2024 – On the Road with Buki-6

I was able to get up close and personal to a tide pool and the ocean. I will say that it took me a couple of days to recover. How did I do it and why did I do it? I had my cane, a friend, determination, and grit. That is the how; the why is that I wanted to see a Sea Star (starfish), feel wet sand, and do this before there was no possible way I could.

After I told Roy what I wanted to do, we went back to the trailer, and he worked his magic with Google. Amazing skill he has; just by looking at a satellite map, he is able to figure out if this is a viable spot for tide pools or whatever. The plan was to figure out if it was possible for me to do the walk out and still take photos. We decided to head down to Lone Ranch Beach to see if I could actually make it down to the beach. I did grab the cane and my Nikon. Armed with Roy’s Google knowledge, I headed down the path at a very slow rate of speed.

Once arriving on the beach, I realized that I had chosen the wrong path to walk down, putting me in the middle of the beach. I thought it was a long way to walk to reach the rocks. I also realized that I have a really long zoom camera, so not much walking was needed today. It was an interesting feeling to be this close to some powerful waves and the sound of the ocean. I did ask a few people on the beach where I could find sea stars or anything today. Unfortunately, the tide was not out far enough.

The next morning, I invited Meagan to join me in enjoying the tide pools and helping me navigate the area. I am one of those people who love to hear and watch nature but am not a touchy person. We start down the new trail and right off the bat Meagan sees a snail.

She picks it up and moves it further along the trail so I can take the picture. She also touched the tide pool and made a fish move. I am thankful she did that because if not, I would have missed some pictures. She then discovered the crab; this made me more aware of what hangs out under the sea.

My takeaway from all this was that these sea creatures, plants, and rocks are exposed to people only when the tide goes out, and then it depends on whether the tide goes far enough out.

I had a feeling of wonder and awe. I was also reduced to a few words, sometimes just a few sounds, like “oooh” and “aaaah.” Check some of these out.

It was about this time as we were out in the ocean that Meagan said the tide was coming in. I grudgingly decided it was time to head back to dry land. I have a feeling that this is not my last tide pool visit. The only requirement is that it will have to be closer to the shore.

I am so glad we did not go any farther down the dirt road we were on. Had that happened, I would not have photographed the chickens. Towards the end of our afternoon drive, we were headed home when the car was actually being chased by a dog, and that is what I was paying attention to. Roy, on the other hand, was paying attention to whatever moves. In this case, it was some movement on the side of the road. Roy said, “I’m sure I saw chickens,” and I’m thinking, “Okay, if you say so.”

A u-turn occurred, and the dog resumed its chase. He found the movement and made another u-turn. I pulled out my camera, and Roy straddled the road so I could take some pictures of the chickens. Realizing we were in the middle of the road and there was traffic coming down that road, the photo op was finished. We did flag down the car to let them know chickens were on the side of the road. The other driver said, “I will call the owner and let them know their chickens are loose.” The chickens were the end of a fun road trip down a dirt road up an elevated dit road. The start of this was watching kites trying to fly.

Sometimes when you are waiting for someone to come back and they don’t, you have to change plans. We needed to talk to the office where we are staying, but it was closed. A whole afternoon of free time. Our normal routine is to drive through the harbor to see if the kites are flying, then park by the river that drains into the ocean to see if there are any egrets or maybe common murres or pelicans. This day, however, the only thing flying was a solo light green kite.

We needed to explore something different, of course it was sunny and that in itself is rare. Down Winchuck River Road or the Oregon Redwoods Trail, time to see a few large trees. This is also where we saw the chickens. The road itself was a maintained county road until it wasn’t. I will say, on a side note, that this summer the forest service roads are in better condition than in the past. We did take the paved forest service road until it turned into gravel.

The first road had a bridge over (not troubled) water. I was able to take advantage of the sunlight falling through the trees onto the river. It was great to stay in the car and just shoot from the passenger side of the car. Not wanting to go any further down the road because it had turned into gravel, we started heading back to civilization. Before that happened, I suggested let’s head up to the Ludlum campground; it is only 2 1/2 miles up another road. This road quickly turned into a narrow, one-lane gravel road with nowhere to turn around. (Not one of my better adventure ideas.) We were able to find a wide spot in the road to turn around.

Roy is always paying attention to the environment I do not notice as much as he does. I am learning. I mention this because the pictures below are of a fallen tree with its root ball intact and all of the tiny trees and brush growing out of the trunk. Mother Nature’s nursery.

In my opinion, the forest is peaceful and a tad unnerving. The quietness is deafening until you start to hear the sounds of the forest. Just about then, I’m out of the car taking pictures, looking over my shoulder for the bear or bobcat, or maybe a mountain lion. I saw or heard none of them. I did end up jumping though and getting scared. It was caused by Roy and his horn. As I went to the other side of the car after lovingly telling him he was #1, he pointed out how high above the river we were.

On the way home and after we ran into the chickens we went to see Oregon’s largest Monterey Cypress. This tree than 130 feet tall. I had trouble fitting it in the farme. It is interesting what gems are hidden in plain sight.

With a full day of no fog it was great discovering the area.

Tag: 2024

‘The Thing’ was……

Chickens in the ‘Wild’