Welcome back to part 2 of my report on our trip to Cannon Beach, Oregon, the second stop on the Greens Summer Tour.
Part two picks up right where part one left off, seeing us pick up on my Thursday after work adventure.
Ecola Creek Trail
Thursday after work, I decided to take Ash on a proper hike, like, on a trail through the woods.
I found Ecola Creek Trail, which AllTrails lists as a moderate 4.4 mile out and back trail that parallels the namesake creek.
I gathered my hiking pack, filled the hydration bladder and we headed out. The trailhead was a quick 5 minute drive down highway 101, then down a small street to the end where a large, metal gate keeps vehicles off the service road that serves as the first half-ish of the trail.
Sure enough, the track was wide and surfaced with loose gravel that seemed to echo loudly through the forest. The path carries hikers through the exceedingly green and grown Clatsop State Forest. We trod through enormous trees and a lush, vibrant green ecosystem that still feels rather alien to me.
Right near the beginning of our hike, we came across a woman hiking back toward the parking area with her THREE (yes, THREE) demon-dog chihuahuas. Of course, they started going bananas at us and Ash responded in kind, though his antics were short-lived and we were able to move on.
Just shy of a mile into the hike, the path rises sharply, dips back down then crosses over the creek. Ash and I stopped for a moment to take pictures and video of the water running under the bridge when I heard a voice from over the hill, along with the sound of tires crunching on the gravel surface. I watched to make sure we weren’t going to get run over when I heard, “Woo-hoo!” then a man on a bike came flying over the hill with an unleashed dog at his side. The dog was remarkably well-behaved and paid no mind to us as he ran past, down the banks of the creek, splashed around for a bit, then came back to catch up with his human.
Ash seemed a little befuddled at this behavior. He didn’t tug at all and we were able to continue on with no incident.
Just after that bridge, the trail takes a hard left turn and starts a steady, yet easy incline up a hill. This portion of the path was wonderfully muddy and blissfully overgrown. There were some sections of the trail that were completely curtained by foliage growing into it. Hiking through these type of conditions always seems a little more adventurous. I like those type of challenges and I always feel a little sense of accomplishment as I get through them.
We continued onward and upward for a bit before stopping for a snack and water break. I ate some trail mix and had some water, offered some to Ash, but he wasn’t interested, then we turned around and headed back, having stopped about 3/4 of a mile from the end of the trail.
We headed back down to the main road then over the big hill and through the lovely rainforest making it back to the truck soon.
Heading back up the 101, there is not a corresponding exit from the northbound lanes of the highway to Cannon Beach. I wound up bypassing the town entirely and turning around just shy of Seaside.
I made it back to the cabin at about 6:00 where Brandy asked if I wanted to order a pizza. We ordered a medium pizza and some breadsticks from Fultano’s, the worst-rated pizza place in Cannon Beach, and it lived up to that. The crust was too thick and crunchy, the taste was OK, but not worth the price we paid for it, and picking it up from downtown Cannon Beach was kind of a nightmare.
After we ate, we took our gummies and went to bed.
Cape Kiwanda
After a night of drinking on Friday, we decided Saturday to take a trip down to Cape Kiwanda, about an hour and a half down the coast from Cannon Beach.
Before making the trek, I decided we were going to get breakfast from Pig ‘N Pancake, a place I had spied a couple of different locations, one in Seaside and one in Astoria. I knew there was one in Cannon Beach, so I looked up the menu, phoned in an order and made my way there to pick it up.
Brandy got the chicken fried steak skillet, and I got the crab benedict with pancakes. The food was really good, especially the syrup they included with their pancakes. The crab benedict was nice and fresh and the hollandaise really worked.
After we ate, we started on down the coast. Now, there is a direct route down highway 101 from Cannon Beach to Cape Kiwanda in Pacific City, but for some reason, Google maps took us inland down a lonely back road that wound through the hills of coastal Oregon. Brandy, being hung over, didn’t appreciate all the twists and turns, saying it was making her nauseous. I slowed way down to try to ease the movement and we eventually made it back to hwy 101.
