B1
THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 2022
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A magnetic pull
Writer refl ects on calm felt at the coast
Photos by Katherine Lacaze
ABOVE: A path leads to the beach in Gearhart. BELOW: A view of the Necanicum Estuary from the Gearhart Ridge Path Loop.
By RALPH BEAUMONT
For The Astorian
A
s my gaze shifts from the Portland city-
scape outside of my ninth fl oor Pearl
D istrict condo’s wall-sized window,
to the writing pad in front of me, I refl ect on
the two modes of transport that have prevailed
in my recent travels from town to country: the
“daddy bus” and the family SUV.
Before the pandemic and the shift of work
from offi ce to home, the daddy bus, a contem-
porary variation on the old daddy train, which
brought fathers to their families on the coast
in the old days, frequently conveyed me west
after work on Friday afternoons. From the Port-
land train station, surrounded as it tends to be
by some of the city’s less upstanding citizens,
I rode through downtown streets to U.S. High-
way 26 west, over the coastal range, to a stop
on U.S. Highway 101 across from the short and
walkable road to Gearhart.
That ride was a memorable one. This was
so both in a global way, and in relation to vari-
ous details. The ride occurred while I was read-
ing the Friday New York Times and listened to
TELL US YOUR
COAST MEMORIES
Have you had a transformative or especially
memorable time on the North Coast? What
sets the region apart? Maybe you visited the
area or are a local. Tell us about it. In no more
than 250 words, describe your experience and
include your name and a possible photo. Sub-
missions will be published in a future issue
of Weekend Break and should be emailed to
jwilliams@dailyastorian.com
an audiobook. It was accompanied by an inner
transformation. The disquiet of the work world
and its multiple demands faded, and a very par-
ticular kind of peace and ease would seem to be
promised by the dense tall forests of the coastal
range.
Scenic wonders
The details of the daddy bus ride included
many notable points. An early one was the
Jerky Shop, an establishment seen just as you
exit the farmland west of Portland, begin to
enter the woods, and start to ascend the coastal
range hills. It features, among other delicacies,
wild boar and alligator jerky, as well as a vari-
ety of dried mushrooms. Up the hill and fur-
ther into the woods, blue signs on both sides
of the road announce, “Drinking Water,” and
point to a decades-old fountain fl owing from a
natural spring that provides cold water for peo-
ple often waiting in line with numerous gal-
lon jugs. A little further on we would pass the
Elderberry Inn, off ering accommodations and
libations. This was soon followed by crossings
of both the e ast and the w est Humbug Creeks
and traveling over the David Douglas summit
at 1,309 feet. From there the bus descended
past the Saddle Mountain turn-off , past Camp
18, the restaurant memorializing local logging,
and then down to the coastal highway, High-
way 101. Once you enter the coastal range,
much of the road is surrounded by beautiful tall
trees, which can evoke in a responsive daddy
bus passenger a feeling of being in a large,
mobile natural c athedral.
See Coast, Page B5