As we have traveled around, you start to get a glimpse into the various nomadic tribes rambling around the country. They really range in type, reason and activities. One class of nomads are the people who go from part time job to part time job living in their RVs. When we stayed at a campground on the way to Montana one time, we encountered a few people in this class. They camped in the RV park next to truck stop that they worked at.
Another set of people are the retired. They tend be more affluent and have fancier rigs. They tend to congregate and are often in smashed together in RV parks. I think it is the social aspect of these spaces that they like.
Next we have the student/young people/screw the man types. They tend to be in tents and are out seeking adventure between schools (e.g., undergrad and grad), jobs, or just a general disgust for the US system. They are the ones when it’s raining Milford Sound Sheets of Rain that I feel sorry for…having been there myself.
In Coos Bay, we encountered a different set of nomads. These were the folks that were totally committed to fishing, especially ocean fishing. At the Bastendorff county campground, it was clear that this was a place for the nomad fisherman to congregate. An area in the campground had a group of RVs, most with boats, that clearly knew each other well.
At this point, I am not quite sure which tribe of nomads we belong to. We have attributes of the retired group and the young screw-the-man types, but we don’t neatly fit into either.
The 15th of November was the last day of crab season and on the morning of the 16th, there was a big parade of RVs leaving the camp. Fishing season was over and the nomads were moving on. Not sure where they went to next, but probably Washington or Canada where the fishing season was still ongoing.
The first two days in Coos Bay the weather was quite nice and we headed out to the state parks near by to do some sightseeing and hiking. Bastendorff beach was very nice and popular with the locals. Unlike California, most of the beaches in Oregon allow you to have your dogs off leash. This made Sadie happy and she ran around letting everyone know that she was queen of the world.
Cape Arago was at the end of the road and was stunningly beautiful. It is amazing just how rugged the coastline in Oregon really is. Just a little ways down was Simpson Reef, which was a series of rocks with a million sea lions just hanging out there. It was extremely loud from the constant party going on down there.
The hike along the bluff was pretty nice with quite a few views of the coastline. Generally, it was a pleasant hike, but I will say, the hiking opportunities in Coos Bay are pretty limited. The big attractions here are ATVing around the sand dunes and fishing. The biking is very limited as well as the hiking.
I will say that on the whole the Bastendorff county park campground was pretty nice and definitely nicer than the Sunset Beach campground in the state park. That one was completely wall-to-wall and wasn’t that attractive. At least our site was pretty isolated and we weren’t right on top of other people. The biggest bummer was that they had these street lights in the campground that were ridiculously bright. 50,000 lumens of eye-scorching LED lights pounding down on you all night long. “Why would you do this?” I asked myself to no avail. We had to pull out some card board and put them on the windows that were facing the street light. Sheesh.
We had been watching the weather forecast and all I can say is that it did not look good. Big cold front with lots and lots of rain heading our way. Bummer. That night we talked about it and decided that we would pack up early and head down toward Shelter Cove so that we could do the big transit day when the weather was crappy. We scoped out a couple of possibilities and decided the Van Duzen County Park just outside of Fortuna would work nicely for us. It would get us within an hour and a half from Shelter Cove. Plus, Monday was looking like the one nice day in Shelter Cove, so we thought we’d better get there while the gettin’ was good.
We did a cheers to that and went to bed happy with our plan.
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