20250402 Medford, OR to Chico, CA

20250402 Medford, OR to Chico, CA

We had a very quiet and restful night at the Edenvale Winery and would recommend it as a well-positioned Harvest Host location for driving between Washington and California.  We were back on the road by 9 a.m.  

The RV had to pull the Bronco up Siskiyou Summit, which at 4310’ is the highest elevation along I-5.  We had no trouble, but did have to stay in the slow lane climbing the steepest part at 47 mph @ 2900 rpm.  We did end up passing a number of semis during the hill climb, but fortunately, traffic was very light and the weather was favorable.  It was in the 40’s as we ascended and the roads were bare.  At the summit, there was a bit of snow on the far edge of the shoulder, but we didn’t encounter any ice on the roadway.  For all but the steepest climbs where shoulder driving was permitted for semis, we were able to tool along at the speed limit.

The weather cleared up remarkably as we descended into California past Lake Shasta, which was remarkably filled.  We have seen the entire marina high and dry in the past.  Today, the water was near the high water mark around the lake.  

We made a refueling stop at the Costco in Redding.  This was fortunately visible from the freeway off-ramp, so it was very easy to find.  It is also a very large warehouse and we were able to park the RV and Bronco in the outskirts of the parking lot near the gas pumps.  The diesel was $4.599/gal, which was far more expensive than in Oregon, but the cheapest diesel within 100 miles.  We picked up a Costco chicken and artisan rolls for dinner and hot dogs for lunch.  It was in the mid-60’s and sunny in Redding.

Our next stop was the Olive Pit in Corning, which is another favorite stop of ours because they have so many different types of stuffed olives that you can sample for free.  We did have to buy a few jars both to have for ourselves and to give as gifts.  

We arrived at our next Harvest Host site, Chico Rice, at 3 p.m.  This was visible from I-5 and is a several-acre site with numerous grain bins and a building where they process and polish organic rice.  It is surrounded by floodable fields for growing rice.  Normally, they would be planting this time of year, but it has been unseasonably wet, so they have delayed planting by a couple of weeks.  We picked up an 18# bag of organic sushi rice for $30.  We went for a nice walk around the fields with one of the owner’s dogs, a very nice golden retriever named Sammy.  We were the only Harvest Host campers on-site.  We got out all our wet clamming gear and set it out in the sun and light wind to dry off before storing it for the rest of the trip. 

They had a small menagerie behind one of the equipment sheds with goats, chickens and ducks. Sammy was with us and when he ran up to the fence, one of the goat got startled and turned to run, but then suddenly turned stuff and fainted onto its side. One of those fainting goats for real. 

20250401 Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Tillamook to Medford, OR

20250401 Tuesday, April 1, 2025 Tillamook to Medford, OR

Voorhees Mansion, Eden Valley Winery

 Medford OR

We were able to get on the road at 8 a.m. from the Blue Heron Cheese Company.  It was quiet enough in the parking lot, although there was a security light in the parking lot that required us to put up the front window covers to shut out the light.

The drive from Tillamook to Salem was quite scenic, mostly following winding streams and meadows until we got into some mountainous areas where the road continued to wind and twist.  It was fortunate that there wasn’t much traffic going our direction.  Ben only had to pull over twice to let other traffic pass on the 2-lane highways.  We did start out with sunny skies with broken cloud cover, but heavy clouds eventually pushed in and it then began raining pretty heavily.  Our batteries were able to recharge to 98% on solar while we were driving.  

We made a refueling stop at a Shell station in Salem.  A Coca-Cola delivery truck blocked our exit for a while, but this gave Ben time to use the bathroom, make a cup of coffee, and do a Duolingo lesson.  

The RV certainly got a workout pulling the Bronco uphill in the mountainous terrain and passes.  We were able to easily keep up with most semis on the road, but did end up slowing down to 45 mph on the steepest and longest grades in the mountain passes where the fully loaded semis were on the shoulders driving at 25 mph.  On the steepest and longest climbs, the trip computer showed 6.6 mpg fuel consumption.  But on the downhill legs, it shows 99 mpg.  There were no issues with braking or stability, but it was raining really hard at times so we sometimes drove a little below the speed limit, although for the most part, we were able to comfortably maintain the speed limit.

