A Whale of a Trail

We were walking around the little town of Florence Oregon this morning looking for a souvenir. We noticed the other day that we haven't really purchased any souvenirs on this trip other than a t-shirt that I got in Montana at the Lewis and Clark Caverns. It was actually a pretty funny shirt that said “bears love people...they taste like chicken” with a picture of a bear chasing a couple of hikers. It was a very fitting shirt because we had been actively searching for bears for about 4 months at that point and had only seen one...and we were in the heart of bear country for the entire 4 months of our search. Now that we have had what could be the world record for close encounters with bears last week (13 bears in 3 days), my t-shirt souvenir doesn't seem so funny anymore. We are seriously hoping to not see anymore bears for a while. Anyway, we just couldn't seem to find anything that suited us at the little nick-nack shops that lined the streets of Florence. There just seemed to be lots and lots of junk that had no place in our home on wheels.

After we finished roaming the streets of Florence and drinking our delicious cups of coffee that we picked up in town (souvenirs that only last a short while), we got back in our car and decided that we should go and see some of the sights. We opened up our handy little guide book and then it dawned on me...we actually have about 25 souvenirs in a cabinet in our home on wheels...guide books. In every state, at every rock climbing destination, at every geographic region, and at almost every national park that we have visited, we have purchased a guide book. Most of these guides tells us about every single opportunity that is available to us in the place that we are visiting. Sometimes that can be overwhelming because really, we can't see everything, and it can be hard to pick and choose which things are the best things to see.

We picked up a guide book for the state of Oregon while we were staying in Bend that is quite possibly the best guide book that we have. This book covers the entire state, it's broken down into regions, and it doesn't tell you about every single opportunity that is out there...only the best ones. In the descriptions of these “bests”, there are great pictures, hand drawn maps, and even directions on how to get to these places (you would think that directions would be in every guide book but surprisingly they are not). Perfect. The guesswork has been taken out of the equation for us. “Trips and Trails in Oregon” is the book and I highly recommend it if you are planning a little vacation to Oregon (or if you live in Oregon and need some ideas on places to go).

We have used this little guide book souvenir a lot since we purchased it. We have actually knocked off a good portion of the book and seen a lot of the places that are listed (trust me when I say that it has taken some serious effort to see some of this stuff). After our little visit to the town of Florence, we knocked off 3 more “must sees” that the book told us were just outside of town (12 miles of hiking today to knock those babies off the list...and they were all spectacular). So far, everything that we have seen, thanks to our little souvenir, has been worth the effort. We haven't seen any duds, not-so-greats, or had any waste of time adventures due to it's recommendations. It's really a great little book.

Yesterday, as we were leaving California and driving up the coast toward Florence, Brenda noticed in our friendly little book that there looked to be “a great little hike if you just pull over HERE!” (notice the capital letters on the word here. That means that I needed to slam on the brakes while towing our home on wheels and pull a Dukes of Hazard style slide into that gravel side road right NOW.) Since our guide book is friendly and Brenda said “HERE!”, I of course abide and pull a fantastic maneuver that could have had our home on wheels riding on only 2 of it's 4 wheels for a brief moment. I'm not sure if 2 of it's wheels left the ground or not...I had my eyes closed. Luckily we made it onto our needed gravel side road and lived to tell about it with no damage other than a severity of shifted items in our home on wheels that looked like we might have had a tornado inside of the place. Oh well, we are alive and we are here.

This little hike that we almost died for was called something like “whale rock trail” or “whale head beach” or “whale eyeball sand dune” or something like that. If you have ever been on down the west coast, you will know that there are about 14,000 different “whale-something-or-other” rocks and beaches lining the coast. It's like all of the towns got together and decided that they would each have 18 different things on their beach that would reference a whale. And what do you know...most of these things that are named after whales look nothing like a whale.

Well, back to the story...I didn't read the description in our friendly little book about the hike so I can't remember the name of it. I was too busy thanking the Good Lord for sparing us yet again to be bothered with reading anything. The book hadn't failed us yet so no point in reading about what we were going to undertake. Since I didn't read anything, I had no idea how long the hike was, where we were going, or what we were going to see...so I didn't bring anything. I mean nothing (other than a camera). Normally, we over-pack for every little adventure. This time, ab-so-lutly nothing. No food, no water, no extra doo-dads, or clothes. Nothing.

