amanda statue stands, which is the namesake for the trail that has crushed our knees and left us aching.

Bridge in Waldport, Oregon

Leaving the trail, it was only minutes later that we once again pulled into Ona Restaurant’s parking lot, and although we thought we were stopping for their highly regarded burgers, we both ended up getting the rockfish and chips. With just enough time left, we were able to get back to Waldport, home of the Alsea Bay Bridge, and stop back in at Tidewater Creations for more yarn because one can never have enough yarn, or maybe because it dawned on Caroline that she needed some extra hand-dyed yarn for a particular friend. At the shop, we learned about the local JillyBeanz Ice Cream Shop, which sells candy and ice cream scoops but also was supposed to have a great tiramisu. A treat really felt in order, so we made the stop without regrets.

Alsea River Bay in Waldport, Oregon

This is the Alsea River, where it starts to form a bay upon meeting the Pacific Ocean.

Dutch Bros. in Newport, Oregon

Though it was 5:30 and typically later than we’d like to have coffee, we had to stop in at Dutch Bros in Newport to share a cold brew, as it felt like narcolepsy was visiting both of us. Getting back to Depoe Bay with more than three hours of daylight remaining, one could think that we’d head out for sunset, but no chance, our legs were just too tired. We even skipped dinner due to the large late lunch and sweet treats we had indulged in next to the bay, but we didn’t skip a visit to the hot tub to help soothe our achy limbs and sore feet.

A Thousand Miles of Oregon Coast

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

View from our kitchen window in Depoe Bay, Oregon

This is our view out of the kitchen window; in the distance is the ocean. What’s wrong with this picture? We’ve not yet been out at that ocean today because we opted to sleep in, and not only that, but we’ve also been too lazy to get moving. This actually is a common thing for us on Saturdays, though it shouldn’t be when our time on the coast is rather limited. Every moment in our little slice of paradise by the sea should be maximized, and in reality, they are, even when we go slow.

Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

Our first stop today was not for a walk. Instead, we drove south for breakfast at the Newport Cafe in, you guessed it, Newport. It’s a funky little place we’ve been visiting since 2012 when we had our first 4-pound Ultimate Monster Burger when it cost $13.95. Today, that burger is $25, but we weren’t here for that at this time of day, though they’ll serve one up if you really want it. Nope, we were here for the Pacific Seafood Scramble, which includes crab, shrimp, scallops, and veggies. Even at $21, there’s enough seafood in this dish that it feels like a bargain.

This sculpture at Nye Beach in Newport was carved by a local artist, German-born Juergen Eckstein. It was made from a piece of redwood that washed up on a local beach. The piece is called “Absence of Emptiness.”

Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

We are at Nye Beach to walk off our over-indulgent breakfast. If you can see the Yaquina Head Lighthouse in the distance, we are heading that way.

Caroline Wise on Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

We couldn’t ask for a more beautiful day, and had we needed anything, Caroline likely had it with her in that bag. It may look smallish, but she carries a kite, binoculars, some knitting, hunting gear, an inflatable small raft, a change of clothes, and a fax machine, I swear.

Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

Our form of beach combing also takes in finding random clumps of grass growing on the world’s smallest sand dune.

Yaquina Head Lighthouse seen from Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

Getting closer to the lighthouse.

Sand dollar at Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

One of the best specimens of sand dollars we’ve found yet, it’s coming home with us if it doesn’t crumble before we get there.

Penis sand art on Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

I’ve seen a lot of beach penis in my lifetime, but this is a capital specimen that I can get behind, and I assure you, it was just as amazing in person as your imagination is telling you it is. Just look at its joyous smile.

Yaquina Head from Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

The map says it’s a 2.5-mile (4km) walk from Nye Beach to Yaquina Head. although through our zigzagging, we turned it into a 3.5-mile (5.6km) walk, but we couldn’t have asked for better weather. It was just beautiful out there.

Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

This is the edge of a streambed crossing the beach between us and the cliffside of Yaquina Head that we thought we’d reach out and touch before turning around, but in the end, believing we had another 7,500 steps (3.5 miles) back to our car, it wasn’t all that important.

Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

Off in the distance is where we need to be.

Approaching rain on Nye Beach in Newport, Oregon

Out of nowhere, a tempest started moving in from offshore, but I was certain it was no threat. That was until it started raining on us. Good thing Caroline carries rain jackets, umbrellas, and a waterproof case for my camera in that bag on her shoulder. “Excuse me, what do you mean you didn’t pack those today, wife?” I asked in disbelief. At 9:00 p.m., when I was writing this post, my fleece was still wet.