We got email notifications that some of our Dairy Queen points were going to expire soon, so we pulled off I-5 in Cottage Grove to find the Dairy Queen that the Freeway sign had indicated.  It turns out it was clear at the south end of town, but we got a tour of Cottage Grove’s old Hwy 99 historic area.  The Dairy Queen was really old, but looked like it had a large parking lot.  However, after pulling in, it turned out not to be a single parking lot but two parking lots connected by the drive-through, so we were stuck.  We had to unhitch the Bronco so we could turn the rig around and then rehitch the Bronco.  That was a bit of a hassle for a free Blizzard treat.  We did also have some chicken tender meals while we were at it.

We made a second refueling stop in Medford at the Central Point Costco, but didn’t go into the warehouse.  We arrived at the Eden Valley Winery Harvest Host site at 4:30 and checked in at the wine tasting room.  Janet tried a few reds before settling on a glass of their pear sparkling wine, while Ben did a flight of their own red wines.  Their 2016 Pinot Noir was his favorite, although their 2013 Claret was also quite tasty.  There were several wines produced during years when there were significant wildfires with ash fall and smoke.  This did impact the wines, most notably in their notes. 

We met another Harvest Host couple at the Wine Tasting room from Bend, Oregon, John and Margot, who had arrived in a 1-ton Dodge dually with a nice Arctic Fox truck camper.  They were towing an empty vehicle trailer.  It turns out they have a Suzuki Samurai that is getting modified nearby, changing out its differentials so it can run on giant 33” wheels.  They use it to do 2-track touring and have been around Moab and plenty of places in eastern Oregon.  Ben was quite interested in those adventures.  John also has an original Toyota FJ in his vehicle stable.  It turns out both Ben and John enjoy watching some of the same YouTube channels on off-road adventures and misadventures.  Margot is a nurse and was actually working at the Seattle VA in the Spinal Cord Injury Unit during the late 1980s, so there’s a good chance Ben might have crossed paths with her doing SCI consults during his several residency rotations there, although neither of us had any recollections of such.  During the pandemic, Margo was stationed as a school nurse on the Aviano Naval Air Station in Italy.  

We had egg noodles with canned chicken breast, cream of mushroom, and green bean casserole for dinner.  

20250331 Monday, March 31, 2025 Cape Disappointment to Tillamook

20250331 Monday, March 31, 2025 Cape Disappointment to Tillamook

The Blue Heron French Cheese Company

Harvest Host site, Tillamook, OR

We hit the beach one last time this morning.  It was raining, but there wasn’t much wind.  The rain did have a tendency to wash away clam shows, but the lack of wind kept the waves from finishing the job, so many clam shows and residual shows were still visible. The rain did seem to make the clams go deeper, so we had to frequently plunge more than once to get to the clam at the very bottom of the hole.  But with some effort, we did get our limits.  After processing our limits, we hit the dump station again to empty the black and grey tanks and top off the fresh water.  We had run the generator on the main LP tank since our auxiliary was empty.  

We then headed back into Long Beach one last time to fill up the LP tanks before heading south into Oregon.  We made a refueling stop at Fred Meyer’s in Warrington where diesel was $3.69/gal.  Most places we have driven by have been selling diesel for over $4/gal.  We also stopped at the Warrrington Costco to have lunch with Costco samplers and hot dogs.  

We arrived in Tillamook around 5 p.m. and were able to tour the Tillamook Creamery, where we cheese samplers, and then checked in at the Blue Heron French Cheese Company, a Harvest Host site.  There were 6 other rigs already in their parking area, so this is a very popular Harvest Host site.  There was fortunately plenty of space in their huge, nicely graveled parking lot.  

Driving around in the sun today did get our batteries above 95% by the time the sun started setting.  They had discharged to about 55% this morning. 

We were hoping to find a TV broadcast signal in Tillamook, but alas, there were none.  But there is a cell phone signal, so we access the internet for browsing and streaming.  

Tomorrow, we hope to make significant progress towards California and will plan on driving nearly 300 miles to Medford, Oregon.  There is a winery there which is also a Harvest Host site.  The Costco near Medford also has diesel, but we will probably need to find another place to refuel near Salem on the way there.  

