Day 3
Day three dawned cloudy and cool (gee Oregon coast in the summer, who’d a thought) but thankfully dry. Everyone had wiped down their cars the afternoon before so we were all shiny and ready to go.
As I mentioned my still camera caught a cold the day before but I didn’t know it until we got underway. Only a couple of shots coming up the coast until it quit.
By way of narrative we came back up the coast as far a Waldport where we shunted off onto Hwy 34 which is a fun little road that follows a river into the Corvalis area. Some kind of neat little twisty patches in between curves in the hills and sweepers in the small valleys and much less traffic than if we’d gone up to Lincoln City and back in on Hwy 18 and 22 as originally planned.
Here’s the video from Florence to Waldport along the coast.
NW Coastal Cruise 2012 Day 3a - YouTube
And from Waldport to Corvallis via 34
NW Coastal Cruise 2012 Day 3b - YouTube
Once we picked up I5 north towards I205 and around Portland it was back to pretty much clear and warm. Off came the jackets and Skip dropped his top. Took less time to take off than to put on.
As we got nearer to Portland I kind of figured that I205 could be a little busy and confused since I5 through Portland was closed for construction. I pulled us off at Wilsonville and cut around the I5 I205 interchange. It avoided about 15 miles of possibly congested freeway and gave everyone a last chance to really turn the steering wheel before they made the long stretch up to Tacoma/Seattle. We had a nice lunch at a local restaurant and I got the mob out another back road to avoid one of the local I205 choke points where it climbs a hill.
Waved so long to the group and headed for the barn.
All in all another really great trip with a great bunch of folks. Don’t know about anyone else but I enjoyed myself immensely and wouldn’t complain if Skip put this together again next year. Hope everyone made it home without incident or problems.
Many thanks to Skip and the rest of the NWCC folks for a most enjoyable trip.
DonC