Chetco Bar Fire of 2017

At Alfred A. Loeb State Park

Last year we stayed at Loeb State Park from July 24th through July 30th.  Little did we know that a MONSTER was in the woods not too far away, a small little fire which started by lightning on July 12th.  By the 15th it had burned 45 acres…by the 20th it had burned 300 acres, and there was no word about it in the news because of its isolated area, it would eventually burn out.  By August 2nd, while we were in Gold Beach just 28 miles north of Brookings, the fire started to worry the folks in charge, it was now 2,900 acres with a heat wave coming on.  By August 7th we were at Huntley Park just 7 miles east of Gold Beach for a two week stay.  By the time we left on the morning of the 22nd, Alfred Loeb State Park was shut down due to the fire, and the fire was heading north towards Gold Beach and Huntley Park.  We were going to go back to Loeb after leaving Huntley, but instead we left Oregon to get away from the fire.  THANK GOODNESS the fire never reached Loeb, Brookings, Huntley or Gold Beach…but it did damage over 191,000 acres!  Just think, one pass over with by a plane with fire retardant would have ended it on July 13th….

Wanting to see some of the fire area, I drove up the North Bank Chetco River Road beyond Loeb State Park where we are staying.  About 3 miles up you come to the National Forest Area sign, a “Low Fire Danger” sign for today (that’s good), and then the first sign of fire…a yellow warning sign announcing that you are entering a burned area, must stay on roads and trails.

  

There are a number of National Forest River Access areas up here, the closest to Loeb is Miller Bar.  All of these have a camping fee of $10, $5 with senior pass, and for up to 14 days.  The only drawback…I had no phone and I am sure no Internet service at all.  Miller Bar only had two trailers today, and what looked like two or three tent campers.

   

Shortly after Miller Bar I could see a few signs of the fire.

 

At Nook Bar the fire had burnt the trees as you enter, and they obviously have a new sign up…but down by the river one could hardly tell there had been a fire.

And just a bit further along the road you can see some burned spots, and other nice pristine spots…it is a lovely river, that is for sure.

    

At Redwood Bar the devastation is much more intense.  A nearby National Forest Park Campground is shutdown, burned out with just a few picnic benches showing where camping spots once stood.  The funny thing…there were more people here, with a view of burned trees, than at the other two river spots.  Probably six trailers, a number of tents, and a number of day use folks.  Who would have imagined…

Other than a splash of color, much of the area looks like the brown area in this shot above.  Like this and worse from here to 20 miles to the north…it was a devastating fire.

We left Keller Park at 8:15, went to the Brookings Rest Area north of town to empty our tanks, and arrived at Loeb State park by 10 am.  We could have got into the site we had last year, #9…but chose site #10 next to it instead.  We are level, no use of levelers at all, and have electricity and water.  Paid for 5 nights, but plan to stay for 12 and will pay the difference on Tuesday.  Price is $24 this year, up $2 from last year.  As of 4:00, there were only one or two sites still available…we had our pick of around a dozen sites.  Getting here around 10 or 11 is recommended if you want a site as there are no reservations here.  People who think they are going to get into Harris Beach State Park north of Brookings without a reservation seem to end up at Loeb…Harris does take reservations, and the sign along the highway said they were full.  So here we sit, temps around 75 degrees with a slight wind – just suffering our butts off….life is good.

Not Longest Day, But One of Our Hardest Days

Florence Keller County Park, Crescent City, Ca

If you are a faithful reader, you probably know by now that Marcia and I are not early morning people.  Today we got up at 5:25 am, I had been awake somewhat since 4:45…but I did fall back asleep for a bit.  The alarm went off at 5:25, I told Marcia it was time to get up, and off we went from there.

The first 200 miles were easy peasy…a stop at the 49er Flying J to get coffee, a stop at a rest area to feed the dogs at 7:15, a stop at a rest area to empty our holding tanks, a stop at Pilot Flying J to get gas…we were moving right along. 

The next 200 miles were grueling…with speeds varying from as low as 30 mph to the 50 mph range.  Lots of twists, turns, and road construction spots.  Marcia felt it was the hardest day of travel we ever partook in….I think it rates within the top 10 trips, but not necessarily the worse.  However, it was a hard travel day, and when we arrived at Florence Keller County Park in Crescent City California, I was ready for a rest. Not only did we have construction along highway 299, which otherwise was fine except for the 3-4 miles of 8% downhill grade, highway 101 is still being reconstructed from damage that occurred 2-3 years ago.

    

I have not seen Whiskeytown Lake since 1971 when my brother Roger, cousin Bill and neighbor Harold along with his standard poodle and I hiked the Trinity Alps way back then.  The poor dog got its pad cut on the granite, and thank goodness the hike came to an abrupt end.  Unfortunately our pet dog which was back home had to be put down…she was around 10 years old, a cross between a Chihuahua and a Terrier, her name was snoopy, also known as snooper.  I did not have another dog until Skruffy…don’t know which dog I like more…probably equally, but Skruffy is still with me.  My thoughts were with my memories of her much of the day….

Don’t know who thinks that this is a nice place to have a picnic…but someone might think that.  Doubt it would be full on a holiday weekend, that’s for sure.

Our longest delay of the day was right near Skunk Picnic Grounds…at least it did not smell…except for that fresh asphalt they put down on the road…it is enough to make me puke!  The delay was for at least 20 minutes, and the pilot car guided us all safely through the 3-4 miles of construction.  Some a-butt-orifice passed me after we started going…guess they did not know what it means to “follow the pilot car”.  The “honk” and the “finger” we got was totally un-called for.  Wish one of the ten CHP that we saw today was near us…but they were not.

After reaching the 3,500 or so summit, we started to see the Trinity River along the roadway.  Saw a few rafters, but did not stop to get pictures…I knew it was going to be a long day, why make it any longer.

FINALLY we made to highway 101, and quickly saw the ocean.  About 20 miles out from the ocean we saw the temps drop from low 80’s to 68 degrees….WOW that feels good.  The overcast came and went all the way to Crescent City…where we have had fairly clear skies above the tall trees.

We found Keller Park last year in July.  It was 80% full on that visit, but a lovely park surrounded by Redwood Trees and White Pine Trees.  This time…it is only 20% filled.  The pull-through spot I wanted was empty, and we did not unhook the car.  The only drawback with this park is so full of trees that one cannot get the solar to work for very long…otherwise we would stay much longer than one night.

Tomorrow is a hop-skip-and-a-jump compared to today.  Last time we were at Loeb we found that getting there around 10 am gives you a good chance of getting a spot.  Since this park is not even busy, we hope we have no problem getting into Loeb tomorrow, where we plan to stay for 12 nights.  You get electric and water for $24 per night…which means we will need to dump our tanks once while there.  This time we have our car to hold our camping spot, so it should not be a problem…there is free dump station at the rest area just north of Brookings, and we can get gas at the Fred Meyer that we go by on the way to dump tanks. 

We both look forward to the kick-back atmosphere, the cool temps, and just being lazy for a few weeks.