THE LONG WAY AROUND TOO FLORENCE

October 8,2008

Today is another day of traveling to new parts of Oregon to see what other towns or cities have to offer. One of the big things we have been noticing is the amount of homes that are being offered in Lakeside and Florence, so rather then crossing them off of our list to move to we figured it would be best to check out the community's and the country side.

The original plan was to head right up to Florence via Hwy 101 along the coast highway looking at Winchester and Lakeside again. It was last year when we went up to Winchester and since it was kind of a hurry hurry trip, we figured we would take our time today too look over the area better. Well, it didn't take long before I talked myself into taking another route through Hwy 38 along the Umpqua River at Reedsport to the Elk Viewing area . Of course this was my brilliant idea and this time we did not take a map with us. I assumed that Hwy 38 would circle around and come back into Florence. Mistake one. Never assume you don't need a map of the area!

While traveling up the Highway along the Umpqua river we went by a Roosevelt Elk viewing area called Dean Creek. This is located between Reedsport and Scottsdale. Stopping at the viewing area we did see some Elk and they were impressive. Lots of large Bulls, some with nice size racks. We were able to get within photo distance of the herd and did get some pictures, but not as close as I would have liked.


Now since we were at the Viewing area I thought I would ask one of the locals that were traveling through about Hwy 38 tying back into 101. I was informed it did indeed tie back in to 101. The big kicker is he did not tell me I had to go clear into Eugene Oregon first, which was quite a jont. You may say just a little out of our way. Like about another 80 additional miles or so out of our way.



































Elks Creek, between Elkton & Drain. Elks Creek joins the Umpqua River at Elkton


One thing at least I did get the chance to see Eugene, which is a pretty big city, not really centered like most city's it's scattered all around the hills and valley.

I have to admit it to Helen, but she did tell me I was heading the wrong way and that we were headed toward the East and Hwy 5, not the coast, and she was right. Being a retired Forest Service employee we never get our directions mixed up, at least this is what I thought.

One thing I thought was quit unusual is the cost of gasoline in the different parts of Oregon. You would think gasoline in Eugene would be far cheaper than in Coos Bay and the gasoline in Florence being a smaller town along Hwy 101 would be more expensive. Wrong again. I have not figured out how they come up with their gas prices from area to area.

Now Florance s a little bit biger then Coquille. Why the big difference?

Here is the break down on Gas prices and population census:

1, Coos Bay $3.59 per gallon, Population 16,200

2, Grants Pass $3.49 per gallon. Population 30,930

3, Coquille $3.63 per gallon. Population 4184

4. Eugene $3.50 per gallon. Population 153,690

5. Florence $3.22 per gallon. Population 7318

TRIP ALONG SEVEN DEVILS ROAD

OCTOBER 5, 2008




Along Seven Devils road







Overcast day, but a great day for a trip back down to Bandon via Seven Devils Road. Not sure where they came up with the name Seven Devils .














One thing about the areas along the Pacific from Bandon to Whisky Row is its prime beaches, which are somewhat isolated and have great potential for finding agates. Here you can walk on the beach for miles with very few access roads coming down to the beach.

We never had the chance today to look for any of the Agates, but on our last trip to Bandon in February we observed some people sifting through the sand picking up agates. We originally thought of looking at Bandon for some, but since it was a little cool and the surf was still rough from the previous storm we decided against it. Temperature was in the mid fifty's.

There will be other days that we can pursue looking for these gems, but not today.












We stopped at Whisky Row Beach to see if there was anything that would be of interest to us. We were not aware of agates in that area so we never pursed looking for them. Real nice beach and well maintained. Would be a great place for a picnic in the summer.











Whisky Row Beach












Whisky Row Beach

THE MIGHTY PACIFIC OCEAN

OCTOBER 4, 2008

Last night Mother Nature did her thing with heavy rain and wind. Some of the gusts got up to 58 miles per hour, which shook the motor home around a little. I almost got up and closed the westerly slide out portion of our motor home to help reduce the wind drag from moving it around. As it stands if you have all the slide outs out, especially the dining room and the couch room, it acts like a big airplane wing.

