We were able to find the Pacific City Thousand Trails with no problems, while searching for a campsite, we found one which actually had a view of the Ocean. Instead of backing into the site, we pulled in frontwards so that we could see the ocean from the side windows. While looking I saw a couple of spouts, but we hadn't gotten the binoculars out yet. The sites are terraced so people along this row all have good views. Of course we put out the bird feeders as well as threw corn on the ground for the chipmunks.
Today was to be the warmest day of our stay here, so we planned on visiting the beach and enjoying the warm temps. and sunshine. We filled the Jeep up with water, as it was low. We went into Pacific City and found a place to access the beach and off we went. There was a huge "haystack" rock just offshore. Many broken shells littered the sand, but we were unable to find any intact. Over a little over a mile away, north up the beach we saw a really high sand dune and rocks extending out into the water. We decided to hike to them and see if we could find any aquatic life. The tide was almost at it's lowest. While we were walking we saw one of the Dorey Boats heading into the beach, as fast as it could go. It hit the beach and one person jumped out and started running toward the parking area. I figured that someone had forgotten something and they returned to get it. In a few minutes, we see a pickup truck backing really fast toward the Dorey Boat, when it got close, it stopped, someone in the boat reached in the bed of the truck and grabbed a tow rope with a hook on it, hooked the front of the boat and the driver of the pickup started forward, fairly quickly towing the boat, people still in it, across the wet sand. They traveled a distance of over a hundred yards. I assume that they didn't slow down so as to avoid getting stuck in the wet sand. We saw this same thing happen a couple more times, NOW we know what Dorey fishing is all about (at least how they retrieve the boats during low tide.
The sand dune was huge, it was approximately 50 feet in elevation. Kids were rolling, sliding down the steep slope toward the beach. The question is HOW in the heck would the get back up! We saw a few kids climbing the hill, one set of young lads, were going rather rapidly for a while then they appeared to slow down to a virtual crawl. Marcie didn't seem interested in trying to climb it, so i didn't even suggest it to her, although it did look like fun .. ... NOT!
The rocks were awesome, the corrosion had worn them into some interesting shapes and some caves and arches. We saw a lot of mussels, sea urchins, sea stars, etc. We wondered around just looking at the tidal pools and pretty soon the whole area was crawling with tourists ... .. mmm mmm what were they doing here? We walked back to the car, the roughest part was climbing the last sand dune to reach the car, but we made it.
We went and got fuel in Lincoln City and asked where we could find a nice local restaurant. They suggested "Mo's". We had been to a Mo's when we were with the kids a few years ago. In fact I remembered just how good there clam chowder was, so that is where we decided to eat. There was a line, but it didn't take to long and the meal was well worth the wait. The clam chowder was as I had remembered it, excellent. The view was nice, many people on the beach with their children and pets, it seemed many were out enjoying one of the warmest days they have had this spring. We got some chowder base to take back to Trevor and Austin, since they also really enjoyed the clam chowder when they were with us. The cashier even put it in ice and triple bagged it for us. On there menu was descriptions of some other places in the area which we decided we would like to visit. We headed South and came across a little park, which seemed to have a nice view of the Ocean. We stopped and looked for some whales, which we had heard were migrating thru. We took a little hike into the park, had to cross some really wet ground, which left both of us with wet marks running up the backside of our pants. Oh well, but Marcie was concerned how it would look if we stopped at any stores on the way home ...
We headed out and found old route 101, known as Otter Crest Loop and was supposed to have interesting features which we could see. Stopping at the first stop, we noticed the smell of hot antifreeze and observed a puddle underneath front of the Jeep. This was to end our day of sightseeing. We headed back, watching the temperature gauge, which was running a little warmer but not critical at this time. Marcie called ahead and found a NAPA store which had a lower radiator hose, which I suspected may be the source of the leak. We made it to the store, purchased the hose and got some names of local repair shops if it turned out to be the water pump or something worse. Then, the temperature gauge was still in a reasonable range, so off we started back to home. Everything went well, until we hit the rather steep hills.
