I have been getting in a good walk on the beach every morning. Here is a picture of the beach, it is an excellent place to get my daily exercise in.



Yesterday I went into town to pick up some velcro for my project. I hung all my pictures I stitched over the years by putting the hook side of velcro on the back and hanging them on the fabric covering my walls in the RV. Here is a picture of two of my favorites. I thought it would be better to have them out where I can see them rather than have them rolled up and in storage.



After my shopping, I went to the Yaquina Bay State Park and enjoyed the sunshine for a while.

Today I spent getting things done around the RV after my morning walk. Tomorrow I plan on heading in to town to pick up my mail at the post office. After that I plan on going for a bike ride.

Verizon wireless at my site

Yesterday I put the Wilson truckers antenna I bought from the 3Gstore on the top of my RV. I had my doubts that it would work but I ended up with one bar and it seems to work just fine. So now I have internet at my site but I don't have an easy way to get it inside the RV. As long as the weather is good, I have internet access. :-) Eventually I will get it set up permanently I guess.

Not much going on. I have been taking a long walk on the beach every morning. Yesterday I drove into town and stopped at the Chamber of Commerce so I could find the post office. They gave me a nice map of the town and I picked up a bunch of other info. I also went to Fred Meyers to get a few groceries and found a cafe that had smoothies. They didn't have green ones but the owner said he would look them up on the internet and check into it. I had a nice blueberry smoothie that was excellent.

So anyway, not much going on, just taking it easy. The weekend is coming up so I will lay low until Monday, then I have some ideas on hikes and a place to go bike riding. Life is rough. :-)

At the beach

I moved to a new campground and am practically on the beach, and this is an excellent beach for walking so that is what I will be doing for the next few weeks.

On the down side, I have no cell phone or air card access at my site. I need to go to the main lodge for wifi access so updates to the blog will be sparse. Since I am only walking on the beach and in general being a beach bum, no great loss. :-)

I got up early and got in my 10,000 steps for the day, on the beach of course. I then unloaded my kayak and bike from my car. Don't think I will get much kayaking done here. I am not into going out on the waves on the ocean and there are not many lakes around here. The next place I go to will be better for kayaking. I have some hikes planned and will need to go into town now and then.

Until next time, enjoy life!

Rainy day

Yesterday I hiked a trail around Coffenbury Lake in Ft Stevens State Park. Part of the trail is shown below with the lake on the side.


Most of the trail was in excellent shape but small sections of it were very overgrown. These sections were in sunny areas and in the spring with the ample rain and some sun thing grow fast! Overall it was a good hike of about 3 miles.

I spent the rest of the time in the park sitting in my chair and reading. I was in a picnic area and had the company of several ground squirrels. They had their holes dug under the picnic tables and would keep watch by sitting or laying on top of the tables. When I first arrived, one was laying all stretched out on top of a nearby table. I wish I had been prepared and could have snapped off a picture. They would wander around looking for food but as soon as a dog showed up at a distance they would run back to their table and hole. One would get on top and keep an eye on things while the other would sit by the hole or go in.

The opposite reaction occured when they would hear paper crinkling when I opened a bar to eat. One guy would come up close to me expecting to get fed. Unfortunately, I resisted and told him my food was not the proper diet for him and he would need to find his own food. Persistent little guy though.

The next picture is of my bike. I didn't download my pictures from my camera when I posted my last entry so thought I would share it with you here.



Today is one of those days when it looks like it is going to rain all day. Considering that this is June and the first totally rainy day since I got here, it's not too bad. I have lots of indoor things to do that I have been putting off so I guess this is a good day to get some of them done.

Back to Ft Stevens

Went back to Ft Stevens today for a bike ride. According to the map, I rode for around 10 miles. That is by far the longest I have ever ridden in one day. I bought the bike some time ago but while I was working and my days off were so limited, I usually ended up hiking or kayaking when the weather was good. So this was my first bike ride of any length for many, many years. I sure like the bike and got a lot of experience today with shifting for hills. The bike trails were not too hilly but there were some difficult ones like a couple of overpasses over roads. I was able to ride up every one of them though!

After the bike ride, I came back to the RV and relaxed for a while then took a walk around the campground before dinner. Altogether a very nice day.

The bike came from www.dynamicbicycles.com and has a shaft drive instead of a chain. Very easy maintenance and a nice ride. Shifting was smooth and I had a nice range available.

