Adventures in Transportation

We were adrift in a small boat. The engine wouldn’t start and we were drifting out out to sea. But, wait! Isn’t SlowBro hiking. What is he doing in a boat, for goodness sake! Good question. 

From the hiker/biker camp in Manzanita I could have road walked 10 hilly miles mostly on 101 with no shoulder or I could have walked 3 miles on the level beach and gotten a 5 minute boat ride across Nehalem Bay outlet, both ending up in the same place. I chose the latter, which is why I was in the boat drifting out to sea.

After a leisurely start, I arrived at the pick up point on the north shore of the bay and called the marina right across the water. They said someone would be there in about 5 minutes. Sure enough, 5 minutes later a young women arrived in a skiff. I climbed in and she shoved off, moved to the back of the boat, and tried to start the motor.

Try as she might it would not catch. Meanwhile the current was moving the boat slowly toward the ocean. She kept trying, but nothing. She apologized to me, called someone at the marina, and then noticed we were adrift. She leaped into the water and pulled the boat up on to the shore, all the time talking with someone at the marina. It was impressive. Shortly a guy arrived in another boat, set the choke on her outboard, and started the engine. She drove me across without further problems.

After paying the $ 10 for the ride, I started walking the 3 miles along the sand to Rockaway Beach where I had, as the Beatles put it, “a ticket to ride“ the 1PM steam train to Garibaldi about 7 miles further south.

As it was only 10 AM I sought a coffee house and had a cup of joe and a brownie. They had good wifi and a nice outside table in the shade, so I lingered, grabbing a sandwich, and made that lunch.

At 12:45 I boarded the train and had a very slow but enjoyable ride down to Garibaldi powered by a 1917 steam engine. It made me think of Mark Twain’s comment to the conductor of another slow train.

He mentioned that they should take the cow catcher off the front of the train and put it on the back. Because at the rate they were going it was unlikely that they could even catch a cow, but there was nothing to prevent the cows from climbing on from behind.

We saw no cows, but did see a bald eagle and I got a glimpse of Bayocean Spit, where I have another boat ride scheduled for tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed.

Happy Trails…