The temperature gauge buried itself and we pulled over to let things cool down a little and add some bottled water the coolant reservoir. Starting back up the hills caused it to overheat so much that the engine stalled. Finally we called for a tow, using our AAA membership.
Today was to be the warmest day of our stay here, so we planned on visiting the beach and enjoying the warm temps. and sunshine. We filled the Jeep up with water, as it was low. We went into Pacific City and found a place to access the beach and off we went. There was a huge "haystack" rock just offshore. Many broken shells littered the sand, but we were unable to find any intact. Over a little over a mile away, north up the beach we saw a really high sand dune and rocks extending out into the water. We decided to hike to them and see if we could find any aquatic life. The tide was almost at it's lowest. While we were walking we saw one of the Dorey Boats heading into the beach, as fast as it could go. It hit the beach and one person jumped out and started running toward the parking area. I figured that someone had forgotten something and they returned to get it. In a few minutes, we see a pickup truck backing really fast toward the Dorey Boat, when it got close, it stopped, someone in the boat reached in the bed of the truck and grabbed a tow rope with a hook on it, hooked the front of the boat and the driver of the pickup started forward, fairly quickly towing the boat, people still in it, across the wet sand. They traveled a distance of over a hundred yards. I assume that they didn't slow down so as to avoid getting stuck in the wet sand. We saw this same thing happen a couple more times, NOW we know what Dorey fishing is all about (at least how they retrieve the boats during low tide.
The sand dune was huge, it was approximately 50 feet in elevation. Kids were rolling, sliding down the steep slope toward the beach. The question is HOW in the heck would the get back up! We saw a few kids climbing the hill, one set of young lads, were going rather rapidly for a while then they appeared to slow down to a virtual crawl. Marcie didn't seem interested in trying to climb it, so i didn't even suggest it to her, although it did look like fun .. ... NOT!The rocks were awesome, the corrosion had worn them into some interesting shapes and some caves and arches. We saw a lot of mussels, sea urchins, sea stars, etc. We wondered around just looking at the tidal pools and pretty soon the whole area was crawling with tourists ... .. mmm mmm what were they doing here? We walked back to the car, the roughest part was climbing the last sand dune to reach the car, but we made it.
We went and got fuel in Lincoln City and asked where we could find a nice local restaurant. They suggested "Mo's". We had been to a Mo's when we were with the kids a few years ago. In fact I remembered just how good there clam chowder was, so that is where we decided to eat. There was a line, but it didn't take to long and the meal was well worth the wait. The clam chowder was as I had remembered it, excellent. The view was nice, many people on the beach with their children and pets, it seemed many were out enjoying one of the warmest days they have had this spring. We got some chowder base to take back to Trevor and Austin, since they also really enjoyed the clam chowder when they were with us. The cashier even put it in ice and triple bagged it for us. On there menu was descriptions of some other places in the area which we decided we would like to visit. We headed South and came across a little park, which seemed to have a nice view of the Ocean. We stopped and looked for some whales, which we had heard were migrating thru. We took a little hike into the park, had to cross some really wet ground, which left both of us with wet marks running up the backside of our pants. Oh well, but Marcie was concerned how it would look if we stopped at any stores on the way home ..
We headed out and found old route 101, known as Otter Crest Loop and was supposed to have interesting features which we could see. Stopping at the first stop, we noticed the smell of hot antifreeze and observed a puddle underneath front of the Jeep. This was to end our day of sightseeing. We headed back, watching the temperature gauge, which was running a little warmer but not critical at this time. Marcie called ahead and found a NAPA store which had a lower radiator hose, which I suspected may be the source of the leak. We made it to the store, purchased the hose and got some names of local repair shops if it turned out to be the water pump or something worse. Then, the temperature gauge was still in a reasonable range, so off we started back to home. Everything went well, until we hit the rather steep hills.
The temperature gauge buried itself and we pulled over to let things cool down a little and add some bottled water the coolant reservoir. Starting back up the hills caused it to overheat so much that the engine stalled. Finally we called for a tow, using our AAA membership. The tow truck driver hooked us up and took us back to the campground. The Jeep battery was almost dead, I was unable to jump start it with the jump battery I carry so we decided to charge it and wait until the next day and try and start it.
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