Slacker Day

Last night, as I lay in my hammock, trying to get to sleep with the sounds of generators and conversations all around me, I was wondering why I am doing this trail. Then at 9:30 someone had a series of fireworks they needed to set off in the tinder dry, no fireworks allowed forest. I somehow drifted off only to be awaken by someone arriving and setting up their RV at 12:30AM.

At 5:30, as I was making breakfast, I became the object of attention of dozens of young females, of the salt marsh mosquito variety. So, I was not in a particularly good mood when I started walking toward 101 and my road walk de jour.

But it was cool, and there was a high overcast to keep the sun at bay for a while. Horsfall Rd runs though a coastal pine forest. Plagued by drought and bark beetles, it is dying, but, as they would say in Monty Python, “It’s not dead yet.” To reinforce that notion, I spotted a deer peering at me from the woods. We exchanged glances and she was gone. But she reminded me of the weird thing I had seen on the beach yesterday.

Amidst all the engine noise and tire tracks on the beach, I saw a single set of deer foot prints going from the foredune to the ocean and then back. Why a deer would walk out to the ocean I cannot fathom, unless, she, like me, just wanted to gaze upon its magnificence. Somehow that thought cheered me as I joined the road to the McCullough Bridge into North Bend, OR.

The span is a mile long and is part reinforced concrete and part steel girder construction. Although Conde McCullough seemed to have designed all these bridges I’ve crossed along the way, this one is actually named after him. It was the last built of the big bridges to complete the Roosevelt Highway (101). And it is a graceful span.

As I dropped down the far side of the bridge I entered North Bend. (No relation to the other town of Bend in eastern Oregon) North Bend and adjacent town of Coos Bay are the urban centers of this area. North Bend has seen better days, and several of its grand old houses pay tribute to that fact, but I am now on a mission to find a laundromat.

Google shows me one on my route through town, and when I get there it is amazing. New, clean, with an attendant and even a bathroom, I’m impressed. The soap dispenser has soap and everything works on a credit card. No quarters needed. I change into my rain suit and set about doing my laundry. In under an hour, I’m walking out of there in clean clothes! I feel like a new man.

After another two miles I got to the Walmart where a city bus stops and I can get a ride the last 7 miles into Charleston, my final destination today. I’ve already come about 9 miles. There is a Starbucks near Wally World, so I use up some points on a coffee and banana bread. The bus arrives, I give him my dollar and I am whisked to Charleston and it’s small harbor. My motel room is almost ready, so I got some local clam chowder, came back, and checked in.

So it was a kind of slacker day. A day for a little R & R and a hot shower. I’ll be walking the Seven Devils Road up and over Cape Arago tomorrow, but tonight I’ll be thinking about that deer, standing on the moonlit beach, looking out to sea and taking in the magnificence.