Into California

I woke up early and wandered around the streets for Weed doing a bit of geocaching and waymarking before loading up the family and heading on south. I was able to grab Fore Edgewood and photos for a few waymark visits and postings. I wanted to make a stop in Dunsmuir. This is a town full of rail related history and I thought The Bean Himself would like to roam around a bit. Our first stop was a short hike to Hedge Creek Falls. While there we grabbed a geocache. Hedge Creek Falls is a lovely little fall with a trail under and beneath the cascade. The trail goes on out to an overlook of the Sacramento River with a view of Mt. Shasta to the north.

Next we stopped at an old steam engine display. It was Southern Pacific 1727, a class M-6 Mogul built by Balwin.


After the hike we wandered the picturesque streets of Dunsmuir. The main drag is almost lost in time with its town clock and the California Theater along with the other historic structures through town.


We spent a bit more time here than we anticipated and stopped in at the visitors center then wandered around down by the turntable and the Amtrak Station. We stopped in for a coffee at the Brown Trout Cafe and then headed on down the road.

We didn't make it far because I had heard of a unique caboose motel that was nearby so we dropped in to see it for ourselves. Rail Road Park Resort has over twenty cabooses that have been converted into motel units. Also on site is a Shay style locomotive Class 70-3. One of only 5 examples made by the Willamette Iron and Steel Works in Portland Oregon that survives.


The resort sits at the base of Castle Crags and is a beautiful location to relax.

We asked permission to wander around and look at all the caboose....(cabeese?) and The Bean Himself had a blast looking at all of the different logos and pointing out his favorites which all happened to be Santa Fe's.




We continued south for a bit and stopped to do a few geocaches that I had read about. After a short hike we came upon the location for the first geocache, Old I-5: Bridge to the Past. It is on an abandoned arch bridge along a section of old Highway 99. I waymarked it as the Harlan D. Miller Memorial Bridge-Dog Creek Bridge- near Vollmers California. Next we drove beneath the bridge and found Master Builder and got another perspective of this fantastic bridge.

We finally hit the road in earnest and made a straight shot for Sacramento where we checked in and then went out for dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. The restaurant is located in a former depot of the Western Pacific Railroad. It is a great old structure that heralds an era gone by.

California in April

In early April we took a little vacation to visit Sacramento and the California State Railroad Museum that is located there in Old Town.

We left after work on Wednesday and drove until we reached the metropolis of Weed. It was around 27 degrees and it was a bit surprising getting out of the van and into the cold night air.

Surprise Beach Wanderings

So I surprise Mrs. Bean with a spontaneous trip to the coast. I arranged for a friend to watch The Bean Himself and The Sprout and spirited her away for a night in Florence and then a hike on the Oregon Coast.
We had a great room with a view of the Siuslaw River Bridge. I was wide awake at sunrise so wandered out and let Mrs. Bean sleep. I took a walk over the historic bascule bridge designed by Conde B. McCullough. that was opened to traffic in 1936. While crossing I took few benchmark photos along the way. After the walk Mrs. Bean & I joined up and we headed over to downtown Florence for some coffee.



After a quick tour of old town and a delightful cache, (Democracy Under Pressure) which is located in one of the stores, we headed back across the river and grabbed a geocache named (Prichard's Perch) at a little wayside.

Then it was on south to our goal of the day. There was a breif stop for a cache (McCullough's NW TB B&B) that has a great view of another Conde B. McCullough Bridge. This one being his namesake.

We had been reading about a mystery shipwreck in the news that had been uncovered by winter storms. By the time we went searching for it the ship had been identified as the George L. Olson. Along the way and just up the beach a bit was the wreck of the M/V New Carrissa so we had a chance of seeing two shipwrecks in one outing. We opted to hike in over the dunes. in retrospect the best way would have been to hike up the beach but the dunes were beautiful.









The New Carissa was a bit more impressive than I expected. The size of her was more than I had anticipated and it was only a portion of the ship. Photos can't do her justice. We found the two caches at the location. An old virtual (Wreck of the New Carrissa) and a newer ammo can cache (New Carrisa by Flight Control) .

Next we made the trek on down to the Olsen wreck. We were the only ones hiking and we had to continually get out of the way of 4X4's who were driving out to see the wreck as well. Some of the dune buggies that came by were traveling so fast they really made me nervous. We grabbed our final geocache of the hike (North Jetty #3) along the way and after this last one we were only a short way from the wreck. Stepping to the edge of the sand wall it was a real thrill to see. Just as I turned on the camera and put it to my eye a jeep screamed into view and slid to a stop. They sat there for about thirty seconds then tore off down the beach again.

We scrambled down to the wreck and I was as impressed with George as I was with Carissa. Much more of this ship lies beneath the sand than is exposed but the site of this small portion still inspired a feeling of touching forgotten history.

