Our third day started with a little backtracking to see a couple of viewpoints we’d skipped the day before. Too often, the trail down to the beach was too steep or too rocky for us old folks to manage. As Jeff said, “I’m not a billy goat.” We stopped briefly at the wreck of the Mary D. Hume, a steamer built in Gold Beach in 1881 that sank in the Rogue River after its retirement in 1977.
From there we drove about 40 minutes inland to a recommended Myrtle Tree Trail. Clearly, my planning could have been better, and if I had known what we would find, I wouldn’t have mentioned it. The roads were so curvy, I soon felt car sick, and by the time we finally turned off onto the honestly one-way gravel road with a logging truck coming down every 15 minutes, I was ready to get out of the car. Alas, I didn’t know we’d have to climb a mountain to get to these elusive trees. Nor did I know I would be swarmed by primordial monster mosquitoes. Jeff made it to a higher elevation than I did, and called down that there was no end in sight, so I said forget it. I led the way back down and nearly stepped on a small striped snake slithering across the path. At that point, I was more concerned about the skeeters carrying me away, so I just yelled back for Jeff to give the snake a wide berth and hurried back to the car.
That failed detour behind us, we continued on to eat a picnic lunch on a bench at Battle Rock Wayside Park. The wind picked up here, and even my hot-natured self needed to put on a flannel shirt for warmth. Battle Rock is only accessible when the tide is low enough, so after lunch, Jeff climbed up to see what he could see. Apparently, he does have a little billy goat in him.
After that, the wind started bringing in a dense fog, so we saw only a few more things before we needed to call it a day. By the time we got to Cape Blanco Lighthouse, the 66° the car said it was felt more like 40° with the wind blowing so hard, I could barely open the car door. The raging ocean and racing fog made me realize just how important a lighthouse could be to a sailor.
Next was Face Rock, which reminded us of a young woman rising up from the ocean after her baptism. Though my zoom lens could only barely make out the puffins and sea birds on the nearby rock formations, we certainly could hear them.
Since it was clear we would be unable to enjoy any further vistas, we decided to go on to our room at the Itty Bitty Inn. What a perfect time to get foggy weather, as this hotel was so enjoyable. The owner was one of my nerdy kindred, showing us every show accurate prop that he had accumulated to put in this room. When he stopped talking about the history of the room and the famous people who had stayed there (TNG’s Marina Sirtis was one), he left, and we decided to go to Luigi’s Sandwich shop. It was a little hole-in-the-wall place that looked like it might be sketchy, but it had some amazing sandwiches. I had the best French dip I have ever had and can’t stop thinking about it. The rest of the night, Jeff and I had a lot of fun watching Star Trek movies and episodes from the bridge of the Enterprise, and I am so glad he found this place. I definitely want to come again.