Bread & Roses Bakery in Yachats, Oregon

Twenty-five miles south and the sun was out, as was good fortune. An hour before Bread & Roses in Yachats was closing, they still had a few things on hand that grabbed our attention, such as this Celestial Snail Danish that was made more interesting by its name due to the connection to Caroline’s childhood nickname, Schnecke, the German word for “snail”. Around the corner and across the street we visited the Green Salmon Coffee Company and picked up three pounds of Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee beans, with one of them set to be a gift to our friend Brinn, who happened through Yachats about a decade ago.

Caroline Wise at Ona Restaurant in Yachats, Oregon

Next up was a stop at Ona Restaurant, also in Yachats. While we had a reservation for 6:30 this evening, we opted to have lunch here instead. Originally, the idea was that we might take a room further south to have a weekend at another coastal location, but with our digs in Depoe Bay being as perfect as they are, we are quite happy to stay right there. Plus, the weekend rates of lodging at this time of year are way out of hand. With a photo of our main dish just below, I have to describe our appetizer, which we have had before and is half of the reason we are back. It is the Rainforest Maitake Mushroom Pâté with marinated onions, arugula, olive tapenade, and feta. It is Wunderbar.

Seafood pasta from Ona Restaurant in Yachats, Oregon

This is the Ona Pasta featuring wild Mexican prawns, scallops, clams, rockfish, halibut, and baby spinach in a saffron cream sauce. It is as great today as it was a couple of years ago when we first tried this dish.

Caroline Wise at Tidewater Creations in Waldport, Oregon

Five days was a long time for Caroline to be on the Oregon coast without having the opportunity to buy yarn, but here she is, happy as a clam to have this chance to shop for the fibery reason of her existence. The shop is called Tidewater Creations in Waldport and is also the home of Twisted Tidewater, the owner’s own brand of beautiful hand-dyed yarns and spinning fiber. Caroline was able to pick up some mushroom-dyed yarn as well as pretty batts for spinning while I carefully selected a colorful skein of sock yarn.

Lost Creek in Newport, Oregon

What started as the need for the restroom here at the Lost Creek State Recreation Site turned into another 90-minute walk down the shoreline. Gotta get the steps in to fight against the heavy carb indulgences.

Keyhole limpet from Lost Creek in Newport, Oregon

We didn’t know what shells these were while out on the beach; it turns out that they are keyhole limpets. Their name shouldn’t fool you, though; while they are a species of sea snail, they are not, in fact, true limpets. What’s a limpet, you ask? Sorry, I’m not going to copy and paste every Wikipedia article I read. While I was in research mode, I also confirmed the identity of these tiny jumping things that we keep seeing on the beach, especially near rotting plants. They are beach hoppers, better known as sand fleas, though they are in no way related to fleas. They are related to crabs and shrimps, tiny versions of them, and are on the beach to help clean up organic matter; it is the lowly beach hopper that is responsible for the tiny holes on the shore as waves recede.

Lost Creek in Newport, Oregon

Need a beach to yourself? Visit Oregon in the summer.

After our drive back to Depoe Bay, getting through the photos and the majority of writing this post, we turned on the disco ball and lights at the hot tub before falling into the characters of Professors Roger and Virginia Clarvin at the Welshly Arms discussing the eating of succulent and juicy capons. If you don’t know the Rachel Dratch and Will Ferrell sketch from Saturday Night Live, this joke won’t work for you.

A Simple Friday on the Oregon Coast

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Boiler Bay in Depoe Bay, Oregon

A funny thing happened on the way to our walk at Gleneden Beach: the sun poking over the forest was so attractive that we were easily distracted and had to pull over at Boiler Bay to take in the scene. If you are astute, you’ll ask, “What’s so funny about that? Aren’t you two easily distracted by just about anything in nature?” Should that be what first comes to your mind, you likely know us well. Now, if you are truly aware, you might have noticed that the sun is already over the horizon. Well, on this Friday morning, it just might have been a wee bit difficult to get moving.

As I already noted, we were going to Gleneden Beach, just as we did a couple of days ago. The idea was to try minimizing the inclination to photograph everything all over again.

