Day 45-July 9, 2016-Plans, Gold Beach, Brewery
Stayed at 65 degrees and sunny all day.
We are at the end of all the plans we’ve made so we have to look at maps and campground books and decide which direction to go in next. Took us a few hours in the morning but we’ve got the next few days reserved and know which way we’re going. We drove down the road to a beautiful bridge we passed on the way in and learned it’s the Rogue River Bridge aka the Isaac Patterson Bridge built in 1932. It has cliff swallows and sometimes harbor seals underneath it. No seals today but lots of swallows and boaters out for a nice Saturday. I wanted to see the swallows better so we drove down a road that went underneath it. It had a walkway that went under the bridge and a lot of blackberry bushes on the way. We’re having blackberries for dessert tonight. The smell of pine and ocean is really refreshing. We stopped for lunch at a marina parking lot and found the remains of the Mary B. Hume, a freighter built in Gold Beach in 1880, now a wreck in the harbor. In its heyday it was a steam schooner, tugboat, cannery tender and whaling vessel. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see the bridge from the marina, quite a sight. Driving down 101 we went into the Myrtlewood Factory store. Myrtlewood only grows in southern Oregon, northern California and the Holy Lands. It has beautiful swirls in it and every piece is different. There are a few trees in the campground. From there we went to the beach-black sand, huge roaring waves and a sign that warns that if you get sucked in by a sneaker wave “survival is unlikely”. Heard about a brewery in town so we headed to Hunter Creek Loop and the Arch Rock Brewing Co. Very small, they only make three beers, only one we liked, but very nice people. Back to campground for dinner and to read a bit. We met two women who live in California and were very excited to meet people from Florida because they own Brandt Orchards and ship their fruit to Publix. They wanted to make sure every time I saw a piece of fruit from Brandt Orchards in Publix I would remember them.