I arrived in Bandon, OR the night before, and stayed at a motel. The trip to Bandon was uneventful, except for the fact that I was presented with a speeding ticket by Oregon's Finest (OSP). $109.00 down the drain.
In the morning, I got my Mother and my kids situated so they could view the Cranberry Festival (!), and then tried to eat breakfast at a restaurant. No luck, they were closed for the parade. I remembered another restaurant down the road, in the direction we needed to do, so I hiked down, and they were open. After a nice breakfast, I was ready to go. So, down to the beach. I put my gators on before hitting the sand.
Weather was Sunny, and a little windy. Fortunately, the wind was at my back. The sand was hard, so walking was easy. After getting a mile or so south of town, I encountered few people. After three miles, no souls were seen.
The beach in this area was strewn with pebbles. Some of these were some impressive agate, so I had to save a few. Many more agates here than at Agate Beach (near Newport)
There was one river crossing this day. It was where the New River (actually created after a storm in 1998) meets another river, and they spill into the ocean. The depth was about 4 inches, but I didn't want to take off my boots. So, I crossed threw a log in to cross. I then hiked along the east shore of the new river, until I was forced to cross again. I looked around for a suitable place, and crossed in an inch or two of water.
After hiking another mile of so along the west shore, it was time to stop for that day. It was around 3PM. I found a nice wind-shielded spot in the dunes, and set up camp.
We saw a couple of evil All Terrain Vehicles driving in the dunes off in the distance. This was in an area that ATVs were prohibited. If I had my way, the entire beach and dunes would be off limits to ATVs, all the time. Write your congressmen! Fortunately, the ATVs were soon gone.
I took a GPS reading, and it didn't seem to make sense to me. As it turns out, it was right, and I didn't go as far as I thought. Oh well.
I had only a litre of water left, so I filtered and boiled water from the New River. It had a "green" taste. I called it "Green Tea". No harm was done by drinking this water.
I made dinner of freeze dried lasagna and raspberry crumble. (For lunch, I had Gorp, Jerky, Pemmican, and crackers) The crumble was unbelievably good. The water from the river didn't make the food taste funny.
After dinner, I watched the sun set from the top of a dune. I then made a driftwood campfire. Too bad we didn't bring marshmallows! Looking up into the starts, I saw the most interesting thing: Sunlight glinting off of slowly spinning satellites. At first, I thought it was a meteor. And I saw it twice; A bright blue flash. I later found out these are called "Irridium Flares".
Off to bed shortly after 9PM...
Good places to eat in Bandon: