Yaquina Bay, Oregon Coast.

I awoke this morning to the Honking of a squad of geese flying in formation headed wherever they head 3 or 4 times a day. The frogs had serenaded me to a restfull night sleep last night.

It was a very nice and damp 40 degrees and made me think of home. As I prepared for the day I kept trying to decide what I wanted to do. I fixed all the "issues" with Box II yesterday, rode my bike 3 miles or so and survived, and awoke rested and eager to have a good day.

So, I jumped in the Jeep and headed for a little shopping mall to browse a hobby store I had seen Sunday while walking around waiting for the laundry to finish.

As I pulled into the Safeway shopping center I thought "dummy" the Hobby store is at the Winco thing which is on the other side of town. A good start to a better day. LOL

I drove to the Town Pump to say Hi to my friends son only to learn he was off. Another good start to an even better day. So I just pulled out, turned West and started driving.

It wasnt long, and about 20 miles later I realized hey, I'm going to the coast, which was fine by me. I had planned on doing so and today seemed as nice a day as any.

In Eddyville I came across this cool bridge with a rope hanging from the bottom which brought back a lot of childhood memories of swinging out into the river on a rope and letting go to splash into the deep side, to fill the cool water envelop you as you watch the surface fade above you as you sink into the current to come back up swimming to the bank about 30 feet downstream. Nice memories of a fun time. For this picture I was standing on the railroad tracks and looking up track I saw a house that was only 20 feet or so from it.

POW !! Another memory rocked me. We lived in a small town, Rodeo New Mexico, I was 13'ish and the train tracks ran behind the house, actuallu through the backyard. I was a freshman in High School and as such was in FFA (Future Farmers of America). I had a special license to drive to school only (yeah right) which was 65 miles away and thus had to leave early.

We didnt have nor need an alarm clock because the first train of the day came through the backyard at 5a.m. and the engineer was more than happy to lay on the whistle. My Dad said he knew him and had him do it. Ya know what? I believed him and still do. LOL

Being in FFA I had a Suffolk Lamb I was rasing for show and pigs I was breeding to sell and eat. Thier pens and everything was across the tracks requiring running back and forth to do my chores. Good thing there wasn't another train until after we left.

There are quite a few covered bridges in these parts and I was fortunate to run across this one.

Actually I had seen it out of the corner of my eye last fall when I drove through here in Box I headed for Portland and points East. I knew it was here, just not sure exactly where and today I was able to turn around and come back which was out of the question in Box I on a narrow two lane mountain road.

Again I'm standing on the railroad crossing to get this picture.

The rest of the drive to Newpost was uneventful but a beautiful one to experience. There were gorgeous valleys with old barns and large meadows, rough water in the numerous streams, one that looked like possibly a falling down water wheel but it was off the road a ways and I couldnt stop and get turned around even in the Jeep for quite a ways.

I made Newport and turned to go down to the docks. A good decision it turned out.

Docks and fishing boats look pretty much the same whether in Haines, Juneau, or Newport Oregon it seems.

I even found one with a name from my past. The M/V Judy.

Go figure lol

After the docks I drove up the street then got out and was walking along enjoying the shops and sights.

There's graffitti and then there's graffitti. I like this depiction of Moby Dick  more than what I usually see painted on building, fences, and other places.

Same goes for this mural of fish on, what else, a fish processing facility.

I figured I'd go enjoy the show at the Undersea Gardens and then see the Wax Museum and Ripleys Believe it or Not which were across the street.

It was really dark inside and with all the glass walls it was very difficult to take pictures. But, it was an interesting show. They had a girl narrating and a diver demonstrating and showing you different types of fish. It was a safe but natural environment in the semi-open water. He showed us Dungees, a star fish, a wolf eel that he actually cuddled with it was very docile and he fed it by hand while holding it. The were a large amount and many varieties of fish but as I said taking pictures were difficult so I only have this one and one other.

LOL

what can I say, I couldn't resist.

After the undersea gardens show I walked across the street

The Wax Works

A wax museum that was enjoyable. I dont know why but all three of these places were quite dark and less than 1/2 the pictures attempted came out.

Sherlock Holmes

Thats as far as the door would open so that was the scene they wanted.

Jack Sparrow

Johnny Depp

Then it was next door to

Again, really dark inside

A real shrunken head, even had instructions on how to do it.

You cut the back of the scalp then pulling gently and evenly detach the ,,,, well you can go read it yourself I guess.

,,, after removing the skin from the skull you boil the fat from it in a pot with tannin oils and some other things (specific to the tribe) to ward off any curses or evil spirits. This will reduce it to about the size of your fist, pack it with hot sand to reshape ,,,,,, well, you know, go read it yourself if you have one you want to shrink.

one more stop then its off to Yaquina Bay State Park

The door which was painted on the inside to look like it was 1/2 open with a blonde lady entering was funny, but this painted on a flat wall (see the baby chaging table at the corner) was simply amazing.\

The Jeep was parked right in front of here and it was yelling L U N C H !!!!!

