Pacific City – Gorgeous Hiking Day!

Have you ever looked back on a fully thrilling day – and wondered if you had started the day knowing where it would lead – that in the beginning – you’d have been more stressed and worn out or worried about the timing of it all?

We started out our Monday Morning enjoying some seatwork time with Nathan – an online writing class he is taking – plans of cleaning the house and sorting out the classroom with a movie in the afternoon. When -

A friend called to say that they had their horses on the beach in Pacific City – about 15 –20 minutes north on hwy 101 – would our boys like to play with their boys while the teen girls and mom rode? Well, we quickly finished the online lesson – grabbed a bag of pretzels and some sand fun toys and our Oregon Parka’s (hoody sweatshirts) and zipped north.

Oh the joy of meeting with friends – picking up as if we had spoken every day – instead of the absence of presence for the past 6 months.  Encouragement and Joy and Sisterhood.  Rest and Peace. :)

The picnic was assembled, and the horses were tended, the boys ran off and were then found – and we all loaded up to go our different ways on the beach, 3 horses and riders to the south, 5 kids and a mom to the north.

Feeding the Baby Bunnies is my favorite way to start our time in Pacific City -

Then we ventured across the street to let the boys play on the sand dune hill by Cape Kawanda.

I thought I’d be content to sit with the other families at the bottom – but the vertical challenge pulled me up.

  
I’m not so sure that overweight almost 40 yr old moms should try to keep up with young teens and pre-teens . . . . But it was FUN!
 
The view was amazing. This is from the middle of the hill.

The views below are just below the tree line. I didn’t go up to the trees, I have my limits of climbing – but I loved the view from the “almost” top!
Nate spots the cave and asks if we can immediately go down there.  We did – but it was filled with water. No floats.

We watched three Dory Boats come in to the beach. So exciting to see them come so quickly onto the sand. This red Dory was a real beauty!

       

This is the last uphill climb before getting to the “edge”. 

      From this view, it looks like they are on the edge, but it goes back about 30-40 feet flat til the drop off into the Pacific Ocean. I heard 3-4 worried remarks from families standing behind me about Those Little Boys who were going to “fall off”.  This ledge is not so tall, and flat spots around that you couldn’t see from this angle.

                The view North towards Cape Mears and Netarts is Breathtaking!
The older boys on the “edge”.
 

This was my most nervous moment of the day. Yikes. My heart rate is increasing just looking at the photo! They are laughing because Nate’s friend realized they are about the same height. :)

  Panorama of the Town, the Surfers at Cape Kawanda ad the Horses meeting us –
They called on the cell phone and we waved from the cliff.

A little bon fire matches fun. The hill in the background was our “second” hike – we went to the farthest west point.

At the end of the day the beach quieted down – the footprints on the hill were beautiful, the fog lifted for a gorgeous evening sky, and the boy fell asleep with his head on a branch.  :)

     

If you recognize the faces of our visiting family and
would like the link to the entire album of about 70 photos,
send a comment/email or FB Msg and I’ll send you the link.

Please respect their privacy and not comment with their names. :)

Spring Tide Schooling

A Photo Journal of our Spring Tide Pool Walk -

 

Jon took this one of a Red Winged Blackbird on the southern end of Devils Lake on the way to the tide pools.

 

 

We like to go to the rocks on NW 15th Street – always a good area!  This little Crab was the first find by JonnyLego

 

 

 

This little clear crab is so tiny. He sparked a come home learning study on the life cycle of shore crabs.

 

 

This was a HUGE purple sea star – we like to sing songs of pineapples under the sea when walking by them.

 

 

 

 

 

The glare of the sun on the water mutes these colors – but this is REALLY dark pink.

 

Right next to the pink plant is a Neon Bright Red and Blue creature clinging to the rocks

 

    

William Hanshumaker,  Public Marine Education Specialist, Extension Sea Grant Faculty, Hatfield Marine Science Center – helped me to identify the bright neon creature as a sea slug.  Come On Scientists.  Slug?  Really?  For this gorgeously colored creature? I did a look up on sea slugs and they are just about the most beautiful things – almost kin to the butterfly in crazy color!

“The first three images are if a nudibranch, or sea slug, called a
Hermissenda (crassicornis). They feed on hydroids and anemones, and are usedin neurobiology research.”

These are a bright neon green/blue /teal color.  Amazingly huge Sea Anemones. Jon said the one on the right was so fat that he had to rest on the sand.

The boys just love the mole crabs. We say hundreds of them dead on the beach this week during our walks.  They are FAST diggers!

 

Below is a a REALLY tiny little Isopod – From Mr. Hanshumaker - “The image is of a isopod, which is a kind of crustacean. They are
primarily scavengers.” We saw these on the rocks by the Salmon River in the fall and they are about the size of your hand. This little fella is no wider than your pinky nail.  Hard shell that balls up like a potato bug.  Yuck. Creepy.

The rock formations are like a crazy maze. The boys were playing hide and go seek. :)

Favorite Agates and Shells found on our trip in May 2010 to the Tide Pools -

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Red Winged Black Bird waiting for us in the marsh so Jon could take  another drive by photo. :)

Brown Pelican

Brown Pelican – (Pelecanus occidentials)

This family of Brown Pelicans came up around the cape an over from south to north – further up than 72nd street, and then on to the area of the mouth of the Salmon River.  They were flying higher than the tree line, which is pretty incredible as the trees are on high cliffs.

The lighting was bad, the camera was foggy, and the lens was dirty.

Oyster Catcher

Oyster Catchers – (Haematopus bachmani) are fun birds to watch on the cliffs.  They are Jon’s favorite shore bird. We love to spot the long dark red bill and red eye liner.   These little guys feed on limpets, which we called china hats as kids. They pry them of of the dark rocks.  With their dark black bodies, they are hard to photograph. This morning we came around a cliff and one was sitting right there in front of us just staring – not moving – even long enough to get a photograph.  She flew off to the rocks further out in the surf when her mate called her over. Their call is a beautiful whistling sound.  There is a clip of their calls here. The chirp Chirp at first is one bird, then the whistling song at the end was what called the bird over to the rock.  Really amazing!