November 16

We have enjoyed three stellar days in a row.  We were able to get out on a couple of hikes in addition to long twice daily walks on the beach.

On Tuesday we took the Rogue River Walk trail.  a nice meandering trail from a parking area about five miles east of Gold Beach on the Jerry's Flat Road.  We had driven this road a couple of times but were surprised to find a mossy fairy land in the short distance between the road and River.  This was a good leg stretch and the trail was well maintained.  It gave us our first close up of the gravel bars that alternate along the Rogue River. We found more mushrooms!  We have been cooking up the chanterelles and the king bolete mushrooms.

At one point the trail took us back up on to the road and we came across a buck meandering down the road.  We quietly scrambled to get our cameras out and while we did this he walked right up to us - to the point we were a little nervous!  He went on his way and we got some photos.

On Wednesday we joined the Gold Beach library and checked out books on Mushrooms and panning for gold - getting into the spirit of things around here.  It is an amazing library for a small town - brand new with a huge selection of e-books too!  I think this will be a big help as we have rain in the forecast for the next six days.

Yesterday we drove a half hour north on 101 to Humbug Mountain.  There is a really nice State campground there and large parking area at the trail head.  It is a three mile hike up to the 1700' summit.  The trail guide described this hike as strenuous.  It turned out to be a lovely hike on a smooth, well maintained path.  We stopped at the summit for a while to enjoy the fresh air before heading down the east side of the mountain.