We went through the city of Tillamook, where they make the cheese, and found that the main drag through town was closed for a parade. We followed the detour down a small side street and were stuck in what seemed like interminable traffic. Finally, after WAY too long, we finally made it back to the highway and were back on track.
Finally we made it to Pacific City and the cape. I found a public parking lot where I wedged the truck into a way-too-small spot and left Brandy in the running truck while I went to explore.
From where I was, it was a short walk down to the beach. The sand was littered with people and trucks with boat trailers. Apparently, this was THE spot to launch for fishing expeditions.
I spied the towering sand dune and the magnificent rock formations that brought me to the spot to begin with. I started making my way there and was caught off guard by a fishing dory flying in from the surf and “driving” right up onto the sand. I thought that was quite the sight to see.
I made my way to the dune with my stomach starting to cramp up, telling me I was going to have to evacuate my bowels at some point very soon. I’ll take the hike up the dune, check out the sea stacks then head down and make the poops, I thought.
Walking on sand is difficult enough as it is. Doing the same up a massive dune is a million times harder. Luckily, I didn’t have to go all the way up the mound- my “exit” was about halfway up, where I started my way along the sandstone headland.
The views from the cape were magnificent. The water crashing against the stone created mist and showed the sheer power of the ocean as it washed over the rocky cliffs. Just off the promontory is another “haystack” sea stack, this one called Chief Kiawanda Rock, shaped and sized very similarly to the Haystack Rock at Cannon Beach.
As I climbed further up the cape, the pains from my stomach started getting worse. I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to a restroom and started contemplating the idea of shitting on the side of the very populated trail. Luckily, it didn’t get to that point.
I reached the end of the trail I was on and finally found the rock formation I’d been looking for. It was on the other side of the cape and I didn’t have the right angle to get the pictures I was after. I did still get some good ones but my stomach was in high alert mode and telling me, I had to go.
I turned and started heading back to the beach, punching in “public restrooms near me” in Google, trying to find somewhere I could unleash the beast. As I made my way down the dune I’d just climbed, I heard an air horn blowing, the same sound I’d heard before the dory came tearing up on to the beach while I was making my way to the dune. I pulled out my phone and took a video of this second boat making its way toward the beach. Watching it from the vantage point about halfway down the dune gave me a perfect perspective of the goings on.
Once the boat had beached, I continued on, trying to find the bathroom. Google Maps told me it was about a 5 minute walk from where I was, so I made a beeline up the boat ramp and into the parking lot of a nearby restaurant where there were several port-a-potties lined up. I found a vacant one, went in and… um… well, made myself feel better.
After that, I headed back to the truck and we started heading back to the cabin.
On the way, we stopped for lunch at a nearby 50s style diner, much like my favorite spot to eat in Albuquerque, the 66 Diner. This place, Dutch Mill Cafe in Tillamook, had a pretty similar vibe, but was laid out a little differently. It’s a place where you seat yourself, you’re given menus but you have to go to the counter to order, then the food is brought to you by a server.
Brandy got the chicken strips, and I ordered the Horseshoe:
5oz smashed patty served open faced on a toasted bun, buried with french fries and white cheddar cheese sauce
Dutch Mill Cafe menu
When I got the burger, I was a little underwhelmed with the drizzle of cheese sauce that was included. I was expecting an absolute drowning of cheese over the whole plate, but… well, this is what I got:
We needed to make a stop at a grocery store and get gas, so when we got to Tillamook, I found a Fred Meyer where gas was the cheapest to be found in town at $4.09 a gallon. We went into the store, picked up a few things, got gas and made our way back to Cannon Beach.
Once home, I made a quick dinner of chicken fried steak, stuffing and asparagus. We ate and before you knew it, we were asleep.
Ecola State Park
Sunday, we decided to head up the road to Ecola State Park. Upon exiting the park where we are, you can cross Fir Street, and the entrance to the park is immediately on the right. We made our way up and in to the park, winding on some very narrow roads through the lush, green rainforest of the Pacific Northwest. Dancing between shadow and light pretty much the entire way, lots of narrow blind curves and sharp drop-offs on the edge of the road made for an interesting drive.
