North Oregon Coast 4/24-4/27

[4llamas]

The wife and I left the Willamette Valley at Corvallis and headed north out of Newport to Astoria with the intention of checking out as many improved camping areas as time would allow on our way to the Crab, Wine and Seafood festival. Weather permitting we planned to search out some primitive on-beach sites. The weather did not cooperate after Friday so we stayed at three state parks: Cape Lookout, Fort Stevens and Nehalem Bay. We also sampled the IPAs of 4 micro breweries. More on that later.

Cape Lookout State Park sits below a popular hanggliding and paragliding launch site. We timed it just right for that show. Miles of beautiful beach with spectacular rock cliffs at each end. The campsites vary from being totally exposed parallel to the beach (which we chose to get maximum sun) to being completely shaded by large surreal trees.

The prop plane was flying loops down from the north somewhere. Maybe it was from the museum in Tillamook. Anyone know what it is?

More later,
2llamas

 

[4llamas]

Cape Lookout State Park and beyond

A couple of photos of the different camp sites in Cape Lookout SP. Nice place.

We also stayed in Fort Stevens SP. Beautiful place with miles and miles of bike trails to lovely views of the Columbia River and Mt. Saint Helen's. Completely sold out, as in f*&^%@g crowded. It was great for a layover, but too touristy and way noisy for my taste.

Spent our last night in Nehalem Bay SP. It was also a nice layover. Seems like all Oregon State Parks are well kept and attractive. All the campsites look the same with 12' tall pine trees in between them. Not crowded on Sunday night. Excellent access to a sandy beach and the bay is popular with kayaks. A boat launch is nearby, but it was in poor shape, maybe from winter storms. The park has an area for those with horses. Apparently many miles of sandy trails. Manzanita is a cute little vacation town very near the park. It was sort of eerie not to see a mall or big box store.

I suppose I should put this in DDs camping review site.

 

[4llamas]

Brewhaha review

Pelican Brewery in Pacific City. Great location. GREAT location. $6 for a pint of India Pelican Ale. Get it, IPA. Ha ha ha. Very forgettable, except for the price. Don't bother to go in the brewery, head for the beach.

Tried three breweries in Astoria:
Fort George: loved the atmosphere; earthy, but suitable for everyone. Beer served in wine glasses and mason jars. Say what? Sits a couple of blocks off the water up the hill a bit behind the comic book store toward the east end of town. One of the original buildings in Astoria. The Vortex IPA was good, but not "give me another" good. Sorry, I was in such a hurry I left my camera in the truck.

Astoria Brewery/Wet Dog Restaurant: Absolutely the worst micro brew I've ever had. Flat. It didn't taste bad, it just didn't taste. Slightly worse than the service we kept pleading for. Wonderful location on the water. I suppose that's what keeps them in business.

Rogue Brewery: Satellite from the mothership in Newport. Way out on pier 39 next to the Bumble Bee seafood processor. Mighty fine IPAs, not up to Steelehead Bomber or Ninkasi, but good stuff. I had severals of a few (hic) of them. I did take the camera and got some interesting pictures of boats in storage you have to walk by on the way to the head.
Enjoy

 

[4llamas]

Misc photos

1) Nehalem State Park campground. Well, the trees are a little more than 12'.

2) Ships on the Columbia as seen from pier 39, Astoria.

3) Beach outside Pelican Brewery near Pacific City. I didn't notice before, but it looks like a pickup and empty boat trailer in the background.

4) Garibaldi, Oregon fleet, near the lumber mill. Another unspoiled coastal town.

5) More gliders. I counted 9 in the air at once. Several were too high and far away to see at times

Your turn.

 

[chnlisle]

Astoria used to be a great litle town circa 1968. Now its just another big Wally World. Too bad. Did ou get to Canon Beach?