20250330 Sunday, March 30, 2025 Cape Disappointment Day 4

20250330 Sunday, March 30, 2025 Cape Disappointment Day 4

Bag 'O Razor Clams

The razor clam dig tide was later this morning, so we didn’t need to use headlamps to look for clams.  In stark contrast to the previous several days, today, there was no wind and the tide was further out, revealing a sandbar out in front of the B campground loop, where most people were looking for clams.  Ben wondered if the sandbar might actually make the clams deeper, so he wandered back over to the north end of the beach where we have found most of our clams in the past, and sure enough, there were actual clam shows there that made it easy to find our limits.  We could actually be a little picky about trying to dig up only the larger shows, and we did end up with some larger clams today.  

We ran the generator while cleaning and putting up the clams, but the generator started shuddering before actually shutting down.  Ben wondered if maybe the oil level was a bit low because the dipstick showed it to be at the lower end of normal.  That would have to be addressed later in the day.  We got the clams put up and then broke camp because our site was reserved by someone else in advance through the State Parks reservation system, but we only had to move from the north loop to the south loop of the same campground B.  We did take the RV to the dump station because the fresh water was down to less than 1/4 tank, and dumped the black and grey tanks, as well as refilling the fresh water.  There were lots of RV’s and trailers using the dump station as people were headed home after their weekend camping trip.  

We got the RV set up in the new site, and then headed into town to find an internet signal and do our Duolingo lessons. Ben also had to do further research on the generator because the RV didn’t have a manual for the generator in its document binder.  

We had lunch at McDonald’s, which only cost us $15 for two.  Not a great meal, but certainly the cheapest lunch we’ve had in Long Beach by a long shot.  While there, Ben did download the manual for the generator and saw that it burns between 1.6 and 3.3# of LP per hour, depending on the load.  Since it’s running off a 20# portable tank, that could mean anywhere from 6 to 10 hours, and since we have been running it about 2-3 hours a day, the tank could be empty.  

When we got back to the RV and checked the tank, it did feel like it could be empty.  That was an easier solution than any other sort of malfunction.  But the manual also said the generator was due for its first oil change at 20 hrs.  So Ben did pick up motor oil while we were in Long Beach and did an oil change at the campsite.  

The generator then ran just fine off the main LP tank supply.  We were not able to refill the portable LP tank in town because the LP places were all closed on Sunday.  We will make a stop tomorrow to refill the portable LP tank after we leave the campground and start our trip south.

20250329 Saturday, March 29, 2025 Cape Disappointment Day 3

20250329 Saturday, March 29, 2025

By the Wind Sailor jellyfish (Velelle velella) skeletons

carried by wind onto the beach by the tens of thousands.

We got up and donned our headlamps at 6 a.m. to hit the beach.  The winds had eased to under 25 mph and the rain had ceased, but there was dense cloud cover and it was very dark on the beach.  We used our headlamps in conjunction with some LED work lights to try to spot some clam shows.  Ben did get one to appear after pounding, but it wasn’t until after daylight arrived that we were able to spot any other clam shows.  Pounding didn’t yield many other shows, so despite this being a daylight tide, the tide was turning around as daylight made it possible to see the beach.  We called it quits at 8 a.m. as the tide chased us up the beach. We had managed to find a total of 18 clams today.  We got those cleaned and put up in the freezer, and then drove to the ranger hut to see if we still needed to relocate.  

Someone had changed their reservation on our site so we could stay another night, but tomorrow we will still have to relocate.  Fortunately, there is another very similar site nearby that we can move to that is still close to the beach.  

We then took the Bronco into Long Beach to do our Duolingo lessons online and find lunch. Ben checked out Denis Ace Hardware in Long Beach, which is a pretty amazing store with huge outdoors gear and clothing departments, as well as pet gear.  It was like combining an Ace Hardware with a Tractor Supply Company or Cenex Farm Supply, and Holiday Sports stores. 

We decided to check out a Mexican place for lunch. The first place we tried had rave reviews for its Pozole soup, but it was closed for the season.  The next choice was El Compadre, which looked like a local family-owned restaurant.  The restaurant was quite large, clean, and decently decorated. The service was prompt and attentive, but the food was uninspired, and not particularly generous portions for the price, which for a two-item combination was $20 per person.  We each had a leftover chimichanga to take home to the RV for dinner tonight.  It’s too bad there isn’t a Dairy Queen in town with the same $7 Meal Deal (3 chicken strips, fries, drink, and sundae).  