Gleneden Beach State Recreation Site in Oregon

Blah, blah, blah surf, blah blah. I’m trying to keep this short so I can move on to other tasks, such as working on my novel because, after an extended morning walk from we didn’t return to our car until 7:45, making a hot breakfast, starting laundry, and then putting a pot of peruano beans on to simmer over the day, it was already kind of late when I turned to prepping these meager six photos which are standing in to represent our morning. Sometimes, laziness fits the bill, though getting 3 miles of walking in before everything else tends to make the rest that much better.

Gleneden Beach State Recreation Site in Oregon

The other day, we looked in this direction but opted to walk south. Today, the path along the shore took us north, and to our surprise, we connected with the southern end of the Salishan Beach Trail we had discovered on Tuesday. If you read that post, you’d know of the two skull pieces, one disconnected from the seal’s body it came from. Now, three days later, the carcass has moved farther south down the beach, and little of the seal remains. We persist, though, so that’s good.

Gleneden Beach State Recreation Site in Oregon

The sun is moving; it is rising to warm this cold morning. Caroline and I had been talking about the weather and the season, and the number of people we expected to see out on the coast hasn’t materialized. Maybe they’ll show up this weekend? Something has to justify the high cost of lodging up here at this time of year, but then again, the cool weather might be keeping visitors away. So, I just checked on the highs and lows regarding the temperatures, and at least here in Depoe Bay, August is the hottest month, with an average high of 68 degrees (20 Celsius) or a solid 40 degrees (22 Celsius) cooler than Phoenix, Arizona. It probably doesn’t help that the water temperature is only 51 degrees (11 Celsius) today compared to 71 degrees (22 Celsius) in Hawaii.

A starfish at Gleneden Beach State Recreation Site in Oregon

Outside of the sea is not the place for a starfish, no matter how strong it flexes. Dude was a pretty buff specimen, but not so tough to resist being chucked right back into the drink from which it escaped. That was about the extent of our morning, and now, between this photo and the next, a normal routine day will take place until Caroline finishes with happy hour later this afternoon, and we again head into a coastal adventure.

Salmon River near Cascade Head in Otis, Oregon

For the fifth day in a row, Caroline’s desk/work setup has remained on the enclosed deck/sunroom, where we had unpacked her things on Monday after we arrived. Though her day begins with a chilly start in the low 50s (11 Celsius), she’s chosen to muscle through it as the birds’ songs are nearer. The squirrel in the tree to her left gets her attention, she watched a deer walking down the driveway earlier, and as the sun comes up over the trees to warm her right cheek, the room can become a toasty 80 degrees (26 Celsius) until midday when the trees behind her cast shadows and the room cools – we open the sliding door for more airflow. As for me, it suits my situation well to sit inside trying to avoid even more distractions from blogging, working on the photos, making three fresh meals a day, and trying to finagle my way into my novel. With all of those things and the work week behind us, it is time to start the weekend, which we thought would start here near Cascade Head on the right. Instead, we found ourselves at the Salmon River in Otis at the end of the road and not the trailhead that would have taken us to the overlook up high. Time and cloud cover suggested the three hours required for the hike would have us returning to the car at 10:00 p.m., so we’re saving it for another day.

D River State Recreation Site in Lincoln City, Oregon

Now wishy-washy about what to do next, we made a brief stop at the D River State Recreation Site in Lincoln City, home of the world’s shortest river, and realized that people were streaming in for the weekend, as evidenced by the number of people on the beach. I get that you might not see it due to me intentionally taking this photo as a silhouette, but we are on a wall overlooking the beach and well over the heads of the majority of people out there. We’re not interested in putting ourselves out there among the throngs. Okay, it’s not like this was Huntington Beach in Southern California kind of busy, but it was busy enough for us that we moved on.

Millport Slough in Lincoln City, Oregon

You know those signs on bridges that tell drivers not to stop on them? Well, this bridge doesn’t have those signs, and I felt there was just enough room on the right to throw on the hazard lights and jump out of the car to try and grab a photo of the Siletz River flowing into the Millport Slough.

Fishing Rock State Recreation Site in Depoe Bay, Oregon

Our final walk of the day was out to Fishing Rock.

Fishing Rock State Recreation Site in Depoe Bay, Oregon

I’d like to have been able to fully appreciate the romantic moment shared by a young couple if only it weren’t while they stood on top of what looked like a wildly dangerous place to be experiencing the last minutes of the day and possibly the last minutes of their lives. Pragmatism and a healthy sense of avoiding the most precarious of risks seem like solid thinking on our part; then again, we also feel rather wimpy due to the anxiety and burst of fear in witnessing such acts of bravery/stupidity. All the same, it does put smiles on our faces when we see people in love.