Cape Foulweather is about 40 miles North. Planning another trip to there, Devils Punchbowl, and maybe 110 miles up to Cannon Beach, oh and the Tillamook Cheese Factory.

Yaquina Bay Bridge (Hwy 101)

The Pacific

The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse

Built 1871

Another view showing the new tower they use.

And that as they say in the movies is that.

The drive home was pleasant, the weather was cool, wipers were needed occasionally, pizza and pepsi for dinner and now it's time for bed.

Nite all.





Time to head North, getting warm LOL

It was Monday, April 9, 2012 and it was still dark and warm. The moon had set over the mountains and according to me and Mick Ewing should be sitting in the sky at home because we have taken many simular pictures of it. I would take mine then a couple hours later it would set and he would take the same one. LOL

I still hadn't decided whether or not to stay another week and play/hike/wander on the claim. Afterall I had finally found it and it did have two valleys and a 500 foot hill in the middle of it.

The only decision I had made was if I stayed it would be at another park down the road. Originally I had planned, even called, the Desert Gem RV Park and was going to stay there. Thier weekly rate was $95 a week all inclusive. However I thought I had come in on Harquahala road from the freeway when in fact I had come up the Salome Road. Anyway the result was that I saw the Voyagers Haven RV Park and thinking it was on the road closer to the area I'd be searching I pulled in there and got it. The basic rate was actually cheaper ($68) but it was not inclusive of electric which you paid separately. And the key word was cheap. The owners treated you like they were doing you a favor letting you stay there. You could pay extra for WI-FI but according to residents it hadn't worked in months but they still charged for it.

Anyway, the plan now was to pack to move, whether across town or North. Check out was 11 and I was up early. I had to go to the Tire shop at 8 to get a slow leak in a tire on the Jeep I had developed, ottherwise I was getting ready to go. About 8:30 a guy from across the way walked over to tell me the owner had to run to town and would be back soon. No sweat iIsaid but I did want to get going not spend the day dis-connected and waiting. At 10 I pulled Box II over to the office and parked where the sign indicated. I walked up to the door and saw a sign that said she went to a Dr. appointment and would be back late that afternoon. I was waiting to pay for the approx. $7 electric I had used. I wrote a note with my address saying iIwasn't waiting til that afternoon or evening and to send me a bill which I would gladly pay. This is when I took the picture of the thermometer. I got in Box II and started pulling out and heard this scraping sound. Bottom line they had a low branch (for an RV) about 3 inches in diameter hanging right where they told you to park and I now was missing the vent covers for the refridgerator and plumbing vents. I was upset with me for not paying attention but felt the branch hanging there was just indicative of the entire experience at that park.

It was getting warm enough I had decided to head North and decided when I stopped in Quartzsite Arizona I would choose my route. It would either be 95 into Nevada through Tonopah, then Winnamucca, and up to Bend Oregon. Or West to L.A. then North on I-5.

I locked the fridge, I was told I could run it on propane while driving to keep it cold but with the vent cover missing I was worried about air currents blowing the flame where it shouldn't be, besides I found out that it would stay cold 10 hours if left closed so why not save the propane. Quartzsite was a top off on gas, propane, and the KFC was for me. Jimmy didnt eat as he had an upset stomach from the heat, or so he said.

The drive across the desert was fairly monotonous, oh and warm. Actually it was hot but I used my Dad's air conditioning, only better. When I was young we moved from Texass to Arizona in a 1949 Ford Coupe. We had what he called 4 at 65. Well I have more windows so I had 8 at 55 LOL. I did find out that at 55 mph I could get up to 9 mpg using the cruise and at 59 it dropped to 6.1mpg. Quite an incentive to do 55 huh?
Here's a picture of Indio as I was coming out of the mountains, thats smog folks, not only smog but L.A. smog from 150 miles away. My throat and eyes burned and I could taste a chemical taste in my mouth until I got North of L.A.. I did take the 210 to the I-5 which made it better as the 210 runs up closer to the Mountains and North of the city.

370 miles later I arrived at the Travel America Truckstop in Buttonwillow Californai where I refueled and spent the night. I had breakfast at thier buffet which was really good. One nice thing about this RV is you can go over 650 miles on a tank so you can be choosy about where you refill. And even though I still like to do it at 1/2 tank I can go further if need be, Of course 75 gallons at $4.29 is a bit of a sticker shock so that in itself is an encentive to stop at 1/2 tank.

