Report from the southern Oregon Dunes

[bajaherbie]

Any pictures? Of the dunes not the bridge!

Sent from my SM-A326U using Tapatalk

[Ol'fogasaurus]

No, not any new ones yet. This was a "maintence trip" along with one of the group, not a "have a good time" trip.

"... The grass had grizzed" (part of a silly children's poem) pretty tall, it had been mowed not that long ago and while there were a lot of Spruce Tree needles on the top of the building, it wasn't as bad as some times. The Spruce trees can range from 80' to 100' tall and drop cones usually every 2 years but I am not sure if this is one of the dropping years or the mass dump will come later. The needle dropping never really stops.

Did hear a lot of noise early in the week so some were out this weekend. Also so some rigs leaving the area as we came in. Went into town yesterday and surprising, some of the camping places you could see from HWY 101 were empty or maybe one or 2 rigs stopped there. This next weekend (I think I was told) that this is the start of the "go nuts' weekends. Its quiet out there right now.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

There is a misty rain and the clouds are so low that they almost look like fog out so the dunes are very quiet now.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Back at home now and a heck of a trip too. This was the first trip with the new hybrid car. Very impressed as to how it went in traffic and even more so on how much less fuel it went through in all 800+ (round trip) miles compared to what our other cars have done in the past.

Last night the weather was really bad, the wind alternated being high off the ground, so the tall tree's tops danced around very roughly, and rain was heavily off and on then swirling around coming from one direction then getting light (or not) then coming in from another direction.

I didn't hear much late-night riding out on the dunes for sure.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Cool at the dunes. Temp in the high 50s' the wind is moderate and there is moisture in the air.

The camping areas are loaded but not as noisy on the dunes as it usually is... at least so far (almost 8:30 AM).

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

The weather has been off and on this week. Sun some of the time with misty rain and heavy cloud action at other times.

I hear there was a "UTE Takeover" and they had some weird things. As I understand it some even did some jumping with their toys... blindfolded! Whoof!

One of our guys missed a step and took a hard fall and did some damage. Had the Dr.s look at it but his knee was so swollen that he has to wait until the swelling goes down before they can get a good X-ray of what, if any damage.

Other than that we enjoyed the sun until things clouded over this evening.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Heavy rain last night but too pooped to hear it come down.

Got to see people I hadn't seen for a while and got to talk to others I hadn't talked to before.

I guess the dunes were pretty crazy over the last weekend and this week. Had a hard time determining fireworks and gun fire so we stayed off the dunes pretty much . One of our guys got hurt (missed a step and fell) so he only got about 15 minutes on the dunes getting ready for the next day and... that was it for the trip. He should find out today if surgery is needed as the X-rays couldn't see anything as the swelling was so bad.

Anyway, I did get my turning brakes to work again (hopefully) but need to do some other fixes because of having to take the hood off the buggy.

Have to do work now, so later.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

We got to the dune today at 12:30 PM. When we got to the north end of Reedsport (by the stoplight by the bridge) north bound traffic was starting to back up. It was a solid line, nose to tail, to Winchester Bay which is more than several miles long.

The weather is nice, a lot of traffic along the coast but slowing down now.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

It rained during the night so mowing the lawn is going to have to be later on today . High overhead clouding as far a you can see so not sure what is going to happen today weather wise but it is quiet out there right now.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Very quiet on the dunes today. Mostly overcast with thick clouds and at least 3 sessions of misty with very tiny drop sprinkles... very weird weather for sure.

A lot of swallow birds flying around going after bugs (Mosquitos for example which currently are going crazy flying every where) and there were a lot of out too biting everybody around. Bring the right repellant if you come down for the next short time.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Another blah day on the dunes. Heard a couple of rigs out there but that was about it. Overcast, a bit of a light breeze and that is about it.

Based on what we saw coming here on Sunday, I suspect the weekend will start the fulling the dune area up.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Down at the dunes for a couple days as it is our turn to do some maintence.

The sun is out but so is the smoke from the CA and OR forest fires. You can see the smoke in the what should be clear blue sky and the "smell" of smoke is there fairly strong too.

The wind off the ocean is fairly light for now but I am sure will come up later today. One of the things we have to do kind of requires a light wind to off I go before the wind gets to be too much.

Lee

The sun finally got up high enough to see ... . We are going to wear masks due to the amount of smoke in the air. Not sure but I think the birds are wearing electronics to see the trees and brush as they race around to feed. Even the mosquitoes are "on the deck" due to vision problems .

There is also a healthy wind blowing which means that one of the light weigh "jobs" will probably have to be put off for later in the day or tomorrow.

The dunes are fairly quiet and the camping areas we can see from highway 101 are fairly open.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

From what I understand it got to 95 degrees in Coos Bay today. The smoke is heavy enough that a couple of blocks is about all you can see semi-clearly. The smoke is heavy and the sun makes a very weird (clear?) visual display and you can smell and taste it. It is recommended for people to stay inside with doors and windows closed.

Whoof!

Lee

The smoke is now putting a red line of smoke to the north of us and to the south of us indicating these area have more smoke. I think we are starting to get the start of an onshore flow tomorrow that should start to clear things out abit.

Whoof!

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Had some sun yesterday but now mostly overcast.

Most of the places to stay at are very close to empty if not empty but then... there is another weekend coming. I think this was the final pre-school trip.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Came down to the dunes for a work trip at Coos Bay/North Bend Oregon early yesterday, starting at 5:30 am. Dark out and add to that smoke from the forest fires here on the left coast as well as Fog coming from the Pacific Ocean that lasted most of the way here (Highway 101 runs pretty much close to the Pacific Ocean coast. Today it is sun with intermittent fog and cool winds with forest fire smoke mixed into the weather.

Today we hear some activity on the dunes but yesterday going into town most of the camping places highway 101 were empty or pretty much empty. The wind is also cool along with the rest of what is out.

Had an interesting event today: I started walking down the street to look at some work being done near by but stopped to look at something I didn't expect to see to my right then turning my head to continue to where I was headed I got to startled when I saw a young deer standing there maybe 10 or 15 feel away from me. It looked at me, I looked at her (I think it was a doe) for a couple of minutes before she slowly moved on down the road only to stop and look at me again then continued to roughly where I was heading to look at what I had started to look at. I ran into here again but she was down a ways in a pasture strolling across it.

You never know when you get a surprise or two do you.

Lee