 

[K6ON]

Llamas, Great pictures, thanks for posting. The airplane is the B-17 "Aluminum Overcast" owned by the EAA. They, along with a couple other B-17's tour the country every spring & summer keeping the legacy of WW2 aircraft alive. You can buy a ride in one and get a feel of what our WW2 airmen experienced 60+ years ago over Germany without the ME109's and FW190's shooting at you. Before 9-11, you could buy "stick time" in the right seat of the Collings Foundation's B-17 and B-24. I was fortunate enough to fly the B-17 in 1996, and the B-24 in 1997. Enjoy them while you can.

 

[the fisherman]

Garibaldi

In the picture of the port of Garibaldi, I see a boat behind the blue Delta charter boat, it's the grey boat you see just the stern. The boat is named the Candace M, it belonged to a guy named Charlie Dixon. Charlie was a great old guy who has filled in on the deck of my boat during crab season. Charlie lost his life on a crab boat along with the two other crew members in a roll over accident crossing the bar at Astoria last winter, we will all miss Charlie. The boat is now for sale, in case your thinking of getting into the fishing business, it's kind of crazy how many good people lose their lives doing this. Makes me wonder if I want to get back on the boat again, but I know I will. Great pictures. RIP Charlie.

 

[pods8]

On the brewery front if you're ever in the hood river area stop into the full sail brewery. Their pub nicely overlooks the Columbia.

 

[4llamas]

Cannon Beach, Seaside, Lincoln City=Mallsville

It's a shame what most of these towns have become, I think. Big box crap and outlet malls everywhere. Looks like hundreds and hundreds of new vacant rental boxes, too. Astoria looks primitive compared to some of these places. The coast is beyond beautiful, but most of the "small" towns have become eyesores. I knew it, but I owed the wife a trip up the coast.

 

[4llamas]

Fishing, you gotta know your limits

Fisherman, this is all the bigger boat I need, thank you very much. It catches all the kokonee and crab I can eat, plus some. Doubles as a dive platform. I get all the ocean fishing excitement I need from watching "Deadliest Catch". 52" inch screen is close enough for me. A tip of my hat to you deranged souls that work the ocean. Thanks for that, I love wild fish. Congrats on your pig party, sounds like a big winner.
I really liked Garabaldi, not pretentious at all.

 

[chnlisle]

In '07 when I drove up to Tumwater to get my FWC I came home via the coast. It had been many many years (since my days at Ft. Lewis) since I'd been that way. It was a major shock. I loved the kinda of Payton Place feel of Astoria back in the day. A couple of bars some little cafes. Very little traffic over the bridge in those days it was nice. It's like one giant city now from Portland to the coast. I wonder what Long Beach and Aberdene WA are like now? Oh well sometimes It's good to be old.

 

[4llamas]

What is EAA? experimental aircraft addicts, or...?

Deltarat, that B-17 looked like one classy ride. It must have been throttled back because it was slow and quiet. I bet it is a noisy ride when it's cranked up. Do you know what is housed in the Tillamook air museum? We didn't stop there. Like I said, it was primarily the wife's trip, so we hit the cheese outlets.

 

[K6ON]

Close!!

EAA= Experimental Aircraft Association. The B-17 is noisy on the inside at any speed...They have seating (on the floor) for 9 passengers. The FAA says everyone has to have a seat belt so the're attached to the airframe along the sides and everyone parks their butt and straps in for takeoff & landings. After it's in the air, you can move around and check out all of the positions. In WW2, B-17's had a crew of 10. They cruise between 160 ~ 170 MPH...they look like they're going slow compared to today's jets cruising at 500+MPH.
Tillamook Air Museum is on my list to do one day...I know it's housed in a huge blimp hanger..they have about 30 aircraft. My interest is they have an A-26 Invader...I have a load of hours in the right seat of the Invader. Best airplane I've ever been in....

 

[K6ON]

Here's Another

Llamas, Here's another '17. Flew down to Stockton Muni today and shot it through the windshield while taxiing to transit parking.