Oregon Times

Well we made it to Coos Bay approximately 8:30 pm, Tuesday, December 29th. After breakfast the next morning it was time to tackle the dunes at Horsfalls camp ground and dune access. We drove onto the beach and headed south but after maybe a mile we had to turn back because of high tide and with the mixture of large driftwood stumps, logs rocks and the minimum amount of driving  and maneuvring space it turned unfavorable to continue. We drove off the beach and turned back up onto the sand highway and headed south again. We drove the sand highway for about 10 miles then turned off into the dunes and headed for the Siltcoos camp ground and dune access, aired up and left the Oregon Dunes.

So we accomplished what we had set out for, three different off-road experiences, (Lake Pleasant to Wickenburg back road), (Pismo State Dunes) and (Oregon State Dunes), and so the final portion is to visit our good friends and celebrate New Years Eve.

The final chapter is to head back home the quickest way, my sweetie has to get back to work Monday. We hope to publish some video footage of our off-road experiences once we get back and convert to the appropriate format for publishing.

 HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Breakfast before the dune drive.

The beach is just past the grassy mounds, you can see there is not much driving space, varys from 8 ft to 20 ft wide stretches of beach.

Quote of the day: Respect Mother Nature.

Third Day of Travels

The plan broke down in a couple of areas of our travels. When we made it to Cambria we planned to head east, inland toward Lake Nacimiento but we found the turned off road was closed. So we back tracked 5 miles or so and headed east on Hwy 46.

We basically drove through WINE COUNTRY. This whole mid-coast of California area, about 95 % vineyards. These farmers are wealthy, the area looks like awesome with castles for homes and tasting rooms in the rolling hills. We saw the real "Hidden Valley Ranch".

We left the Lake Nacimiento area and headed north, our intent was to get passed the San Francisco area quickly and stop around Santa Rosa area. The traffic through SF was terrible, the HOV lane helped a lot. We made it to Santa Rosa about 8:00 pm and decided to stop at the Russian River Brewing Co. to relax with a pint. The locals were friendly, ask my wife about that. We continued north to settle in the Town of Ukiah.

So today, Tuesday the 29th we are heading to Coos Bay to tackle the Oregon Dunes.

Mid coast rolling hills range Lake Nacimiento area

road view

country bridge

At Pismo State Dunes

We made it to Pismo Beach at about 5:00pm yesterday, did some dune driving, pretty crowded for a Sunday evening. We chose a spot on the dunes at the far south end of the park where we were the only ones as far as we could see, set up camp, dinner, a shot....or two and settled in for the night.

By the way we have seen some wild life since we started, a wild burro pack at Lake Pleasant, deer near Lake Huges and a sea lion when we were on the dunes at Pismo but just missed that shot, the sea lion saw us taking out our cameras and took off under the sea (camera shy) he was right up on the shore.

We are Starbucks right now up dating this blog. We will be taking off toward Cambria, then inland toward Lake Nacimiento.

set up evening camp

preparing dinner

airing up, leaving Pismo

begger friend

Expedition 1st posting

The lake Pleasant to Wickenburg was a great short off-road trip although I lost all the bolts that hold the upper rack to the rack bars but caught it just in time. Was able to jury rig enough to make it into Wickenburg and found an ACE Hardware right away, bought 4 bolts and made the fix in about 1/2 hour and we were off again.

Hit hwy 60 to I-10 and made it to Wrightwood by about 6:30 CA time. It was about 30 deg. when we set up for the night. Quarters are tight but because the temp. dropped to 25 deg. it made it nice for me and my honey to snuggle.

We woke up about 6:30 and headed to Palmdale where we are sitting right now updating my blog (Starbucks). We'll be heading out over Gorman pass towards Pismo Beach. We should make it to Pismo by mid-afternoon. We will continue to update as we go.

Check out the photos so far. By the way the GO-PRO camera is awesome, we are still working for a better camera mount situation.

 My quote for the day: "Never under estimate cold weather and the need for lock washers"

good thing we kept the ice scrapper.

I thought we were roughing it, notice the tent in the background.

tentative path of travel

Thought its time to introduce our next adventure. I'd like to call it an expedition but it not going to be an African lion chasing type expedition. Our intent is to leave Christmas evening or the 26th and are heading northwest to our final destination, Perrydale, OR. We've been wanting to go back and visit friends so we though..."Lets make it a more interesting travel". We will be documenting what we can with an on-board "GoPro" sports camera mounted inside the cab on the dash board and with additional hand held video camera and a handheld digital. I have a truck build as well which I will post in another location of this site.

At this point we are scheduled to Drive to San Bernadino, CA and from there head northwest through Cajon and Wrightwood, CA off the beaten path. We will continue through Big Pines, Paradise Springs, Littlerock into Palmdale. So out of Cajon we'll be taking "Swartout Canyon Rd" connecting to "Lone Pine Canyon Rd" into Wrightwood. We'll connect with "Angeles Crest Hwy" to Big Pines then catch "Co Hwy N4 / Big Pines Hwy" to "Valyermo Rd" to "Fort Tejon Rd" into Palmdale.

From Palmdale we will be heading to Sandberg via Anrade Corner and Three Points. We'll start out from Palmdale on "Elizabeth Lake Rd" into Anrade Corner, continue to "Co Hwy N2 / Pine Canyon Rd" into Three Points and will continue into Sandberg.

From Sandberg we will head to Lake of the Woods, CA to Pine Mountain Club up to Hwy 33 / 166 intersection. The road we will be taking from Sandberg we be "Frazier mountain Park Rd" into Lake of the Woods, then we will connect with "Cuddy Valley Rd" into Pine Mountain Club. We'll take "Cuddy Valley Rd" to "Forest Route 9N05/Mil Potero Hwy" to intersection Hwy 33 / 166. We will stay on Hwy 166 until we hit the intersection of "Tepusquet Rd".

From "Tepusquet Rd" we continue on "Hwy 166" (Cuyama Hwy) to coast route Hwy 101 to "Grand Ave" into Pismo State Sand Dunes.

I will continue to add to this adventure but basically we will head to Berkeley, CA to hook-up with an old Navy buddy. From SF area will are heading up on "Hwy 101" through Paso Robles, Salinas, Santa Rosa, Eureka, up to Coos Bay where we intend on hitting the Oregon State Dunes area. We'll stay on the dunes and head to Florence, OR, to Lincon City, OR on to Perrydale, OR.

Let me know of anything or place we may want to detour to see or travel based on past experiences. Thanks

The Build

Here is may build, I'm sure you've see the same kinds of construction around.

Started by adding an ARE shell with basic Yakima bars and a Surco rack.

Basic bed insert and shell, the shell have felt as a finish.

Interior has 1x10 pine boards, framed to have an interior accessed storage space and a second space accessed from back.

Now the bed framing.

final bed framing, 1x3 pine boards @ approx. 12 " o.c.

bed platform sheathing laid out, separate interior access door for less use stuff.

securing sheathing, adding hinges to interior door.

getting ready to carpet the back. The gloves in the background, can't seem to locate....hmmmm?

tape all the rough edges with duct tape, cut finger holes for the interior door.

carpet layout begins.

Two separate pieces were use one for the bed platform and one for the interior door.

interior door, sorry about the bad photo.

back is basically complete, added sleeping pads for added comfort.

My truck is an extended cab so this cabinet was constructed for this area using same materials as the back of the truck. It houses two tupperware containers for food, ice chest, fire extinguisher, etc.