I was asked to put together something for Davids birthday coming up. he has the overlad itch. Monday March 12th through Friday the 16.
I have two loops in mind for the week. snow pack is low, and time is short to plan that trip so here goes.
My.02
Option one:
Head Straight to the redwoods. Head south via I5 destination Crescent city, Ca. There is a bunch of stuff to do down there in the redwoods north and south. I know of a good and quiet camp location near town and the forest, and forest center.(http://www.co.del-norte.ca.us/departments/parks) spent the next day exploring at your leisure, camp a second night, head out in the morning of the 3rd day.
The dunes
we can stay at Hooneymoon state park (http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=95) Is has an acess to the beach right in camp (if not its close) so you can go out and play on the sand, drive to the beach, W/E's. Stay there overnight, puting us into thursday morning.
Then head North on Hw 101 for Ft. stevens state park. (http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=129)
I grew up going there. There are plenty of things to do and see. left over WWII bunkers. miles of bike trails, a lake, the Peter Iredale shipwreck, driveable beach. Its a nice place. this take sus into friday. and puts us near seaside, or and a quick jot home for some of you pdx guys.
Option Two...
Start at Browns camp, Or. I will guide you on whatever trails we want to run. find a camp, build a HUGE fire, shoot the shit, eat good dinner and see as much or as little as the group feels up to. trail miles, cool, camp time, cool. spend either one or two days there exploring, and wheeling the trials. maybee spend the 1st day hitting mild trails everybody can do, then the second doing trail with more difficulty?
Wednesday
Head for sand lake bomb around on the sand, find a spot to camp, get our ocean fix during the day. move on to Either beverly beach state park(http://oregonstateparks.org/index.cfm?do=parkPage.dsp_parkPage&parkId=164) or Ft. Stevens State park. where both are very chill, have great clean facilities, and are in good proximity to good foods on the way home.
My preference is option two. only due to planning time and mileage. this will keep us close to home, still a very diverse path with plenty to do. and when the weather gets better i'm planing on making a redwoods trip with the wife and kids anyways (open invite!) but its not my birthday and I'm not deciding! so there LOL. If you guys want to go to go on the redwoods loop trip this time I and I can't make it i have no problem setting you up with an itinerary and meeting up with you later in the week for the end of the trip. So let my situation have no bearing on your decisions.
Lets take a few days to discuss it here. i'll get an official staging area thread up when we have hashed out a little more of the details.
Looking forward to a kick ass time!
Bronze.
official thread is up!
https://www.riderevival.club/forum/classifieds/david-s-b-day-run-mar-12-18th
john.
Ok, to be sure, i'm free from 3/12-3/19, so keep that open if we want to run over. I agree on going south...we'll just have to find dispersed sites and come back up. Chris, if you're out on 3/16-3/19, John, i'd be up to take you up on your browns camp and otehr northern coast ideas too that last part of hte weekend.
I think everyone just needs to figure out right away what days they are free, and then we go from there.
heay chris. thanks for the input! i agree, i just got my big maps out for the area. im going to spend some more time with the "six rivers" map. there is a lot we could "try" to get to. as long as you guys dont mind turning around a few times ;). More to come.
john.
Hey All,
I'm all for heading south and trekking back up the coast. I've done most of the areas mentioned above including Redwoods, Bandon, Dunes, on up through Gearhart the shipwreck and Fort Stevens. I've done the north coast so many times I'd personally rather spend more time down south. Some of the spots Brandon posted above look great.
I'm not positive where you were thinking about camping down in Redwoods but like all National Parks we can't have dogs in most areas https://www.nps.gov/redw/planyourvisit/upload/Pets_SB-2014.pdf Maybe/hopefully you guys know some remote sites (but still amongst the giants) where this would not be a problem?
Are the dates the 12th - 16th set?
9 days and counting!
Man, I wish I could make the trip...being in the army, I need at least 14 days of lead time to get approval for anything further than 250 miles from JBLM, WA.
All of this is awesome! Brooking is more of a "hoppiN" town thats for sure. camping on the sand would be cool! There is sooooo much to do down there!
Thanks for the input Brandon!
John.
Just adding to the thread if you head south. In the area of Brookings some points of interest are the Japanese Bombing site. Its the only crater from a Japanese bomb on US soil during WW II. its an easy 2 mile old growth hike (havent done it), catch 22 is i have conflicting reports from the Forest Service, one saying the trail is closed, the other dated Dec 2017 showing it open. https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/fseprd531214.pdf (link to the bomb site flyer)
Further cool things are the Miller Bar Campground and further upstream is the South Fork Camping Area. Both are riverside dispersed campgrounds. Fair warning, as they are river bank campgrounds, they are typically considered closed during the winter months, since high water does tend to wash ones campsite away, but low water days happen too in the winter, if you happen to be good at predicting river flows. The South Fork camp is more in the trees so its a little less prone to flooding. Also, Whales head beach is a 4wd access beach, can't drive on it (there are other beaches in the area you can drive on) but the road down to it is steep and gravel, hence the 4wd signage, its the 2nd picture. Indian Sands is another cool trail that goes to highland sand dunes created by sandstone as opposed to ocean sands. I guess the secret is you head south and uphill as opposed to following the State signs which point towards the beach head (3rd picture). Natural Bridges are another awesome viewpoint with many options to see it, there is an awesome vista if youre not afraid of heights and do the short trail out there (i wouldnt take the dogs), and if youre really adventurous, the secret beach is supposed to be the best find if you make it there.
Arizona Beach was another fun place to visit as youre passing through the Samuel Boardman Scenic Corridor, it used to be a beachfront campground. Its also right across the street from the Prehistoric Gardens, if youre into dinosuars lol
Miller Bar
Whales Head Beach
Indian Sands
Natural Bridges
Arizona Beach
Ok! Yeah, options 3. and 4. are very near the camping place i described in the OP (florance keller). it would be an easy day trip down to check all that out, drive under the tree, and then come back via some forest service roads through the redwoods. Or camp at that beach place. its in the thick of the same area, and should have all kinda redwood'sy stuff to do too. it was the one place we did not venture to when we were down last year, so i have no 1st hand knowledge of what any of it looks like. just food for thought.
options 5. 6. and 7. are out for this time of year. especially this year. We are still getting snow as low as 1000ft as we speak. it would be foolish of us to think we can cross the pass(s) via FS. roads, any time soon.
We could head east! But its further(time and mileage), and would be BALLS COLD!
Great stuff guys! Lets keep it going!
Bronze,
A copied response from facebook.
1. Redwoods, to the Dunes, to the Peter Iredale shipwreck and then all the way up to Astoria – from John 2. Redwoods to and coming north, but NOT the McGrew Trail, but the other stuff later in this writeup: http://dovmotorsports.proboards.com/.../oregon-mcgrew...
3. Redwoods (From Brandon)
https://i1.wp.com/.../2014/07/2014CaliCoastDrive-23.jpg...
4. Gold Bluff Beach (From Brandon) https://www.outdoorproject.com/.../gold-bluffs-beach...
5. Oregon Portion of the Transamerica Trail – https://gearpatrol.com/.../the-road-less-traveled-taking.../ Is the desert too cold this time of year? I think our best bet for better conditions is to stay near the coast by starting south and then gradually coming up. That’s what the consensus is, at least.
6. Southern Portion of this trail - http://www.oohva.org/OBCDR/route5.html 7. http://www.oohva.org/OBCDR/route6.html
On a side note, lets see if we can keep the logistics here for the trip. it will be nice for later trips to be able to reference this. Thanks guys! Looking forward to an awesome trip!
Bronze.