Ft Stevens and back to Cullaby

Yesterday I made the trip up to Fort Stevens State Park and had a long hike up the beach and then inland to a bike trail and back down to my car. There is so much to see here I think it would take me several weeks to see everything. This first picture is what is left from the wreck of the Peter Iredale where I started my hike.



There are seven miles of bike trails in the park. I hope to come back for a bike ride soon. Here is a sample of the bike paths.



Today I returned to Cullaby County Park. I went out on the lake with my Sea Eagle inflatable kayak and had a very enjoyable day. It was very cloudy so the pictures did not come out as well as I liked but here is one.



I am running out of days here and I have so much more I would like to do. Guess I will be busy next week trying to get everything done.

Laundry and apples

Took a day to get things done. Started the day out with doing my laundry. After that I dried some apples in my dehydrator. I was running low on my dried apples which I like to take with me on day hikes so thought it would be a good day to stock up. While the apples were drying, I went into town to pick up my mail I had sent to me. I found the post office with no problem and my mail was there waiting for me so that worked out good. I was just kind of lazy for the rest of the day. :-)

Pictures

I have added all of my Ecola State Park photos to Winkflash. To see them, go to http://dorothysie.winkflash.com/

Ecola State Park

Yesterday I drove to Ecola State Park and hiked the Clatsop Loop Trail plus part of the way over Tillamook Head to Seaside trail. I highly recomment the Clatsop Loop Trail for its scenic views and wonderful vegatation. This area has lots of huge Sitka spruce trees some estimated to have germinated around 1615. They would have been about 191 years old when William Clark walked this trail. William Clark and a small exloration party walked this trail in January 1806, searching for a beached whale near present day Cannon Beach.

Here are some pictures of the views from the trail.



This Sitka spruce provides an ideal nest platform for the marbled murrelet - a rare seabird that likes to nest on big branch platforms. This tree once stood in an opening that allowed the branches to spread out widely until the other trees closed in. Now its branches must grow upward, making it look like a giant candelabra. I love seeing the ferns growing up in the trees.



This is called a "clothespin" tree. The nurse log the tree grew on decayed from underneath leaving a large open area.

A typical hillside:



Watch your head!



This little guy was walking along with me but he was too slow so I went on.

Hiking

Saturday I found a wonderfull county park near where I am staying. I spent a lot of time hiking the trails and checking the place out. There is a nice lake and I plan to take my kayak up there in the near future for a day on the lake.

I have been getting in a lot of walking both in town and on the beach. The weather has been rainy and windy but not too cold so I have been ignoring it. :-)

I have also been starting to wash my motorhome. Yesterday I washed half the roof. I plan on doing a little bit at a time between the rain showers.

On the road!

I finally got the Steer Safe installed and started on my trip. The RV handled just fine pulling up mountains and going down the other side. Here is a picture of where I am camped tonight.



Now I get to start my exploration of the areas around where I camp. When I left town, a severe thunder storm warning was being announced on the radio with possible large hail. It seemed to be coming up on the east side and I was slipping out the west side so I missed it. :-) The weather during my trip was fine but when I arrived at my campsite, there were really strong winds. The grocery clerk was saying the power was flickering and there were tornado warnings. The high winds only lasted a couple of hours and then everything settled down. Just had a rain shower go through but no more wind. It is a lot cooler here than in town. Feels good for a change.

It feels weird when I think about the fact that I have everything with me and I do not need to go back after a few days. I will be able to just keep going on and on. I always hated turning around and going back whether it was on a trail or a road trip.

Still here

Well, here it is, Wednesday and I am still not started on my trip yet. Still waiting for the Steer Safe unit to show up. If it doesn't show up today, I will seriously consider not getting it installed. I could get it installed tomorrow but that would mean a very late start.

So what have I been doing? Well, Monday nothing was planned so I spent the day running around and picking up some last minute things one of which was my mail. I also made a last trip to my storage unit to drop some more things off. After I finished all that I took a trip to Champoeg State Park and spent the afternoon there hiking and getting in a nice bike ride. The place was almost empty so it was nice and quiet. Here is a picture of a place I stopped and had a snack and read a bit:



Tuesday, the RV was in the shop in hopes the Steer Safe unit would come in. The kit for raising the back of the RV was in and installed. 2 inch blocks were put in which gives me an extra 4 inches of clearence at the back. The yearly refridgerator maintenance was also done. While all that work was getting done, I went to a local park and did a lot of hiking.

Today I did my 4 mile walk and am now waiting for a call to see if I need to take the RV in again. Hopefully I can get on the road tomorrow.