Day 4 - Mossy Ferny Rocky Fungi

Up earlier this morning, but then a slow time getting caught up on the computer and watching the waves. Dave was determined to have some morning deck time as it was a gorgeous sunny morning, but even though he wrapped up in a blanket it was just too chilly to sit out there and read. I went through the second half of Clarity, still with no sound – it is a fascinating way to do the routine. I’m excited to begin learning it for real. I am curious about the 3^rd song, Nostalgia Worship – the choreography I remember is not what’s on the video.

Eventually we made a plan to go into town and eat lunch, then do some geocaching. Lunch in town remains challenging since most of our favorite places have closed. We ended up trying Tom’s, which has the advantage of speed – you order and pay at the counter, and then can leave right away when you’re done. Dave had the fish tacos, I had the clam strips and fries. They were both ok but I don’t think it’s going to go on the regular rotation.

Next stop: Clatsop Loop Trail in Ecola State Park, with lots of fun geocaches along the way. Here’s what about that, though: on all the websites we found before we went on the hike, it was described as an easy, family friendly hike of around 2 miles. Liar, liar, legs on fire! While it is a wide, easy path, it’s more like 3 miles, and it’s a 700 foot elevation change – if you go on the loop in the direction we did, it’s a straight climb up with only one switchback – neither easy nor family friendly. And that’s another thing – we think the loop would have been better travelled the other way, which has switchbacks so the climb isn’t so steep, but the sign sends you the steep way. And last but not least, there are numbered signposts all along the trail with the classic Lewis & Clark picture on them – and absolutely no guides to tell you what they mean. Prize offered to the first person who finds one. There’s a short side trail to a view of the Tillamook Head Lighthouse, but I chickened out about halfway down – too much up and down. Dave said it was a good view.

The geocaches were really, really fun. They had names like “stoney” (a stone), mossy (the geocache had greenery glued to the top) and so on. My favorite was fungi, a rather artificial looking blob stuck to a tree with Velcro. We misread the list and missed a few, so a return trip is in order. This time I will be mentally prepared for the climb and will get the waypoints into the GPS before we leave, avoiding (we hope) some crabbiness on my part. Also with any luck there will not be an obnoxious young man yelling at the top of his lungs for the last part of the trip. Faithful readers will recall that I’ve had some knee troubles on hikes in the past, and I am happy to say that the exercises I’ve been doing to fix that seem to have worked, although my tibialis anterior on both legs are crazy sore.  I’m in good shape, but more for dancing than walking.

We got back to the house and Dave took a short nap while I messed with the GPS. Then it was time to head off to the Stephanie Inn. The big change there is that they’ve added “regionally sourced ingredients” to the top of their menu (possible to compete with Blackbird, whose full name is “Blackbird Locally Sourced Ingredients”, I kid you not) and made it seasonal, rather than changing weekly. They continue to have the weird “prix fixe” menu where you choose 3 things from the menu (appetizer, entrée, dessert) and the chef throws in an amuse bouche and a palette cleansing sorbet course and charges $16 more than the combination of the most expensive three things on the menu. Dave had that, and the amuse bouche and palette cleanser (passion fruit sorbet) were my two favorite things we ate until my bowl of 3 scoops of frozen deliciousness (salted caramel icecream, pinot noir-blackberry sorbet and bittersweet chocolate sorbet) came. I could easily have nommed down another bowl or two.

Back to the house for a super-rare occurrence – a sunset that you could watch all the way down to the horizon. Dave claims he saw a green flash; I do believe they exist, but I didn’t see one tonight. Then a long, long twilight with the sky turning the most beautiful colors of blue. You don’t get the cool color show you get when there are clouds, but sitting here typing up this blog and watching the blue get deeper and deeper makes me very happy.

We have lots of guests coming tomorrow which will be fun. But now I have to get the rest of the geocache coordinates into the GPS.

For next year: How to use the GPS: Use MARK to get a position, then edit it to be the one you want to go to. Then use FIND to track to it. After you click on FIND, move the cursor to OK and press ENTER to get to the list, then scroll to the place you want. Use the PAGE button to toggle all the views. It’s cool if you reset the data before the hike to get distance & altitude.