Waldport Weekend

All of us on the beach with the doggies

Putting a 600 piece puzzle together

This weekend the whole Watershed Crew headed to the coast to spend the weekend in a beach house of a friend of Danielle’s in Waldport, OR south of Newport. Emily and I left Corvallis early Friday afternoon after she got out of work and headed to the house which was on a large sand spit out into Waldport Bay. Driving up to the house was pretty neat as there were multiple driveways completely buried in encroaching sand dunes. It looked like a blizzard landscape but instead of snow it was sand. Even though Emily and I had got a bite to eat on the way to the beach house we went with Scott, Danielle and Kevin and Alexa B.D. and Carrie to a restaurant in the beachside community called Rumi where we got some great food and wine had a wonderful server.

On the way to the beach from the house

Jam Session

When everyone else arrived we spent some time walking along the beach to check out the mighty Pacific. The rest of the first night was spent playing guitar, playing washers and flip cup in the garage and watching the girls assemble a massive 600 piece dog-shaped puzzle of dogs in the woods. Emily and I tried to go to sleep in the living room in our sleeping bags around 2am but there was a loud skeevy game of poker going on in the kitchen next to us so we moved to Mischa and Erins room and closed the door not even noticing when they later came in to bed.

The Head of Cape Perpetua

On the Oregon Coast Trail

Saturday morning was a bit rough getting up but after some good breakfast and juice everyone got motivated to do something during the day which promised iffy weather. Emily and I had our bikes and I had an ambitious idea of trying to bike the Oregon Coast Trail (mainly a hiking trail) from Cape Perpetua to the south back to the house in Waldport which was roughly 15 miles. We drove the Prius with the bikes south to Cape Perpetua and stopped in the visitor center to figure out if the trails would be rideable or not. The older park employees didn’t know if the trails allowed bikes or not so we took that answer as a thumbs up to try it and drove to the top of the head of land where the Whispering Spruce Trail and overlook over Cape Perpetua is. We started our ascent up the ridge on Amanda’s Trail which would take us over Cape Creek and descend us back to the coast to the north towards Yachats and Waldport. At first the trail was fantastic but soon it became very apparent that it was not meant for bikes as it became rocky and steep with lots of mud from rain during the previous week. This required Emily and I to carry our bikes up several steep slippery sections which was super sketchy for me because I had forgotten to wear my knee brace and was only two months

Amanda's Trail Shrine

Amanda's Shrine & Trail Bridge

out from surgery! Thankfully when we finally got far enough inland to cross the skunk-cabbage-covered Cape Creek and start our descent the trail became fast and amazing although still showing signs of little use. Near the bottom of Amand’as trail on a bridge crossing we came across what looked to be some sort of Buddhist shrine but turned out to be a memorial to the woman the trail was named after with a nice bench to sit on as well. Soon we were back down to Highway 101 along the coast which ducked in and out of the woods occasionally with terrific views over the rocky shore below us. We followed 101 to the small town of Yachats where we regained the Oregon Coast Trail on “Trail 804” around the Smelt Sands State Park. This section was a very well maintained walking path along the rocky coast which was busy with people enjoying the now sunny weather. In fact, it was so hot that I took off my water and windproof pants and stripped down to just my black bike underwear shorts for the rest of the ride! Soon we found ourselves at the spot where we would descend onto the beach for a long 6-7 mile ride back to Waldport. The first thing we had to do was get around the crashing waves which was at high tide and a wall of rocks. I began to walk my way through the knee deep waves around the rocks and was keeping an eye on Emily to make sure a wave didn’t knock her over. I sped up the pace to encourage her to move quickly and then she rolled her ankle. She looked ok so

Biking down the beach

Approaching Waldport again

I kept going and we both made it through but it was a bit nerve-wracking… From there on we simply biked on the sand closest to the water which turned out to be nearly as hard as pavement. It was super nice to bike along the beach and we didn’t have much headwind which helped and the sun was out too! When we got back to the Waldport area we tried to follow the beach around the point of land back to the bridge area and bay but it was high tide and the beach was definitely underwater and not passable. So we backtracked and exited at the Governor Patterson Memorial Recreation parking lot and biked the road back through Waldport and over the very cool bridge back to the beach house where we thoroughly washed the sand and salt off our expensive mountain bikes. Although tired and with a sore knee the ride actually worked out pretty well. Kevin then gave me a ride back to Cape Perpetua to get the Prius.

Our Seafood Feast!

Family Dinner

While we were biking others had gone into town and purchased massive quantities of seafood for a dinner feast including dungenous crab, 3lbs of clams, shrimp, oyster shooters (Carrie got these for us), sides and marinated steak from Colin. It was an amazing dinner and one of those rare occasions where I actually filled myself full of really awesome seafood. The rest of the evening was a bit more subdued than the night before with us watching sports and a couple movies in the living room. Colin had also brought his Nintendo so there of course was Dr. Mario being played at times as well. Cards were broke out and of course we played washers as usual.

Yoga and Guns

Kevin & Alexa

Sunday was a very relaxing day where we all seemed to sleep in a little longer than previously. We relaxed on the deck of the house in the sun playing trivia games and watching Colin shoot cans with his BB gun. I hung around the house reading about our new Nikon DSLR while Emily and others went down to the beach with the dogs who had been in Danielle’s car and the garage throughout the weekend as dogs weren’t allowed in the house. They found a whole bunch of

On the Beach

seals on the beach and Emily got some fantastic photos with our new camera of the wildlife and all of our friends. (I’ve included a

Double Rainbow!

 bunch in this post). After cleaning up a bit Amanda, Colin, Mischa, Erin, Scott and Danielle and Emily and I stopped at the Chowder Bowl at Nye Beach for some awesome slumguillion chowder with bay shrimp before returning to Corvallis to a double rainbow over Reser Stadium! Thanks Danielle for a relaxing weekend!