Hot Spring Salvation

One thing we learned from our time in Portland is to never trust the weather. If it called for any rain in the forecast, expect it to rain on and off all day (ignore the time predictions) and also possibly be sunny while it is raining on you. If it says it will be sunny, it is lying. It made it tricky to plan for our trip to the coast, but huzzah! We got lucky and had a beautiful sunny weekend. On our way there we stopped to climb Saddle Mountain, near the summit in the distance could even see the ocean.

Spore packets on the underside of a fern frond

 

Can you spot the ocean?

After our hike the sun was setting as we approached the coast. We ate dinner at a local pizza joint in Cannon Beach and drove around town agonizing on where to park overnight- we ended up settling for an empty parking lot next to the ocean in the town of Seaside (I was worried if we parked on the actual beach we would be washed away by the tide in the morning). We unpacked all our blankets, pillows, sleeping bags and created a nest in the back of the truck at went to bed at 8pm. At dawn we crawled out of our cave and hiked down to see the beach.

We packed everything up and headed to Ecola State Park (named from the Chinook word for whale, "ekoli") and cooked up some oatmeal on the tailgate, watching the sun come over the trees. The hike was gorgeous with a mix of mystical cool forests and gasping glimpses of the water. We even got to explore tide pools! After the hike we enjoyed an almost cold beer from our growler on the tailgate, enjoying the view and soaking up sunshine.

Life in Oregon was beautiful and fun with its mossy trees, hiking trails, breweries, and food scene. But it also came with it's own set of personal obstacles. The first time we went into Portland my entire bin of clothes were stolen out of the back of the truck, along with Reilly's empty guitar case. It was mostly a sentimental loss for me, those were my old classics that fit me the best and were my favorite pieces of clothing. I still had all my work clothes, my jackets, etc. at the farm, so I had enough to wear. It just felt icky and frustrating to be stolen from, and was a big inconvenience.

Another tough obstacles was in last week we were at the farm, the water stopped working in our little camper. Imagine working in the rain, walking through manure, covered in god-knows-what and not being able to take a hot shower at the end of the day. Several days went by and we decided to make the trek to the Bagby Hot Springs.

Log bathtub

It was about a two hour drive through windy mountain roads into a national forest. At the trailhead there was a long hike through magical trees leading up to a row of wooden shacks on stilts. Similar to roman aquaducts, the steamy hot water was delivered to each shack in a long trough. You remove a stick plug in the trough and spring water pours into your hollowed-out-log bathtub. The water is much too hot for soaking right away, so you mix it with buckets of cold water to get it to the right temperature. It was heavenly.

At the farm, I will miss the sheep the most. I became too attached and don't think I'll be able to eat lamb chops for a long long time. It was a great experience at Moomaw Family Farm, but the cold is chasing us south- and that's where we must go!