Our last day on the coast and we are going to make the most of it. We will be leaving South Beach State Park after two pleasant nights. Considering the number of rigs camping in this place, it's is a pretty nice facility. There are plenty of trails and beach to visit and walk on and the Newport area is full of attractions.
We will start by visiting the Newport Bay Aquarium. Photos to follow. !
Today we pulled out of our spot at Blanco. It was a bitter-sweet time. It was a good experience and we felt that we contributed to the visitors education. Not being able to show them the light, was an unfortunate part. The lens is spectacular. But it was time to move on. We were starting to grow tired of the wind.
So we headed north just a little before 10. We stopped at Fred Meyer for some groceries. Then our next stop was the Umpqua Lighthouse near Winchester. It was great fun to take the tour and compare it to Blanco. Tour participants get to go up three steps an stick our upper body into the inside of the light. WOW ! There are pluses and minuses to each tour.
It was one of those, "Oh my what a beautiful day" day at the coast. The sky was blue, blue. The Pacific was green. The view spectacular. The wind was....windy.
It was truly a good day.
The volunteer stints at the Oregon State Parks last from the first day to the last day. They expect you to be packed up and gone by noon on the 1st of the month so that the next volunteer can get in and get set up.. The way our schedule is this month our last work day is Sunday, August 28 . Monday and Tuesday are normal days off and and Wednesday is our scheduled day off so it works out that we can leave early. So our plans are to pull out of the campsite on Monday morning and work our way north. We have two nights reserved at South Beach SP just south of Newport so we can stop along the way as we want to. I would have preferred to stay another night but there weren't any sites that were open for three nights. So we will head on home on the 31st .
Randa and I are ready to be home for a while. We have had a great experience, again , here and the cape but we are ready. I don't remember having so many days of fog. Having sunny days makes us happy. So many days of little or no winds to move the fog. We have had the heat on every day since we arrived on July 30th.
The park has changed as too. Well not so much the park as the lighthouse experience. The road out to the lighthouse is closed to the public. The road has deteriorated and it shows some signs of sluffing off in several areas, so the decision was made to restrict traffic to employees and volunteers only. The public must now park at the headlands and walk the 1/2 mile out to the site. Of course this limits the access to some folks.
In addition, the lighthouse tower access has been cutoff. There are several bricks in the tower structure that need to be examined by an engineer to determine if the stairway is safe for visitors to climb. Seeing the light and lens from the tower was the highlight of the visit to the lighthouse. It is so disappointing to tell our guests that they can no longer go up to the top.
Joe, the park superintendent , told me that through a grant, both the road and the tower are going to be examined to determine if either of the problems are fixable. I have my fingers crossed but fear the worst. The are two fault lines that cross the isthmus making it vulnerable to further damage. Some day the site may become an island.
We have been coming to Cape Blanco for many years. We have volunteered here 4 times and just camped many more. During that time one thing that has always bothered me is how the flag has been displayed. There is a certain etiquette in the flying of the United States flag. It is either flown from sunrise to sunset or flown 24 hrs a day which requires a light to shown on it during the night. Here the flag was up there at the top of the pole, day and night.
Finally it bugged me enough to mention it to a ranger about three weeks ago. I suggested that she bring it up at the next ranger meeting . Nothing happened right away. I was tempted to bring it up to the superintendent but I just waited. Last week on my evening walk around the campground loop with the boys, I noticed a change. A light !! Shining up ! The flag is now lit at night. It made me smile when I saw it that night. Overdue but not in the dark any longer.
There is a new light source at the Cape Blanco Lighthouse. From 1936 until March of 2022 there has been a series on incandescent light bulbs sending out warnings to mariners passing by. "STAY AWAY" The last were a pair of 1000 watt bulbs that were on a frame that offered an instant replacement when the first bulb failed.
But it's not the same. The light (as a LED is much more directional so much of the Fresnel lens is not utilized so the light beam is not as tall. The beam used to be visible from the visitor canter. Now the beam is over our heads and only visible from afar.
Take a look
The Cape Arrago Lens a Fourth Order _ 3.5 ft
We feel privileged to be able to be inches away from each one.
(be sure to tap on each to enlarge them)
Downtown Coos Bay is a treasure we discovered on our day off week. The building is brand new in among retail stores that are built on an area that once was an enormous pile of wood chips. Chip trucks would back up to the pile and the trailer would be lifted and tilted to pour out the ground-up wood waste of lumber mills. A huge bulldozer would move the pile further up the pile to give room for the next rig. Enormous ships would moor in the adjacent Coos River for the transfer and out to sea they would go heading west. It is odd to see retail there now. Time moves on.
Back to the museum. Nicely done. Emphasis on the bay area history divided into sections like lumber, commerce, Native Americans, early white settlers, environment. The highlight for us was the Fresnel Lens that once protected the Cape Arrago area of the coast. About 35 years ago we rented a beach house on the road to Sunset Bay. From the kitchen window the Arrago light was visible. At dark the light would wash the house at a prescribed interval/ The memory makes me smile.
I have downloaded a photo of the view we had from the house. The walkway had been dismantled. The light decommissioned and the lens removed. Usually that means it gets lost in some warehouse somewhere. Not this time! It is proudly displayed in the Coos History Museum.
The Woods here is awesome. The state park has a variety of areas, some grass, lots of brush, Salal, Huckleberry, and others. Then there are lots of trees. Not many, if any, hardwoods.
Happily I haven't seen any Gorse in my walks. It is an invasive weed that is quite a problem in the Bandon area because was brought to the US by Lord Bennett in 1873s from his native Ireland. He planted what he called Furze to remind him of home and it has spread like a weed choking out native plants and trees and is an extreme fire hazard when it dries out in the summer. The town of Bandon burned twice because of it's flammability.
Anyway, back to the trees. I'm not sure what they are but they are magnificent.
I enjoy checking out the various camping apparatus at each site. Some huge and expensive. Some very basic and often almost non-existent.
Then there is neat sites and there are the not quite as neat ones.
Sunday was the last day of July. Our first month is over. One month to go. We enjoy what we do here and the other places we have volunteered. We really like meeting the talking with our visitors, customers, guests, fellow volunteers. We have a very large pool of memories and friends because of our adventures.
However, yesterday had some interesting challenges. There were three guys with fishing gear heading down over the edge of the peninsula that is normally off limits. Then the flying of the drone from the area near the tower. ( Also not ok) Both not a big deal. The third incident was more challenging.
As I was in the tower telling a young couple about the Funk lantern, I was interrupted by a fellow who burst into the tower. When I asked for his Ticket ( the tour ticket is required to get to come in and learn about the life of a lighthouse keeper and his family.) He nearly exploded with profanity in stating his unhappiness with the total system. Having to pay money to come inside the lighthouse. Not being able to go up into the tower. Having to walk over from the parking lot. Not happy that there was a truck, (my truck) here and he had to walk. " If I had a knife, I would puncture those tires" Then he took my picture with his phone and walked out.
He proceeded to walk down the greeter, Dennis, and fill his ears with his diatribe before heading back to the parking lot and his vehicle. I continued my tour with the couple, but Randa and I were stunned. What should we have done? We have been told not to push the issue. Not to antagonize of inflate the event. We didn't. But what should we do now? Who should we now call to let them know what happened? It was an awakening for all of us volunteers. We need to be aware of "emergency" procedures. We need to "Be Prepared".