One thing about all this rain is it cleaned the motor home up real well.
Talking to several other RV people I found out a lot of them wait until a good hard rain and then get out and scrub the home down. Leaves a real clean wash without wasting any water . The other advantage is the rain is free of minerals, which stains your home when you wash it with a garden hose.

Since it was predicted for rain off and on all day we decided to do some more sight seeing. The weather forecast had predicted extreme high surf conditions with waves reaching 12 to 15 feet in size. Since we're only about 3 miles from Coos Bay Jetty this would be a great place to observe the ocean. Their was indeed a lot of vehicles in the parking lot and most people were taking pictures of the waves coming in.

Looking out on the Coos Bay Bar from the Jetty

In side the Jetty near Charleston







Inside the Jetty during 12 foot swells


I could see this would not be a good day for boats or ship to pass the bar since the ocean is in a turmoil with rough seas.

Kind of funny how something like the ocean can be so intriguing and yet so restful.
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Simpson Reef


This picture doesn't really give justice to the size of the waves as we're looking about 1/2 mile out. The rocks are covered with hundreds of seals, which of course are too far away to make out in this picture.

WILL THE REAL HALIBUT PLEASE STAND UP?

OCTOBER 3, 2008


I have this burning question on Halibut fishing in Oregon. Reading, the regulations they talk about refer to the Pacific Halibut and then in another page they talk about Halibut with a limit of 25 fish. On the special Pacific Halibut they talk about special regulations for possession, which is set by the Fish and Wildlife. This is a harvest cap.

Being confused I decided to take my question to the Oregon Fish and Wildlife office to have them explain the difference. OK here it is . Evidently there is more than one Halibut species. The halibut they're referring to with a 25 fish limit are the California Halibut not the Pacific Halibut. OK here is the big difference, which was explained to me. The Pacific Halibut is a right eyed fish and the California Halibut is a left eyed fish. Simple right, not quite there is some exception to this rule as sometimes a Pacific Halibut is a left eyed fish.

The California Halibut or California Flounder, Paralichthys californicus, is a large-tooth flounder that ranges from Washington to Baha California waters. It feeds near shore and is free swimming. It typically weighs 6 to 50 pounds (3 to 23 kg). It is much smaller than the larger and more northern-ranging Pacific halibut that can reach 300 pounds.
A top level predator that hunts by stealth, it is prized by fishermen as great table fare.
Sport fishers typically use light fishing gear and live baits for this halibut. Baits include anchovies, sardine, squid, mackerel, and queenfish (brownbait). Some anglers use plastic lures and scampitype "lead heads" to fool a halibut into striking.
Mostly fishing from boats in the coastal regions, anglers catch good quantities of halibut in 10 to 80 feet of water. Sometimes the fish are caught from shore or by kayak fishermen in very shallow water. Slow trolling and drift fishing is the preferred method of bait presentation.
This is an unusual fish in that one eye has to migrate around from one side to the other as it grows from an upright fry or baby fish into an adult fish that lays on its side. The adult has two eyes on the up-side as it lays on the bottom. The fish hides under sand or loose gravel and blends into the bottom. See flatfish for more information on this.

The Pacific Halibut is the largest of all flat fish, with an average weight of about 25 - 30 lb (11 - 13½ kg), but they can grow to be as much as 400 lbs . The Halibut is blackish-grey on the top side and off-white on the underbelly side. When the Halibut is born the eyes are on both sides of its head so it has to swim like a salmon. After about 6 months one eye will migrate to the other side of its head, making it look more like the flounder. This happens at the same time that the stationary eyed side begins to develop a blackish-grey pigment while the other side remains white.