The sun came out for a bit in the afternoon, so we walked around the campground loops, including a closed loop.  There were a few huge rocky outcroppings in the middle of the closed loop, and a sign board which explained that these were actually seamounts which had been offshore at the turn of the 19th century, but after the Columbia River jetty was built, sand from the Columbia River deposited to the south of the jetty, filling in and burying a lot of the coastline.  But the story doesn’t end there, because after the Columbia River had multiple dams constructed for hydroelectric and irrigation uses, sand is getting trapped behind the dams, and the beaches are receding again, so someday in the remote future, these outcroppings may again become seamounts.

Seamount now stranded in the Campground

After a nap, Ben walked from the campground to the jetty, which is about 1.75 miles.  The tide was going out and uncharacteristically, there was very little wind.  This made the tide waves much more predictable, but he still didn’t see any clam shows during his walk.  Despite the lack of wind, the surf coming in off the Pacific remains quite impressive, particularly around the end of the jetty where 15-20’ tall waves were breaking.  

Breakers on the South Jetty

Lost Crab Pot buried in the sand.

We had leftover chimichangas supplemented with a new camp concoction made with pinto beans and stovetop stuffing.  Necessity is the mother of culinary invention. 

Tomorrow the low tide is closer to 8 a.m., so we may not need to use headlamps to get to the beach.  We’re hoping for less wind and more clams tomorrow.

20250328 Friday, March 28, 2025 Cape Disappointment Day 2

20250328 Friday, March 28, 2025

The weather remained stormy through the night with heavy rains and winds, but the winds were remarkably attenuated by trees in the campground, so there was very little buffeting of the RV.  

The batteries were at 75% in the morning.  The furnace had run intermittently through the night.  We ran the generator to run the heat pump and make coffee, as well as to put a few more amp hours into the battery bank, in case we didn’t end up with much direct sunlight to charge the batteries.  

We did go into Long Beach to do a little exploring and discovered a huge frying pan that was also in one of Ben’s old family photos from the 1960s.  The building that had been beside it was gone, or it had been moved to a new location.

  

Ben also wandered through a “Free Museum,” which was very much like a huge Ye Old Curiosity Shoppe, complete with all sorts of odds and ends.  These included “Jake, the Alligator Man”, supposedly discovered in a swamp.  

It looked like a mummy with a human head and upper torso mated to an alligator’s body and tail.  There was a huge collection of coin-operated amusements from the turn of the century and lots of taxidermy, including a two-headed calf, one-eyed lamb, and a shrunken human head from South America.  

We had lunch at Castaway’s in the heart of Long Beach’s tourist district and found it surprisingly refined and high quality.  The décor, service, and food were all unexpectedly nice. We had a bowl of their chowder, which had clams, crab, and bacon in a flavorful New England-style broth, and had cod and clam strip plates which came loaded with fries and a decent scoop of tasty coleslaw and homemade tartar sauce.  We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Castaway’s to anyone looking for a nice place to sit down and have a meal in Long Beach.  

The wind and rain persisted through most of the day, but late afternoon, there was a break in the clouds and the rain ceased for a couple of hours.  Ben headed out to the beach at 5:30 p.m. with the tide predicted at 0.0’ at 6:29 p.m.  There were breaks in the clouds allowing some direct sunlight on the beach which helped make it feel a bit warmer.  The wind started around 25 mph, so still fairly brisk, but not as bad as yesterday.  

The clams were still not showing on their own. Ben ended up pounding with his clam gun inverted to get some clams to show and got his first clam at 5:45 p.m.  Then watching closely, he could spot occasional clam neck in the receding water when it was just a fraction of an inch deep.  They made a “V” in the last sheet of water that would give away their position.  Sometimes a pounding was necessary to confirm the exact spot, but Ben soon had his limit of 15 clams.  Janet came to the beach a little later and was looking for classic clam shows, but only managed to find one.  Ben then  pointed out and pounded out clams to reach Janet’s limit as well.  That was a bit more work than in the past, but certainly more successful than yesterday.  It did help that the wind was probably 10 mph less than yesterday, because we could see ripples in the sheeting water today.

We got the clams shucked, cleaned, and put up in the freezer.  We ran the generator while we were doing the clams and used the induction cooktop to also make Mac and Cheese with beans and other leftovers from home.  

The dig switches to AM starting tomorrow morning, so we’ll set our alarm clock and hit the beach at 6 a.m. for the predicted 6:58 a.m. -0.1’ tide.