I had chosen to go this route because the weather in the mountains from Bend Or to Philomath was predicted to be high 20's and low 30's when I would have gotten there. Of course on the radio I heard a weather alert for the area I was traveling through from L.A. all the way North to Oregon. They were predicting up to 2 inches of rain and 40 mph winds at the lower elevations and 6 - 12 inches of snow above 4,000 feet. So a side trip to Yosemite was out of the questiona as was one to Lassen Volcano NP. Thus the drive to Red Bluff was uneventfully pleasant at 55 mph and 9 mpg. I stayed in a rest area that night and it was very comfortable. The generator on Box II is up front behind the drivers seat, not under the bed a like Box I, and as such it didnt vibrate under your head like in Box I and it was a lot quieter. The water heater is automatic so I awoke to a hot shower (I have yet to run out of hot water in Box II and its a larger glass enclosed shower) a very comfortable night, a breakfast of bacon and cheese omelet, toast, hashbrowns, OJ, coffee all cooked in the kitchen of box II. (yes, by me)

I wanted to do this leg of the trip during the day as it reached elevations over 4,000 feet and there was snow predicted.

I had hoped to stop at Lake Shasta since my trip through here last summer there was a lot of construction and you couldnt exit anywhere. So imagine my surprise when every exit said RV's Not Adivised. I had coffee at the same pullout I syopped at last year. here's the best picture of the lake including the dash of Box II. (No, I do not text while driving, now aiming the camera and taking pictures ,,,,,)

The Shasts River flows from Northern California, through Lake Shasta headed South.

It's looks like a large and interesting lake and someday I should stay around there and explore. From Lassen Volcano, to The forests and lakes and rivers it would be a fun place to see.

I was getting higher and worried about snow. (I spoke to a man at the park I'm in from Sitka who was traveling basically as I was headed for Blain to park his RV and hop on his boat to head on up to Juneau LOL anyway in order to avoid the route and weather I was taking he had headed further west to the coast. Well the weather got hung up over there and he got snowed in and I saw no snow, tell me prayer doesnt work LOL)

However, at this time I was concerned about snow and had many more passes to clear before evening and dropping temps. The rest of the drive to Corvallis was basically seeing the sights through the windshield at 55.

When I crossed the Klamath River I did have to fight a big urge to take Hwy 97 to Bend. Crater lake, Klamath Falls, and a a lot of covered bridges and waterfalls are along that route but they did have some snow issues.

So, I stayed on I-5 North to Corvallis where I had reservations for a month at the Bentley County Fairgrounds RV Park.

Its a nice park with grass, trees, free parking for events, and all inclusive to include WI-Fi and cable TV.

So, Mini-box (Jeep) and I are planning our excusions from hear. Working on vents and stuff first but have the brochures from the Chamber of all the touristy things 8) Hoping to go see Shane when he moves down here in a couple of weeks, maybe on my way further North to Marysville Wa.

Till next time

Day 3 (still looking) 4 (found it) and 5 played prospector 8)

Wednesday was another sunnty,and already hot at 7, type of day. Last night I had worked on the map, coordinate thing again and even used Google Earth to plot it so I felt much better. Armed with a real GPS this time I headed out. Imagine my surprise when I found the NW stake about 1/4 mile from the hill I wanted it to be so bad. The road in was torture on the poor Jeep so I decided to go out another way on a much better looking road. I was really tired today and did not feel like hiking all over so I sat in the Jeep and used the binoculars figuring I'd come back tomorrow. That other road out turned out to be better but ,,,,,,,, there was a place where it was about 200 feet down at about a 45 degree slope then right back up at the same slope for about the same distance. The bottom was so narrow that the front wheels were going up before the rear wheels hit bottom so no chance to get any momentum. About halfway up the Jeep died, it took some finigaling to get it started and moving again being on that slope. I had to milk the clutch so much that it was smoking when I reached the top. I decided I was not going back to the claim again and would just sell it.

So I retreated to my now favorite wi-fi location where they not only knew I drank Pepsi's they gave me free refills. Even knew the burger I liked. LOL

I did some more research but now for curiosity since I was not liking the mine anymore. I found that Google Earth was programmed for NAD 83 not NAD 27 as the GPS was. The result was that plotting on Google Earth was off by up to a full click. So back to the drawing board.

So with new coordinates (again) I headed out and found the NW stake within 10 feet of where I plotted it. In this pic it is the hill on the left.

The 500 foot hill was there and if you look at this picture taken from the top of it the Jeep is on the road and the slope on the right (above the cactus) is actually the slope to the mountain I wished it had been. So, as many times I was off I was quite close and not having any reference points thats pretty good. If you use the cactus I mentioned a sentence ago and go down the hill to the left youll see another single cactus. About 50 feet left of that would be NW boundary stake.

I walked from there 1/2 mile east to find the NE stake (which was the corner stake I had found yesterday thinking it was the NW stake of my claim) then 1/2 mile south for the SE stake then decided to cut back over the top of the hill. I felt pretty certain I had actually got it right.