We made it to the first turn out at Ecola Point. We paid the $5 day use fee and headed down a steep path to look south down the coast, spying Haystack Rock off in the distance.
Off the coast on the other side could be seen Tillamook Rock Light, a lighthouse built on a small basalt sea stack just over a mile off the coast. Nicknamed “Terrible Tilly”, the lighthouse was completed in 1881, just after the sinking of the Lupatia. The lighthouse remained lit, despite the terrible conditions on the small island, until it turned off for good in 1957.
We snapped a couple of pictures from our viewpoint then made our way back up to the parking lot.
We continued on the drive winding up at Indian Beach, a nice, secluded little beach with plenty of people surfing and even more just lounging on the sand. We headed down a very muddy trail to the beach, the trail emerging from the lush foliage onto a collection of driftwood on large rocks. As we trekked over the stones, they gave way to the sand of the beach then on to the water where we let the cold ocean lap at our feet for a bit.
We took a handful more pictures then made our way back up the muddy path to the truck to head out of Ecola State Park.
Seaside, By Way Of Downtown Cannon Beach
We decided to head into downtown Cannon Beach to see what was going on there, and the summer weekend crowd was in full force. I will say this about Cannon Beach: there is a definite pedestrian problem there. The people walking, particularly in the downtown area, will cross streets with no regard to traffic. This, in turn makes the drivers in the area hyper cautious and stop at imaginary stop signs, even when there are no pedestrians to cross. I think the city would benefit by closing Hemlock St to vehicular traffic and making it a pedestrian mall. I know I avoid driving down that street when I need to go to the area, I’m sure there are many more that do the same.
Anyway, it was entirely too crowded for our taste so we thought we’d head to Seaside to see what was going on there.
It wasn’t any better.
Through a maze of one-way streets and circles at the ends of roads, traffic signals that flashed red, indicating a four-way stop sign, and a pedestrian problem on par with Cannon Beach, we quickly started making our way back out of town.
We stopped at a small deli and general store for lunch. We had high hopes for this place- they offered a smoked salmon panini and a smoked salmon mac and cheese, which is what we ordered.
The proprietor was nice enough, a young, black woman, who claimed to be responsible for making the body butters for sale at the register. We bought a small tin, a small jar of jelly, some honey and our lunch totaled $75, then, when asked for a tip, it offered tip amounts based on the entire purchase, not just on the food being prepared for us, so our $75 lunch became a $90 lunch, and the food was quite underwhelming. The mac & cheese was exceptionally dry, hardly any cheese in it, and I struggled even to see much salmon in it too, and the panini I got was fine, but certainly, in my opinion, not worth the $14 I paid for it.
Ah well, lesson learned.
We left the establishment and headed on back to the cabin where I made a quick stir-fry for dinner and we headed off to bed.
Week # 2
With an exceedingly adventurous fist week in Oregon, we needed to slow down for week number 2. We were both super sore after all the adventuring we’d been doing. We also needed to start getting things in order for our departure Thursday after work.
On Monday, we did get food from Public Coast Brewing, which I was a little skeptical about. They have a pretty limited food menu but it is a brewery after all, and Brandy seemed to like it when she had lunch with her protégé, Carson, on her trip out prior to this visit. I decided on a cup of clam chowder and fish tacos. She got the same hummus plate she’d had before as well as a chicken Caesar salad. The place is literally around the corner from the property so when I got there, the food was still being made. I paid for it, along with a growler of their house-made root beer, and was handed the food in no time.
As it was so close, the food was still nice and hot by the time I got back. I poured us each a root beer, then opened up the fish tacos and… oh… oh my… why in the world did it take until our NINTH night in Cannon Beach to be absolutely blown away by something I’d eat?! These were undoubtedly the best fish tacos I’d ever had, and I’ve had a LOT of fish tacos in my life. The fish was SUPER fresh, it wasn’t too oily, the slaw on top was crisp and fresh, the sauce they topped the tacos with was great… the only thing wrong with them is there was only three in an order. I could have eaten a hundred of these things they were so good.