We started out on the hike and to be honest, I don't think I realized that we were going for a hike. When Brenda asked me “shouldn't we bring our backpacks with all of our stuff?” I answered with “no, this will be quick...we don't need anything.” I had no idea how quick this would be. I may have been thinking that we were just going to walk to the edge of the parking lot and look out at the ocean. Or, I could have still been marveling at my highly skilled driving maneuver that got us into this mess in the first place...I don't really know. Off we go.

After about a mile, I realized that I knew nothing about what we were doing. I vaguely remembered the picture that Brenda showed to me that described our route. There were 3 forks in the trail that we had to turn on. Crap...I should have payed attention. Oh well, we'll find it. How hard can it be to find some rock that might look like a whale? Or was it a beach that resembled a rooster? Or was it a rock that looked like a rooster riding a whale? I can't remember...just keep walking...and keep walking we did.

After a couple of miles we got to a fork in the trail with a worn out sign that said “wha......ech.” with an arrow that pointed to a trail that led directly over a cliff that was about 600 feet straight down to the rocky shore below. What??? That can't be it. My guess was that the sign used to read “whale riding a rooster beach” (or whatever this place is called) and that the letters on the sign as well as the trail have been washed away. So we keep heading down the trail that we were on. It's actually a really cool hike with spectacular trees, amazing views of the ocean, and wildflowers by the millions...so we don't mind going forward.

Another mile passes and another fork pops up. This time it's a loop that passes by a waterfall that plummets a few hundred feet and lands on the beach below. Amazing. The loop puts us back onto our original trail so we keep on walking. After a little while, we get to another fork that looks like it may go in the direction of the ocean so we take it. What do you know, it does go to the beach. Straight down to the beach. I'm talking straight down. So straight down that maybe we should have brought ropes. Remember when I told you we brought nothing with us...that means no ropes...but the beach is right down there and we should probably walk on it...so we go.

After a little bit of scrambling and wondering how we are going to get back off of this beach, we make it down, and I have to say, it is spectacular. And the best part of all is that we have it all to ourselves. Not a soul around. No one else is dumb enough to come down here so this pristine beach is ours. Woooo hooooo!!!

This little stretch of uninhabited beach is about 2 miles long and supposedly has a trail on the opposite end that will take us back up the cliffs and to our car, so of course, we meander our way down the beach and hope that the trail is actually there. On our way down the beach, we poke around in the tide pools, explore the sea caves, and watch the sea lions in the surf. Did I mention that there is no one around. It was great. Brenda said “this is the most beautiful beach I have ever seen.” I agreed. Extraordinary for sure.

After our 2 miles of beach walking, we see what could possibly once have been called a trail. It is wildly overgrown and doesn't look like it has been used in the last 20 years. Did I mention that it goes straight up and that sections of it have been washed away by years of ocean storms? It looks like a better option than walking the 2 miles back to the trail that got us down to the beach, so up we go. It's a pretty grueling jaunt up the cliffs but it does take us through fields of wildflowers that are truly the most incredible fields of wildflowers that I have ever seen...absolutely stunning. When we finally reach the top, we pop out on our original trail at the first fork we came to that had the sign that said “wha......ech”. I guess that was the trail we should have taken...oh well.

Well, we made it back alive after a little over 10 miles of a pretty grueling hike and I learned a few things along the way. These are actually things that I have learned a long time ago but it never hurts to have a refresher course. First, listen to Brenda when she says we should bring our back-packs with our food and water...I was starving by the time we got back...and I could have used some more clothes because it was pretty chilly on the beach. Secondly, read the guide book. Thirdly, our friendly guide book doesn't lie...it has taken us on another great adventure. Thanks little souvenir.

Whale Rock.  I guess it sort of looks like a whale.

The beach is all ours!  If you notice the cliffs at the end, that's the way out.

That's me, waist deep in the "trail".

At this point we are about 100 feet above the beach with a lot further to go.

The Florence Bridge

If you are wondering what these are, they are bear tracks in the sand dunes.  They are fresh and they are headed exactly where we want to go.  Crap...more bears!