Day 12 Thursday June 27 Mission Accomplished (well sort of)

 

It had rained quite a big last night and was still drizzling off and on.  Took Buck for a walk, which I thought would just be around the campground, but he noticed a trail and decided to take it.  Boy, am I glad he did.  It climbed up Little Beacon Rock.  It was a covered trail at first, but then opened up. Soon we were in a beautiful grove of trees, everything covered in moss.  Along a part of the trail was a bunch of white forget-me-nots.  Ferns were every where.  As we got to the top of the trail it had some narrow switch backs.  The view was nice, but with the low cloud cover you could barely see the river. 

White Forget-me-not

Little Beacon Rock

We continued to head west and were in no time at all reached Portland Oregon.  Really didn’t care for the town, too much traffic and too many interstate roads.  Of course, this could be because I have been spending so much time in wide open spaces and I didn’t appreciate all the company.

Still heading west, we came to the beautiful town of Astoria.  It is built on a hill overlooking the river.  We saw a sign I have not seen before   “Tsunami Evacuation”. 

24/7 Pie Vending Machine - Lady said she fills it every morning

We visited Fort Clatsop.  This is where the Corps of Discovery spent the winter once they reached the Pacific. So, you could say that I had reached my destination, although we still haven’t seen the Pacific Ocean (that will be tomorrow).  We did watch a demonstration on loading a musket and the young gentleman told the story of Lewis’ encounter with a grizzly bear.  Lucky for Lewis the bear ran away and he lived to tell the tale.

Seaman made it to Ft Clatsop

I made it too!

Driving here we noticed these beautiful large pink/magenta flowers.  There was never a good place to stop and take a look, but we were finally able to investigate.  They were native foxglove.  I don’t think I have ever seen so many different colors and some of them were 5-6’ tall.  They were growing everywhere.  I also notice that people have lots of big beautiful roses.  This climate must we good for them.

We decided to spend the night at Fort Stevens and will be out exploring more tomorrow.