Brief escape

At the beginning of the lockdown here in Oregon, when I was figuring out my coping strategies, I decided making short trips out and about to our open spaces was an important strategy for maintaining, psychologically. Within a couple of weeks, they closed the state parks and beaches (😢), which was good for us collectively because it stopped people coming in from cities and out of state (mostly) (🙂). This left the coastal mountains as my main area of escape.

I’ve done several day trips, some in the car and some in the van. It feels slightly wicked to use the van for short trips because of the low mileage it gets, but it’s really nice to be able to kick back out of the wind, make lunch, have a cup of tea, and enjoy the scenery while doing so. But I hadn’t done any overnight trips, until this week.

A couple of weeks ago I did a day trip partly with a view towards finding some good boondocking spots, since all the regular CGs are closed. It was good that I did, because it gave me a sense of how many other people are going out there too, and where I’d have the best chance of seeing no one else. Which is always my preference when camping, virus or no virus, unless traveling with friends. Unfortunately, that is also the preference of pretty much everyone else, which can make it tricky for us to all find suitably isolated spots.

But this week, my scouting and the weather all came together to afford me a couple of restorative nights out, one very nice and one nearly perfect. I’m not going to say exactly where, just because the irrational part of my brain doesn’t want other people to think “Oh! That sounds lovely!” and head out there. No one reading this is in a position to do that, and the rational part of my brain realizes that. But still. A harmless win for irrationality.

Anyway. My first spot, in a wide spot up an almost unused old forest service road.

All the critters were happy to be out too, even the cats, who had to contend with Scamp harassing them. Scamp stayed out almost all the time, though I did manage to coax her in for meals and to sleep at night. The cats did a lot of in and out and back in again, thank you, but at least neither on disappeared when I wanted them back in for the night or to leave in the morning.

One of the desiderata for a good camping spot is adequate walks. This was moderately good.

Scamp loves forests, possibly because of the ample supply of sticks. She is becoming more discriminating though, no longer going after small logs.

We explored a ways down the road we camped next to. It is blocked by fallen trees a ways down, which from a walker’s perspective is perfect.

The road started going down a bit too steeply for my taste (if I’m going to do steep, I prefer doing it on the way out), so we didn’t go too far.

I took the bike along for the trip, and got it down the afternoon we arrived with the intention of using it to explore (and give Scamp more of a run) the next morning. Out of an abundance of caution, I locked it to the ladder on the van. I have noticed that I feel less safe in the world these days than usual; I told someone local where I was going and approximately how long I expected to be gone, which normally I never do for an excursion such as this, and locked up the bike knowing it was probably foolish but also knowing the back of my brain would relax a bit more knowing it was secured.

Which turned out to be a mistake. The next morning, when it was getting warm enough to contemplate a ride, I went to get the bike ready–and the key wouldn’t turn to unlock the bike. I think it wasn’t quite inserting all the way, but regardless, it just would not turn. I tried WD-40, and worked at it for 10-15 minutes. By this time, I was getting concerned–I wasn’t going anywhere with the bike attached to the van, and I didn’t have any bolt cutters with me to cut the cable. I got as far as thinking about how far out I’d have to walk to get a signal so I could call for help, and what I’d need to take with me, while continuing to work on getting the bike free.

Cutting a long but boring story short (heh), I ended up using my hatchet

to whack through the housing of the lock mechanism. I’ve carried that hatchet from the beginning, and almost never use it for anything, but it totally earned its keep on this trip.

Here’s the result, after 15-20 minutes of whacking.

The bottom rung of the ladder got slightly banged up, but altogether things worked out ok.

Finished getting the bike set up, persuaded Scamp that running after me was indeed what she wanted to do, and headed down the road a mile or so to another spot that was on my radar from the scouting outing. And found this.

Didn’t take long for me to decide to shift camp to that spot. (Note to certain friends, you know who you are: there’s room for both vans there.) The weather was ideal for a sunny site, and there’s something about being by water. Rode back to the van, and got everything loaded up, including the bike. But not Scamp. She was big time into her “But this is perfect, we should stay here forever” behavior. I had anticipated that, but figured she’d be ok with running after the van–we’d done that a few times already, and she seemed to enjoy it. BUT. Nope. She was having none of it. She seemed prepared to just stay at the old camp no matter what. I went anyway–took off at speed (for that road, that meant somewhere between 25-30 mph), figuring I could go back for her on the bike. Apparently my disappearing down the road had gotten to her, because once I was there, got the bike down and ready, and headed back, she was running toward me only a hundred yards or so from the turnoff.

Camp was set up in time for lunch.

Had my after lunch cup of tea sitting outside–even the bugs were leaving me alone. Must be the season, I’m sure there are both mosquitoes and flies later in the summer.

Scamp was working on trimming that small branch into a stick and trying to tempt me into playing with her with it.

Walking options weren’t as plentiful as at the previous spot, but we made do. The road continues just a bit further, to another spot where people obviously have camped based on the trash they’ve left. There was what looks like an old logging lane going up the hill from there. It’s now covered with manzanita, a few years old. I picked my way up; Scamp scampered. These were taken about halfway up when I stopped to catch my breath, the first looking up, the second back down.

At the top there’s a cleared knob from which you can catch a view from just the right spots. I remain uncertain if those are the Cascades in the far distance or still part of the coastal range.

If you look carefully, you can see just a few touches of snow on the peaks in the bottom picture. The mountains are quite dry for this time of year in this geographic location. I just hope and pray we don’t have a bad fire season on top of everything else that’s going on.

The rest of the day I was mostly lazy; reading, sitting and gazing at the water, napping, taking short saunters with Scamp. Some more pictures:

I got interested in a grove of trees which were my view when lounging on the bed, and decided to pick my way back into the grove, where I took some close-ups. The phone didn’t quite capture the full beauty of the details, but these will give you an idea.

There’s a lot more left up there for me to explore later. As the saying goes, you never step into the same river twice, and the weather will heat up from here, so the perfection of that day is unlikely to be repeated, but it’s good to know the spot is there. And if I get up there to find other people enjoying it, there are others close by I can go to, and entirely unexplored side roads I can check out for more camping spots.

By the next morning, all of us were quite relaxed.

Even Scamp had calmed down, interested but not yipping with excitement or running up with a stick every time I stepped out of the van. I got loaded up in a relaxed time frame, and headed off with Scamp running behind for the first mile or so. She was much more persuadable to follow this time, and when I stopped fairly early, she let me pick her up without too much persuading.

I started off that morning not sure whether to just return home or stay out another night. When I got to the deciding point, I decided to head for a spot I had discovered last spring that had been perfect at the time. However, when I got there I found my memory had enhanced it somewhat, and in any case it felt like a bit of a comedown after the perfection of the day before, so I continued on out to I-5 and back down to home, making a large loop. It’s a pretty drive, so enjoyable.

Altogether, the outing was just what the doctor ordered. Part of the therapeutic effect was that it allowed me to be and feel completely normal for awhile. I did just what I would normally do on such an excursion, and taking such excursions is something I’ve done several times since moving here. The feeling was greatly aided by being offline, also normal for such an outing. How long the effects will last I don’t know, but I do know revisiting it by doing this post has been good, bringing the details back into my mind.

Take care of yourselves and stay safe, everyone.