The California Halibut in Coos Bay can reach 30 lbs in size and are caught in the muddy, sandy areas.

Now you know the difference.

They predicted rain for today and it finally arrived. Since it would not be a good day to crab or fish we figured why not make a good day of it anyway, and check out some more of the real estate along the North Bay near a couple of small communities known as Glasgow and Cooston. These areas are along the East Bay Road . We did see some pretty nice homes along the road overlooking the Bay.

We stopped by to check on one home that kind of met our fancy. Of course this was a short visit after we saw the price of the home, $450,000. A little over our price range. It was really nice, which encompasses almost 1 1/2 acre. It does overlook the bay, very scenic. The hillsides along the bay look like they could be unstable. The problem I see with the areas along the hillside is the amount of sloughs we observed. Not really to enthused with the area.

Funny even though it was raining pretty good you still see everyone out doing their own things, even the kids were out playing in the rain. In our area its in the house and wait it out.

LUNCH ANYONE ?

OCTOBER 2, 2008

We pretty much figured this would be another relaxing day. Helen's cousin and her husband came down from Coquille for a Birthday lunch. We we celebrating Helen's birthday as well as Ed's birthday, although Helen's birthday was on the 28th we figured we could celebrate both birthdays on the same day. Helen was very fortunate on her birthday as I took her out and she was able to help pull up crab pots. Not many people I know has this type of birthday, now do they.

We ate at a small restaurant in Charleston called the Sea Basket Café. Not bad food and they do have a variety of different meals, but like all restaurants in Charleston they specialize in fish dinners. For me it was the old standby fish & chips and Helen had the pop corn shrimp.

Since it was early in the afternoon we figured on a short site seeing trip to Cape Arago to see the seals. Weather was cloudy and some what of a light mist. Still a nice day for site seeing.

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MORE INFORAMATION ON CRABBING

OCTOBER 1, 2008



We took our RV into an RV dealer today to have the backup monitor replaced. We had this ordered over two weeks ago and although I gave them all the information on what it needed, they did'nt order one part needed. So guess what, it was not repaired. I love it when I can say," I told you so," but that doesn't help me get it fixed now does it. You would think a reputable dealer would have checked on what was needed before ordering the back up monitor. Here again, not to brag, but I gave them all the infromation they needed to do it right based on the manufacures directions. I even gave them a letter from Gulf Stream that told them what monitor to order. Oh well, now we have to wait until the 14th to take it back in with hopes they get the right parts.



The RV dealer stated the part would be in on the 6th or 7th, but rather than moving our RV once again, I thought it would be better to wait until the day we were leaving to bring it back in. It's such a pain to move the RV too many times as we have to put everything away to move it.



I talked to another genetleman a couple of spaces down from us today He gave me some more information on crabbing and told me to boil the crabs for 17 minutes. Don't start the counting until the crabs reach the boiling stage again, and then time them. He also sugested using ocean salt water and Zatarain, which is a spice for boiling your crabs. He gave me a couple of cooked crabs he just caught and cooked using this method. They were really good. He also gave me information on where I could dig a lot of Martha Washington Clams, but for now I have to keep them secret. Sorry.

FINDING A GOOD DOCTOR

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008



Not much happening again today, pretty un-eventful. I had an appointment with a new skin doctor in Coos Bay today. One of my intents is to get everything lined up, so when we are able to move up to Oregon we'll have good medical doctors already established. Since good doctors are hard to get into and with my age and medical problems, it is highly recommend to do it now. Many specialists here are booked up, and when you are not already an established
patient it can take several months to get an appointment.



We're still waiting too sell our home in Janesville, but since the housing market is so bad we don't have much hope of selling this year. Our plans are still up in the air to rent a covered storage area for our RV for a few months, or bring the RV back home.

TWO FOR THE ROAD WITH 50 FEET TO SPARE

SEPTEMBER 29, 2008

We pretty much stayed around the RV Park today, since yestereday was kind of a fun filled day I needed the rest. Actullly I need to get my stuff together so I don't really scew up again.

