Coastal Campin'

We did our inaugural camping trip with the new tent trailer: a QuickSilver 10.0 by Living Lite.

We went out with the Mavros to the Jessie Honeyman State park near Florence, Oregon. We had a blast...sometimes literally with all the sand blowing around!


We arrived on Wednesday, July 4th. Pretty much by the time we had set up, eaten and lit a fire it was time for bed. I did sneak in a short 4 mile run to stretch out the legs and do some exploring.

The tent trailer is great. Sets up quickly, is large inside and has running water and electricity. Good thing as we have many, many camping trips planned for the year!

We stayed on the C-loop of the campground and I highly recommend this loop for people with kids. C 134 was a large campsite close to the restrooms but off the main path so the roads are way less busy. There was some road noise from Highway 101 that can be annoying in the early morning.
Some parts of B-loop looked pretty good as well.


On Thursday we started the day with hitting the Sea Lion Caves just north of Florence. This is a major tourist trap but it is good to do once every 10 years or so. The views of the coast are amazing and the sea lions did impress the kids. In the afternoon we hit the "beach". A dune comes down into Cleawox Lake on the southern side. It was windy and not terribly warm but we did some fun swimming and explorer of the water and dunes.




On Friday we attempted to go out to the actual Oregon coast. It is beautiful but there is a reason the Oregon coast does not have any population: cold and windy in July. We lasted about 20 minutes hunkered down in a makeshift windbreak. We packed up and headed inland back to Cleawox Lake. It was warm and toasty on the northern beach near the camp store and was great for swimming.


For the early afternoon activity we did a dune walk with the camp ranger and then headed out on our own for a real challenge: scale the highest dune in the area. Cole led the way to the top and then we all got really basted with the blowing sand. Again the views were simply amazing! The dunes extend for about 47 miles from Florence down to Coos Bay. Some sections really make you feel like you are out in the desert. Great fun and adventures with hair, mouth and shoes full of sand!



After some quick refueling at the campsite with some poptarts, we went out in a rented canoe on the Cleawox for about 1 hr of adventure and battling the wind. Leah and Cole were great at telling us which direction we were supposed to be going in :-)



Saturday was a full day at the beach on Cleawox Lake. The lake was less windy and at one point the girls even got to take off their jackets :-)
As well, I also accomplished my first sand sculpture of the year a sea turtle. These have pretty much become a Swanson family tradition whenever enough sand is available.

The other great news is that my ankle is really started to get back in the groove. I went out for runs each day with about half trail / half road. My leg still generally aches but the strength is quickly returning. I was still bummed to miss the Foot Traffic flat on the 4th...but Trisha did me proud running a strong race!