The tide was starting to make its way in so we started our walk out. It had taken us about two hours to hike in over the sand and we were feeling it. I started longing for a ride in one of those 4X4's that had annoyed me earlier. We must have been looking pretty ragged because finally a guy pulled over and asked if we wanted a ride. Yes! We did. We climbed in the back of his pickup and rested for about two miles. I kept an eye on the GPS screen and when we were almost due west of our van I knocked on his windo and indicated we needed to get out. He looked at me like I was nuts. I pointed to the dunes and said our van is right over there and he did a double take and was convinced we were nuts. By the time we made the long haul over the dunes I figured he was probably right in his assessment. We hiked around seven miles but we were more tired than many a hike in the woods that was much much longer.

On the drive backup north I stopped and snagged one last cache (Basketball) that was near an Oregon State Beaver Board Historical sign commemorating Jedediah Smith.










We stopped for dinner at sundown in Florence. Tired but satisfied. I had my eye on the Hot Rod Grill for some time and decided to make it our dinner stop tonight. It is full of nostalgia in and out. Including some vintage kiddie rides, antique gas pumps, and a few booths and decor that is made out vintage car bodies. Service was adequate, the food passable and the atmosphere great. The final hours drive home was uneventful and pleasant with remembrances of the day and discussions about the challenges of parenthood and how much we missed the little legumes.

Meeting with Uncle Sam

I have been trying to get together with my brother for some time. He mentioned the Sportsman's Show in Roseburg as something he hoped to go to and I decided to make a visit happen. The Bean Himself and I hit the road early for the meet up.

We stopped at a rest area on the way down to stretch our legs. I was snapping some photos and a passerby offered to take one of the both of us. Nice gesture I thought since I am not in many of the kids photos. There is a nice Oregon State History "Beaver Board" at this location detailing the history of the Cow Creek Indians.

We were soon on the road and hooked up with Sam at the fairgrounds. Near where we parked is the county museum and part of their collection is the old train depot from the nearby town of Dillard. The Dillard depot is a beautiful old structure and we spent some time photographing it's new home.

After the show we all loaded up and headed over to the Rodeo Steakhouse. The Bean Himself really loved this place because of the large containers of peanuts that were at each table.

It wasn't so much the peanuts but the fact that the restaurant allowed and even encouraged you to throw the shells on the floor. We had some problems while paying. They made a mistake running a card and they gave me a card for a free entree at one of their locations. Nice that.

While we were eating I had mentioned that I thought there was an old locomotive somewhere around and that I would like to visit it with The Bean. Sam knew right where it was even though he hadn't been there for decades. Sam grew up in the area and played on the locomotive when it was first donated and installed in the park 50 years ago.
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We drove on over and The Bean Himself played for awhile. He really enjoyed getting up close and personal with the engine (Southern Pacific 1229). Afterwords I grabbed a few photos of a rare benchmark. An intersection station using an airway beacon. Most airway beacons are long gone but this one is still standing tall. Next we checked out the old Southern Pacific Depot that is now a McMennamins Restaurant and found a benchmark on it's wall then we bummed around downtown a bit.

On the way out of town I saw a vintage neon sign in action and did a u-turn to capture photos of it before heading home.

Today we loaded up and headed toward Salem. I had read a recent article in the Register Guard about Thompson’s Mills State Park. It is currently the newest park in the Oregon State Parks system. It turned out to be a fascinating piece of the 19th Century preserved here in the here and now. Thompson's Mills is the oldest surviving grist mill in Oregon and was originally named Boston Mill. In 1858 Richard Finley bought the water rights to the Calapooia River for $75. The mill was built soon after. A thriving town named Boston was built next to the mill but in 1871 the railroad was built to Shedd Station further west and the town’s people picked up lock stock and barrel plus the buildings and moved to be near the railroad’s new station. Originally built for farmers to grind grain for their personal use, silos were added and the name was changed to Thompson’s Flouring Mills in the early 1900’s. With the addition of the silos flour was produced for commercial sale. In the 1940’s the mill made another transition to the creation of animal feeds. Production of electricity was also a source of income up until 2005 when the land was acquired by the State of Oregon.

After the tour of the mill we headed on to Salem where The Bean Himself and Mr. Bean made a whirlwind tour of The Gilbert House Children’s Museum. The Sprout was asleep so Mrs. Bean sacrificed and slept a bit too to let her get some needed rest. Gilbert House is a wonderful place built around several historic structures that were saved from the wrecking ball. One of the Victorian style structures that makes up the museum complex was built by Andrew T. Gilbert the uncle of the “man who saved Christmas” A.C. Gilbert.

A.C Gilbert was an extraordinary man. He was an Olympic athlete winning a gold medal in the pole vault, he earned a degree in medicine from Yale. He was also a prolific inventor and the creator of the erector set. The museum pays homage to him in many ways. A huge play structure is built to look like the erector set. A model train display shows his American Flyer train sets in action and several displays detail his accomplishments. After we played in the bubble room and on the playground, The Bean Himself spent some time pretending he was a grocery man and then pinched a penny at the penny smasher in the Parish House.

Afterward we walked over to the old Southern Pacific Railroad vertical lift bridge to take a look at the old abandoned crossing. While there we found an Oregon Dept of Transportation benchmark 44 56.802 123 02.433 in one of the bridges footings but it was really hard to identify the mark due to damage on the face of it. We made a quick stop at a local store (Burlington) to bargain shop and then headed home having had a full day.