One thing I decided was to add another bouy to my pots since this was recomended by other crabers. It makes it easer to fetch you pots when you pull them, as well as make them easier to see. I added another 50 feet of rope to each crab pot also, but now that I think about it, and talking to others it's not such a a good idea. By having to much rope there is more of a chance that other boaters could run over the slack rope, which could cut the traps loose or screw up the other boats prop. So now back to the 50 feet that I orginally had with and extra float. Most of the crabes are really caught in 35 to 40 feet of water anyway.

DAVEY JONES STILL ON THE PROWL

SEPTEMBER 28,2008



Helen and I decided to take out the boat solo to do some crabbing. It's warm today with just a slight breeze. We decided to go over to the area that our neighbor told us about. I think its near Buoy 1, over toward Hungeryman Cove.

Now for the typical McGrath blunder. While heading out I noticed the boat did not have much power. I was getting a little worried that maybe this is not the day to go out if the motor is acting up. No mater what I tried the boat would not pick up any speed. Then thanks to Captain Helen she brought it too my attention that I forgot to lift the wheels on the boat. See picture below.

These wheels are for transporting the boat over sandy areas so you don’t need a trailer. Works great as long as you lift the wheel up when you’re in the water. Hey, what can I say, so I forgot to lift the wheels. Well just a trial to see if my wife was alert. Right?


We dropped our pots in around 35 feet of water. Worked out good on our first retrieve. We had one legal crab in the pot, which was only in the water for about 15 minutes. The other pot had several crabs, which were all Red Rock crab. They were pretty good size, but we let them go because our sights were on Dungeness crabs. We moved the pot about 200 feet further out in the bay. This was very productive as we caught 3 in this set and all were of legal size, one nice one. When we checked the other pot near the buoy we got 2 more crabs and then retrieved the first trap for 1 more.

I just knew it was a limit of 15 Dungeness crabs for each of us.

And now for my first mistake, which a lesson well learned. If your crabbing and the tide changes too an out going tide, which is extremely swift you better not crab anymore or else their goes your trap. Yep you guessed, it went under. I should have known better since we dropped the buoy over the side it was not floating. Just a little of the top of the float was sticking up.

This is when Helen and I realized the mistake and decided to pull the pots out. Well ,we were OK with one of them and since it had a lot of rope the float was on top. We got that one, but by the time we got back to the first one we set, it was gone. We must have cruised up and down the area for over an hour with no luck. We decided the only way we were going to get the trap back was go back out in the bay during low tide, which was around 5:30 that evening. One of the other crabbers in the area lost one of his pots also. Not a good idea to tempt Davey Jones.

We docked our boat over by the Betty Kay charter boat since it was not worth taking the boat out of the water and later re-launching it.

Our neighbor offered to go out and help me retrieve the pot which was great. He showed me some real good spots to fish for sea bass along the jetty, as well as an excellent crabbing area while we waited for the tide to go out.

We cruised back and forth for over an hour and a half looking for the trap, but the current was still pretty swift. We did spot another buoy while we were cruising that was under about 3 foot of water. This was the one the other crabber lost and he was fortunate that we were able to fetch it for him. Another 30 minutes went by and low and behold we spotted another buoy starting to float. I was thinking it could not be mine, since it was a long way from where I set the trap too begin with. Well low and behold it was ours. We pulled it up and it was covered in sea weed, which I am sure was the big culprit along with the swift tide combination that pulled the buoy under and moved the trap. The real trick I think is to crab during slack tide if possible and maybe just a little before it becomes slack. As long as the current is not strong then no biggie.

Real funny, but while we were crabbing out in the bay we did not catch any female crabs. Now when we were crabbing from the dock it seemed like most of any legal size crabs were female and you have to toss those back.

Well at least we had a great crab dinner today.