The cup of clam chowder was good too. It wasn’t as “knock my socks off” good as the tacos were but better than most chowders I’d had up until then.
And then there was the root beer. It wasn’t as cloyingly sweet as the mass-produced stuff, there was a ton of depth to it, and you could absolutely tell it was a small-batch beverage, plus I got a cool little growler bottle out of it!
Tuesday after work, I drove into Seaside to get the oil changed in the truck. I got back and we had a short drinkin’ night before heading to bed and the worst night’s sleep ever. I wound up not getting to sleep untiil about 2:00 am.
Up at 6:00 Wednesday, I struggled through the day, but got the last of the laundry done, the clothes packed up and, after work, started loading the truck.
Meanwhile, Brandy fired the manager that was hired barely a month ago to run the property. There’d been a lot of issues with insubordination, general attitude and lack of ability that Brandy saw right from the get-go but it only go worse once we got to the property. She offered the full-time position to the work camper she’d hired on prior to our trip, and things were great…for the first day.
Departure Hiccup
The day we were supposed to leave, Thursday, June 27, the work camper she’d just hired on the day before decided she wasn’t going to be able to take the position after all. In fact, she was leaving the property entirely now leaving no one to run the office. This property, being in Brandy’s portfolio, was now hers to manage until a full-time site manager could be brought on board. She was not able to leave until that was done.
Already having now non-refundable accommodations paid for, there was nothing I could do, except leave her there. Not wanting to leave her there with no transportation, she reserved a rental car at the Enterprise location at the Portland airport.
Now, Portland was on our way anyway, so it shouldn’t have had too big of an impact on my ride, right? Maybe add a half hour to the trip to Baker City, where we had lodging already reserved in Brandy’s name.
Well, the drive to Portland was an absolute nightmare. Traffic was backed up terribly and the hour and a half drive soon became a 2+ hour drive. Google Maps offered a route around the mess so we took it, but it was just as bad. Tiny back roads, and by the time we got back to the interstate that was supposed to be after the inciting incident, it was still a mess, pretty much all the way to the airport.
We finally arrived and with very little interaction, she kissed me and jumped out of the truck, and she was gone.
Ash and I began our long drive home without Brandy.
Multnomah Falls
On the way, I’m happy to report that I was at least able to stop at Multnomah Falls, which we had planned on doing on our way out of town anyway.
The falls are a short 30 minutes from Portland so I was there very, very quickly. The parking area is in the island between the east and westbound lanes of I-84 so we exited to the left and quickly found a parking spot. We took the footpath under the freeway and were greeted with a majestic view of the falls.
Multnomah Falls is the tallest waterfall in Oregon, dropping a total of 620 feet, split between a 542 foot initial drop followed by a smaller 69 foot drop. There’s a 9 foot slope in the pool between, adding up to 620 feet.
The surrounding scenery is beautifully typical Pacific Northwest rainforest. There is a bridge that spans over the creek at the outfeed of the falls but we declined to find the entrance to that bridge. There’s also a nearby restaurant and visitor’s center type of place where Ash and I used the bathroom.
We got to the observation deck where I took some pictures and video and quickly made our way back to the truck. We had some time to make up.
Brandy had reserved a room for us at the Baker City Motel & RV Park. She had called and told them that she would not be there but that Ash and I would. There were no problems with that, they said, as long as I had an ID, which I did, so no problem.
The problem I foresaw though is that with our delays, we weren’t scheduled to show up there until around 11:30. Most small motels have hours you can check in and I worried that would be entirely too late. Luckily, just before 9:00, Brandy messaged me saying that I would be in room 108, that the door would be unlocked and the key would be inside. Perfect.
The rest of the drive that night was uneventful. Sure enough, we made it to Baker City close to midnight. We walked right in to the room, set up and fell fast asleep.
The next day, I woke up knowing I had a full 8 hour drive ahead of me to Little America, Wyoming, which is both a hotel, and the census-designated place in Wyoming where it is situated.
The Devil’s Slide
I made it out of Oregon, through Idaho and into Utah with minimal problems (save the time I was stuck behind another one of those convoys carrying a massive wind turbine blade.) Just after crossing into Utah, Ash and I came to The Devil’s Slide, a rather unique rock formation situated once again just off of Interstate 84.