I got home (RV) and had an e-mail from the guy I bought the claim from. (I had sent him one a couple days ago asking for the actual coordinates) The e-mail contained the proper coodinates and some reference points. I was quite happy to see that my NW coordinates were right on and the others within a few feet. So with renewed confidence Jimmy and I headed out to play prospector.

But before we could play we had to work and repaint the corner stakes and flag them. Jimmy was in charge of flagging and as you can see got into it a bit. I chose to paint the stake black as required but added 4" of yellow at the toop to differentiate it from others.

After our 2 mile rough country hike we decided to play prospector for awhile. I used the metal detector and Jimmy would dig where we got sign. It was a fun morning hanging out with Jimmy. All we found were rocks but he had been (by choice) cooped up all week so we had fun being out in the mountains. At one point I was looking up at the mountain when I noticed a stake up there. The map said there should have been one but I hadnt seen it yesterday and didnt worry about it as it was a locator stake not a boundary one. I got the binoculars and checked it out. Looked like there was a document "can" attached to it so back up the mountain I went. Jimmy decided to stay in the shade of the Jeep and i was able to pull it closer and up on an adjacent hill so the walk was down then up but a lot closer.

Turns out it was just a stake. 8)

Look closely and you can see the Jeep about 1/2 inch to the left of the rock near the bottom.

Well, we found, we came, we played, and in a couple days we leave. But next winter I hope to come back for more adventures on Mothers Gold the Placer Mine.

Day 2, chasing that elusive Mine

Day 2 in my quest to find a particular Placer Claim begain bright, sunny, and already hot. I couldn't get the four horizontal shafts I had found yesterday out of my head. I WANTED that to be my mine so bad. Even after checking and recalculating on the map and it saying I was 1,000 meters to far Northwest I had doubts, or refused to accept it because of thos dang shafts. LOL So I loaded up the stuff, a bit more prepared and set out for my claim.

These are the two hills on my claim. Actually that is the only part that matches the map.

So, I decided to look around and walk it all over again. I began on the Eastern side using the Jeep on a dirt two-track ATV trail. I was looking at a shaft up the hill and while not concentrating I moved left on the trail to avoid a cactus when I felt the Jeep tilt severely to the left and the right rear wheel begin to spin. I stopped as in stuck not by choice, I left out the left door and saw a large 10 foot wide by I dont know how deep verticle shaft that I had not seen. The left front wheel had broken off a piece of the road causing it to fall into the hole which caused the Jeep to tilt and rock precariously. I couldn't open the door because when I tried the Jeep leaned more into the hole and I couldn't get out the other side for the cactus that was right at that door. I couldnt go out the left door anyway because it was right over the hole. My heart was beating quite fast and my brain was going even faster.

I needed more weight on the right rear wheel to get traction which worked out well because I needed more weight on that side to keep the jeep balanced from flippig over into the depths of that hole.

So, very carefully I moved as far back between the seats as I could and still reach the clutch. I basically put the Jeep in low gear, revved up the engine and popped the clutch at the same time leaning back to the right as far as I could. Good thing I had some weight to use because it popped out of the hole and bounced down the trail (well sorta) while I held the steering wheel and let it die.

At that point I decided to move to a better road for a bit, park, and walk.

I drove around to the south side of the hill, parked and hiked up to the top where I could see better. (See that cactus on the left near the top? Remember it)

You have to look closely to see the Jeep. This is the view from the top of the hill.

I used the bonoculars to check out the area and walked around.

That cactus I asked you to remember is right at my back here, the two important features in this picture are the black stick right in front and the pile of rocks behind it.

The black stake is a boundary marker for a claim. This is the kind of stakes i have been searching for. I have found several but like this one not in the right place. All of the stakes on my claim are in the low areas and the entire 500 foot hill is within them. This stake is at the top of a 280 foot hill.

The pile of rocks is called a Cairn. This is how they marked boundarys in the "old days". Now they attach a metal plate inscibed with the location and name of the claim to the wooden stake. In the cairn they placed identifying documents in a container (usually metal) and would bury it within the pile. You cant see it in the pic. but when I looked inside that crack I saw the edge of something metal.

After looking closer I found this old tin with paper inside.

Not wanting to ruin or break the paper I carefully looked around the edges.

It is a legal location notice for a Lode Claim that was recorded July 1934.

Thats a pretty cool find and totally made my day. I even forgot about the four shafts, oh wait that would be the four horizontal shafts and the one verticle shaft that I found on the otherside of the hill today.

I walked and hiked around the rest of the day curious still but just exploring.

I hadnt realized it but  the compass on my phone actually displays the grid coodinates at the bottom of the screen. So using this i finally convinced myself i needed to take another look at the map and reconfigure my search for tomorrow.



Til Then ,,,,,,,