Back in Oregon!!! Very first wildlife DUCKS… (Oregon folks will “get it”)

We made the long trip up through northern California, and stopped at Gold Beach,  actually Turtle Rock which is just a little bit south of Gold Beach.  Small brewery with a restaurant next door that looks out on Hunter Creek. Lots of Ducks here, it was a windy day, and it was fun to watch them take off and land on the “creek” (more like a river on that day) Great little restaurant.

Then up to our favourite beach, at Cape Blanco state park campground.  You come down to this area and then walk to the where the Elk river joins the ocean. It is always interesting to see how much it changes each year, what we have found is that the mouth of the river is moving north each year

if you can imagine with this map if the river mouth is moving north, the agates MIGHT JUST BE on the other side of the river, now…..

So we did not find many agates on the north side of the river. lots of people out and everyone walking back and forth as the tide went out further, and more gravel exposed… lots of dogs too.

SO the next day we HAD to get to the south side of the river, which is a considerable walk. Getting to the north side is a mile and  a half walk on the beach, but the south side is hard to know how far. I did show in the map where we started and where we ended up.  The beach is much more steep and the sand is much harder to walk on … …. SOFT.

However……

THEN AGAIN…..

So needless to say it was worth the walk, but we were exhausted getting back, because it turned out to be 5 miles to the river and x2 = 10 miles, in soft sand, and with the wind howling against us for the way back.

One treat along the way, was meeting someone who had a walker hound, which is what Tuckers father was (mother was a lab).  Every one talks about the hound bark etc, and Tucker DOES have a low pitched  bark… however this dog was extremely unusual bark.

As you can see, he was pretty bouncy, just like Tucker.

So then on to Bandon and the Winchester road trails that Ken and I spent so much of our time when we lived in Bandon. For the first many years, we cycled/ran the trails and then in the later years we spent hours looking for mushrooms. Love the area.

Although it is late in the season, we DID find some chanterelles, they are a little wet, but essentially firm centrally, so What a find.

Of course all good things come to an end, and this is what is left of one of the trails we enjoyed for many years.  It is so hard to get your bearings in a place what you once knew like the back of your hand…….. without the trees there.

Ken was definitely better at it than me and we did find a small remnant of the area and found several Hedgehog mushrooms.

We are having lots of fun visiting friends here in Bandon, catching up on all the news……

and back  home…… Here is our son, Dylan and his son Talon

and we are pretty excited to see our little baby Talon in just a few weeks, he is getting good at lots of new things like……. STANDING.

Our trip is winding up and we wind our way home.

Much love from Janet, Ken and the Walker hound Tucker