20250327 Thursday, March 27, 2025 Twin Harbors to Cape Disappointment

20250327 Thursday, March 27, 2025. 

North Head Lighthouse

Cape Disappointment State Park

The temperature didn’t get below the mid-50s last night, so the furnace didn’t need to come on. We also didn’t leave our phones or any other devices on chargers last night.  The battery monitor reported 85% capacity in the morning.  It had rained on and off most of the night, and it was raining when the sun came up in the morning.  Since the campground was mostly empty, we ran the generator to make coffee, use the heat pump to warm up the coach, and top off our device batteries.  That’s when Ben discovered that although he had connected the external LP tank to the side of the RV, he had not turned the valve on the inlet on, so the generator wouldn’t start without LP.  You learn something new every trip.  

We drove from Twin Harbors to Cape Disappointment. This took us on a scenic drive through the little town of Raymond, which has commissioned a steel-cutting and welding artist to make 2D statue cutouts of fishermen, shorebirds, and other similarly themed items. These were posted all throughout the town.  

We arrived at Cape Disappointment at about 12:15 p.m.  The ranger booth was manned, so we stopped to register.  The rangers on duty looked like they were ready to engage in combat, wearing tactical vests and sidearms.  That was a bit odd.  Then when we tried to register, they said there were new policies in place that would require us to pay $10 to register if we did it through them at the window, or $8 if we reserved online. He gave me a web address and allowed me to use the park’s Wi-Fi, which really only extends about 20’ around the ranger booth.  Turns out it was a dead link.  I went back and complained that just two months ago, we just picked up the yellow phone and got registered with no registration fee.  Then he said if we registered after 2 p.m., that would be true because then we would be considered drop-in campers.  So we left and said we’d be back in 2 hrs.  We went to the park’s RV dump site and filled our fresh water tank, and then parked in the same site we have in the past, site 100, which the ranger had said was available.  

We had lunch and a short nap and then were able to register as drop-ins.  This time, we had a female ranger who had registered us in the past, and we were able to get registered for site 100 for 2 nights, but would then have to relocate to site 195 for the last 2 nights.  Site 195 is near the park entrance and a ways from the beach, but we can just take the Bronco to get to the beach, or even head up to the Long Beach beach access in town.  

Ben made a trip into Long Beach to see if he could find a milk crate at a thrift shop for our auxiliary LP tank.  He had used one that was rigged up to be mounted on the Bronco’s rear utility mount.  Those are handy for clamming because we can put wet things like the clam guns, bags, and gloves in them.  It’s a bit crowded with just one now.  Well, they had some milk crates, but they were full of vinyl albums, and not for sale.  

We walked to the beach at 4:15 p.m.  The low tide was -0.1’ at 5:50 p.m.  The wind was blowing out of the south at 25-30 mph.  We walked to where we had previously found lots of clam shows and got our limits in the past without trouble.  However, with the wind, the waves would frequently wash way up the beach and, in conjunction with the wind, would wipe clean any clam shows. We were only able to spot two actual classical clam shows, both leading to relatively small clams. Ben was able to pound out another 3 clams, but it was really tough going with the wind. There was also pretty steady rain, which further frustrated efforts to locate clams.  We kept at it until 6 p.m., but by then the winds were gusting at 35-40 mph and it was getting to be hard to even just stand straight.  

While we were clamming, we noticed a gal running up and down the beach in an ATV.  Janet chased her up and discovered she was working for the Department of Ecology and was doing a beach elevation study.  She said there was a GPS on the ATV and it was her job to map the beach contours by driving back and forth over it.  That has to be one of the more unusual federal employee jobs.  It actually looked like fun for the most part, but it must get boring after the first hundred or so miles of running back and forth down a beach in an ATV.

We returned to the RV, cleaned and cooked our 5 clams in garlic butter to complement leftover fish curry and rice that we had brought from home, reheated with the microwave.  We ran the generator to use the heat pump and microwave, but the batteries were in pretty decent shape with over 85% charge on them just from daylight recharging.  We did recharge our other devices though.  

We were able to take nice warm showers.  Washington state parks seem to have gotten rid of their coin-operated showers.  It probably cost more money to maintain the coin-operating mechanism than paying for hot water.  Without internet connectivity in the rest of the park, it’s an incentive to go to bed early and rise with the sun.