There is an “exit” (and I do use that term VERY loosely) at the formation, but it’s really just a lane of traffic separated from the interstate by K rails. I pulled into the turnout and, just as I had with Multnomah Falls, took some pictures and video, then hopped back into the truck and continued on our way.
Once more, the rest of the drive through Utah and into Wyoming was uneventful and we pulled into the Little America parking lot right around 4:30 giving us plenty of time to eat, relax and get to sleep for what was to come.
Dangerous Decisions
Ash was kind enough to wake me up at around 4:00 Saturday morning so, on 6 hours of sleep, I decided we should head out.
We packed up, got gas and hit the road at exactly 6:00 on the dot. I was at a crossroads at this point. The drive home from that location would be about 14 hours, not counting stops for gas, food, and bio breaks. I REALLY would have liked to get home Saturday so I could at least have a day of rest before spending two and a half days working then getting back at it again on Thursday. And 14 hours, I could do that, right? I mean, we drove 13 hours in a MUCH more cramped and uncomfortable car on day one of our trip to Tucson in March of 2023.
But, I was going to be alone this time. The other option would be to drive for another 8 hours, and have another 6+ on Sunday, getting me home just late enough to unpack the necessities and sleep before returning to work Monday.
Or, I could go like 12 hours then leave a 2 hour drive on Sunday, but hey, if I can go 12 hours in one day, what’s another 2?
Fuck it.
I went through the rest of Wyoming, all of Nebraska and more than halfway through Iowa, making the 14 hour drive, not counting all the stops I made, on Saturday. It was tough but at the end, I pounded a couple of Monster energy drinks (which I don’t think I’ve ever had before) and was nice and awake the whole time.
I got off the interstate in VERY western Nebraska, west of Lincoln, and the rest of the drive was on small, lonely back highways, namely 31 and 34. As I traveled down US highway 34, the sun started to set and quickly I was plunged into darkness. I soon realized that the threat of wildlife was very real so I slowed way down to make sure I didn’t have any… ahem… run-ins with the locals.
Thankfully, we made it home in one piece (or, two pieces, since there were, ya know, two of us). I unpacked the bare necessities and before you knew it, Ash and I were fast asleep, thus officially ending the second leg of our massive Summer Tour.
Conclusion
The stay in Oregon was amazing. I was super active the first week then rather low-key the second. We saw a LOT and had an overall wonderful time on the trip, right up until the literal last day when Brandy was forced to stay behind.
I have a lot of feelings about the next part of our trip. First, I’m super excited. I’m going to get to see things I never even dreamed of seeing when I started this blog four and a half years ago, like the Baseball Hall of Fame, Niagara Falls and Vermont.
Another part of me is extremely sad that Brandy won’t be able to join us until maybe mid-July when she gets some coverage at the park where she’s forced to stay.
Then there’s a part of me that’s scared. Not, like, terrifyingly scared, nothing that’s paralyzing me to the point that I’m not going to go. Just this little tickle of worry. Being gone for three months without seeing my house, worrying I might forget something, keeping Ash happy on my own- there’s a lot on my mind, and not having Brandy here to 1) help assuage those fears or 2) to help out where she can (for example, making sure I don’t forget anything) doesn’t make things any better.
I’m certain I’ll be fine though. I am thankful we have a strong network of people on our side to help keep an eye on the house, make sure my car gets moved from time to time, and mow our grass when it’s needed. And with very few exceptions, anything that I MIGHT forget is easily replaced (the only real exception to that would be our medications).
Anyway, as I mentioned in my Part One, photos are indeed available on my Photo Diary. There are so many cool pictures that I took on this part of the trip that I had to break it up into different sections, which I think is pretty cool!
I think we will have an early release from work on Wednesday, we sometimes do on days before holidays, so if we do, Ash and I will be heading out that day for Toledo, OH. If we DON’T get an early release, I won’t drive as far, but will have to make up time on the 4th.
Either way, stay tuned for my next report from New York!
-Phil