Day 115, to Tillamook: A very big tree, a lighthouse, some Brie on a baguette, a place to sleep in a covered wagon

August 15, 2022

Along a short trail at Cape Meares State Park, we had this view of the Three Arches rocks, three large, bulbous rock formations protruding from the ocean a few hundred yards from the coast. Only one of the arches is visible from this angle — you can see daylight under the rock on the left. The view is framed by pine trees on either side.

Monday stats

First up, Dani suggested a new feature for this blog: "The Daily Whale-y" (i.e., number of whales seen today): 1

Start: Cape Lookout State Park

End: Twins Ranch Campground, Tillamook, Ore. Elevation: 39

The Daily Progress: 27.8 miles

Uphill / downhill: 1814 / 1833

Ice cream flavors: NA. Jenna, don't freak out, but we rode right past the Tillamook creamery, but I didn't really want to stop for ice cream — it was actually kinda chilly, and we had just eaten a ton of Brie at a French cheese and wine place. And it was getting late and we needed to figure out where we were going to stay.

Wine flavors: Pinot Gris from Kings Estate

Lodging expenses: $10

Food expenses: $38 for groceries at Fred Meyer, and $42, I think, for Brie, a baguette, marionberry preserves and two glasses of wine at Blue Heron, the place with French cheese and wine

Dani's daily digest

With no alarm, we slept until 7. We started our morning with tea, coffee, and oatmeal at a picnic table overlooking the beach.

Today's main activity was, somewhat surprisingly, a discretionary bike ride. The ACA provides two routes between today's starting point and today's ending point: a longer, scenic route along the coast and a more direct inland route. We took the coast route.

There were many times in the first half of the day's ride where I wondered if we had made a mistake. Yes, there were beautiful ocean vistas, but a lot of the riding was on a narrow, twisty road with higher-than-comfortable levels of traffic and no shoulder. But as we climbed closer to Cape Meares, the traffic thinned and the riding got more pleasant.

The first Cape Meares attraction we visited was Big Spruce, the biggest Sitka spruce tree in the state of Oregon. We found him at the end of a short trail that led from the parking lot through a kinda weedy patch of forest until BAM! you were face-to-face with a tree so big it looked like a mistake. This tree was four times the size of a tree that I would call a "big tree.” The branches of this tree were the size of trees. The branches had branches the size of small trees.

I doubt that it is possible to capture an image of this entire tree in one photo, but here is a view of some of it. Looking up at the tree, we can see Dani near the bottom of the frame and the tree looming overhead, its great, thick branches growing outward and upward. It is a giant truck with branches so big that each branch would be a large tree by itself.

We encircled the Big Spruce, absorbing its grandeur when we discovered that this grand, stately tree has a butt! Two big burls at the tree's base form large, cartoonist butt cheeks. Tee hee hee.

Next we went to check out the Cape Meares lighthouse. In the base of lighthouse was a man sharing information about the construction of the lighthouse, which helped us appreciate the feat of its construction. The bricks were made at a kiln built on-site. The cast iron panels were transported by ox-cart on a road that had to be cut expressedly for the purpose. And the fancy-pants crystal lens, made in France, was transported to the spot by boat and then removed from the boat by a crane made from the big trees on the cape on a verrrrrrrrrrry calm day.

Then we saw a whale! This one was chilling in one spot in the ocean, releasing two or three chuffs of air every few minutes. I was able to spot his back through the binoculars.

We did not see sea otters, even though one woman said she saw some. Alas. We did see a cormorant that was probably a pelagic cormorant based on its nesting location, but my binoculars did not provide enough power to check out its plumage. Same for the birds that were probably common murres.

By now, it was almost 4 and time to get moving again. The ACA route continued down a road that was marked CLOSED but we decided that didn't apply to us. The road was in pretty bad shape but it didn't have any traffic and that made it a joy to ride.

As we were turning off the closed road, another cyclist caught up with us. He goes by Baja Frank, and he is currently exploring the Oregon Coast by ebike. He rode along with us to Tillamook, sharing ideas for the rest of our current trip and adventures to come. Talking to him made the ride to Tillamook go much faster. He also gave us a solid recommendation for dinner: The Blue Heron French Cheese Company. We bought a baguette, brie, marionberry preserves and two glasses of Pinot Gris and enjoyed a picnic on their flagstone patio. Baja Frank, who was staying at their campground, gifted us a pair of milk chocolate-caramel-sea-salt truffles. We also petted the goats at their petting zoo.

It was getting to be time to think about securing lodging for the night. We made a quick grocery stop at a massive, Walmart-like non-Walmart called Fred Meyer and then set about finding a campsite. Blue Heron French Cheese did not allow tent camping (I do not understand this). The next RV park we considered had a sign out front saying ”NO OVERNIGHT VISITORS - MONTHLY RENTALS ONLY” so we didn't even try. Instead, we followed a sign pointing to a county park with camping, but after we didn't see the campground after a mile we looked at our phones and determined the campground was four miles off-route. Too far. The next RV park we tried told us they had just rented out their last tent site and recommended we try Twins Ranch. Not wanting to risk another strikeout in the waning daylight, I called Twins Ranch and they said they could take us.

Twins Ranch campground is the retirement project of Larry, a former Oregon State Parks employee, and did he ever have space for us. There was only one other tent pitched in his big field. There were also about a dozen covered wagons. ”If you'd prefer not to set up your tent, you could sleep in Wagon 4,” he offered.

I was intrigued, but also cautious of the potential upsell. ”That might be neat. How much would that be?”

"How about ten dollars," he said.

”No way.” I said. "We are going to pay you twenty.”

But he wouldn't take more than ten. So here I am blogging on my smartphone from the upper bunk of a covered wagon, just like the pioneers did.

Dani stands in the doorway of the "covered wagon" that we are renting for an evening. It is essentially a little wooden cabin with two bunk platform beds in the back and a little space at the entrance with benches built into the sides. An excellent like camping option, if you ask me. I wonder if it's more waterproof than our tent.

Today's ride: 28 miles (45 km)
Total: 4,338 miles (6,981 km)

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