We were all so sick of smoke and fire. The two fires less than 10 miles as the crow flies from our house had been burning for two months almost now. Everyday we had to wake up and figure out what to do with where the smoke was today. The kids and I were running for cross country and some days that would mean that we had to go early before the smoke settled down and other days it would mean we would have to wait for it to leave. Either way, it was not healthy to have to fill your lungs with wildfire smoke every day, so we needed a break. We had not been getting out for hikes because most of the forest was closed. Also, we did not want to leave our house. Now, things finally seemed stable enough that we could leave for a day or two and have a mini vacation.
We found ourselves a campsite at Jessie M. Honeyman State Park so we headed out to Florence and the Oregon Coast. There were lots of hikes that we had not done before there, but I zeroed in on Tahkenitch Creek. Driving to Florence was not that big of a deal. It was only a two hour drive. Nothing too remarkable on the drive and soon we found ourselves at a quiet trailhead. There were a few cars there at the trailhead, but not many. There were a ton of bees by the bathroom, though, so everyone was a bit nervous going near them. Soon we were on the trail. It was a flat trail with a forested walk that went right by a quiet creek. We hiked this for a mile or so before Jacqueline realized she was missing her sunglasses.
We spent way too long looking for the sunglasses going back and forth looking very closely. We never did find them, but at least Conrad and I got a little bit of a jog in. We continued on. The trail was very sandy as this was an area of dunes known as the Tahkenitch Dunes. We took that route that sent us toward the ocean. That was obviously the goal as we could not hike on the coast without seeing the ocean. It was only a few miles to get there and the trail took us right down to the beach. We spent the next mile or so hiking the beach. It was a cool day as usual on the coast, so there was no reason to get in the water on this day. Still it was fun and very relaxing. There was an enormous sign by the beach, so Conrad and I got a race in to the sign.
I was still faster than him for the time being. We had a decision to make. There was another trail that created a loop. This would mean we would have to leave the beach. It felt premature, but it gave us a chance to make a loop out of the hike. We left the beach and were now back in the dunes area. The trail took us to a lake called Three Mile Lake. It was amazing. How awesome would it be to hike a kayak into there for the day. We enjoyed it from high above taking a little break to look down on the lake. Then it was back through the dunes. Conrad got a little running down the sand hills in. We took the trail through the dunes that quickly dissipated. I was lucky to have my GPS watch because it told me I was on the trail when one did not exist.
The watch did its job and the trail came and went as we walked through the deep sand. Eventually it brought us back to the trail we started from and the loop was complete. We walked on back through the woods until we got to where the sunglasses could be. We looked for them again, but we also completed the Tahkenitch Creek loop trail which was pretty short. The sunglasses were never found. We were back at the car and they were not there either. Now we were able to head to our campsite for the night. It was a quiet campsite in a very busy campground. I made a mistake and grabbed the wrong tent which meant that we had a two person tent for a family of four. We improvised and I cleared out the back of the car.
Conrad and I ended up sleeping in the back of the car while Jacqueline and Zyla enjoyed the comfort of the tent. Camp was fun. We played some games and ate food that was really unhealthy for us. The night ended up being okay. It was tight in the car but nice and cool which is hard to find. We slept in as long as we could and then were back at it. We got ourselves all packed up. We were definitely the abnormal ones in this campground with our simple setup. Some people had these amazing, elaborate setups. It looked like they were just going to stay in the campsite as long as they could. We were using it as a means to get another hike in during the morning. This time we were heading out on the Siltcoos Lake Trail.
This trailhead was not too far from camp. I saw it the day before when we were heading out to Tahkenitch Creek. When I looked it up, it seemed like it would be a good short day hike for the morning. The trailhead was pretty quiet with just a few cars there and only one sketchy looking one. It was always a risk to leave all of your gear in your car, but that is what we had to do to get out on a hike. This hike started out in the thick forest. We were moving away from the beach out to a very large lake. The trail was in very good shape and we enjoyed the thick forest. Eventually the trail came to a junction. We went to the right to go around the loop. The loop took us toward the lake but when we tried to get down to the actual lake, we ended up in someone's campsite. We said our pleasantries and then were off with one more shot at finding a place to enjoy the lake. We went down a steep hill until we were right there at the lake. There was a really nice spot with a picnic table right on the lake. We sat down and enjoyed a card game while we looked out at the lake. Jacqueline felt guilty as usual for taking the best spot, but since no one else was around, it was not a big deal. We could still smell the smoke from all of the fires even this far removed from the McKenzie area.
Ours was not the only fire around, but it definitely was the biggest. Jacqueline was paranoid that there was another fire out on the coast, but it did not seem that way to me. Just a lingering smell of smoke in the air, nowhere near as bad as we had been dealing with at home. Eventually it was time to go. We finished the loop through the deep forest and our hike was over a little sooner than all of us were wanting. From here, it was just time to pile back into the car and drive the 2 hours home. Still it was a nice little getaway before school started.
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