Maybe the shortest drive day by miles, but one of the longer days in time and stress. Sharon found a city park where we are likely the only campers, but it took some doing to get here, and I'm glad we're done for the day.
Before leaving Cape Blanco we hiked to the nearby lighthouse, a wet but lovely hike. The overnight rain made the grass on the open part of the trail ready to pass moisture on to our boots, the ones we forgot to reapply the waterproofing on.
Then on our drive South we stopped at Arizona Beach Recreation Area, and walked its lovely almost black beach. We had it to ourselves, and it was beautiful. The ground goes vertical by the high tide line, lucky for us the tide was out, the bigger tide has a 9' swing.
We missed our turn in Gold Beach, eventually requiring our first U-turn of the day. Heading north on US-101 were all the gas stations for the escaping California drivers, so we filled up early 'cause it was easy. Best thing we did all day.
We chose the lesser used road East along the Rogue River, though after countless twists and turns not very close for river views, the North side road ended at a one lane bridge, dumping us on the South shore road. The road eventually degraded to a seasonal forest road with lots of gravel sections, steep dropoffs with crumbling edges, blind turns everywhere, with few wider sections for two cars to pass. The two cars we met on the road made for careful passage, and renewed fears that the next time could be worse.
Finally we emerged back to a semblance of civilization. Sharon found a campsite for us, up a one lane gravel road, but a mile up was a closed gate. She trusts in my growing experience backing down hills. We avoided the ditch and drop-off until we could finally make a safe U-turn, and then headed back a ways to the little town of Wolf Creek, for their City Park with camping. The host even gave us some firewood! We had the place pretty much to ourselves, as the rainy night chilled us enough to use our sleeping bags one more night.
A few pics of the day are at https://photos.app.goo.gl/GbhX3AJYTZ8wtDxy8
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