THESIUSLAWNEWS.COM
WEDNESDAY EDITION | JULY 15, 2020 | $1.00
School district works through logistcs of summer, fall sports
By Jared Anderson
Siuslaw News
Community
&
Lifestyle
The Siuslaw School District
placed a temporary hold on vol-
untary summer sports practices
after a student reported flu-like
symptoms on Sunday.
“The only person we’re testing
is the student that was ill, and
they weren’t ill at practice,” Super-
intendent Andrew Grzeskowiak
said. “None of the initial screen-
ing showed anything. And we
don’t know if it’s a COVID related
case, but we want to give people as
SIUSLAW NEWS FILEPHOTO
much information as we can”
The summer program has not tional information becomes avail-
“Just like any situation, you’re
been cancelled all together but has able. It was also stressed that there going to err on the side of cau-
been placed on hold until addi- is no reason to panic.
tion,” Athletics Director Chris
The Siuslaw School District is
currently waiting for ODE
final gudelines in order to
map out its plan for fall
education and athletics.
Johnson said. “If we have to take
four or five days off, then we have
to take four or five days off. Like
everybody else, it’s a big wait-and-
see watching numbers, being cau-
tious, being smart.”
The current pause with summer
sports activities is a bellwether for
the new normal that schools will
be facing in the fall.
While the district has not final-
ized plans for reopening, it is more
See
SPORTS 2B
ODFW R EGIONAL F ISHING
R EPORT
www.dfw.state.or.us/RR
Best bets for fishing:
Anglers are spoiled with
choices right now. Trout, bass
and salmon are all on the list.
• With the cooler, wetter
spring, fishing for stocked trout
continues to be good in sev-eral
areas.
• This is a great time of year to
visit Oregon’s hike-in lakes for a
day of trout fishing.
• Resident coastal cutthroats
are on the bite in most coastal
rivers and streams.
• Where water temperatures
are warming, fishing for bass and
other warmwater spe-cies is
improving. Now is a great time
to target these fish before aquatic
weeds grow enough to make
fishing challenging.
• Ocean salmon season is
open, and some Chinook are
also being caught in coastal riv-
ers.
Local lakes stocked in spring
See
FISHING 2B
LENA FELT/FOR SIUSLAW NEWS
Tide Tables
Entrance Siuslaw River
High Tide
Low Tide
The Oregon Coast Quest stamp book allows participants to chronicle their quests in the Florence area and other Quest areas.
‘Quest’ offers alternative outdoor fun
Florence joins several Oregon coastal communities offering a different kind of adventure
July 15
9:23am / 4.4
8:49pm / 6.6
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July 16
10:30am / 4.7
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3:28pm / 3.0
July 17
11:24am / 5.0
10:18pm/ 7.1
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4:21pm/ 3.1
July 18
12:10pm / 5.4
11:02pm / 7.4
5:34am / -0.7
5:10pm / 3.0
July 19
12:52am / 5.7
11:45pm / 7.7
6:15am / -1.2
5:56pm / 2.9
July 20
1:31am / 5.9
6:55am / -1.5
6:41pm / 2.6
July 21
12:29am / 7.8
2:10pm/ 6.1
7:35am/ -1.7
7:27pm/ 2.4
By Lena Felt
Siuslaw News Intern
A
fter what seemed like a
never-ending spring
quarantined at home,
many people are eager to get out-
side and enjoy the summer
weather. The Oregon Coast
Quests Program provides a safe
way for families, friends or indi-
viduals to spend time outdoors
exploring and learning about the
local history, plants and animals
across the Oregon Coast
Community members from
different coastal towns can create
“quests” which people go on to
find clues that eventually lead to
a hidden quest box, inside of
which there is a notepad and
pencil to sign and make com-
ments. Participants can also
stamp their quest book with a
unique stamp contained in the
box.
“This is a great activity that
would be good for social distanc-
ing activities in the summer with
family or grandchild or whoever
you’re living with and staying safe
with,” said Oregon Coast Quest
coordinator Cait Goodwin.
Goodwin cautioned, however,
that some quests can get very
populated with visitors, so she
encourages people to use their
best judgment when traveling for
a quest during the coronavirus
pandemic.
“This is a great activity good for
social distancing ... with family or
grandchild or whoever you’re living
with and staying safe with.”
— Cait Goodwin, Oregon Coast Quest Coordinator
“Use your common sense,”
Goodwin said. “Don’t put your-
self in an unsafe situation when
you’re outdoors exploring. Just
make sure to maintain social dis-
tancing.”
When Gov. Brown’s shelter-in-
place orders were in full effect,
many of the quests were closed
due to recreation areas being shut
down. However, most quests are
currently open once again. There
are 28 quests in the 2019/2020
edition of the Oregon Coast
Quest book, where all quests can
be found. This includes two in
the Florence area — one in Old
Town Florence and the other at
Siltcoos Lagoon Trail.
The book, which has all of the
directions for the quests, can be
found at the Florence Chamber
of Commerce Visitors Center,
Books ’N’ Bears or online at
https://seagrant.oregonstate.edu/.
Goodwin equates the program
to letterboxing, a tradition of
clue-based treasure hunting that
be-came widely popular in the
1970s in Dartmoor, England. In
the mid-1990s, a nonprofit in
Vermont created a program
called Valley Quest based on the
ideas of letterboxing. Since then,
this outdoor activity has grown
to more than 200 active quests in
New Hampshire and Vermont
today, according to Goodwin.
“And the idea was, it would be
educational while showing off the
treasure in these small communi-
ties up and down the
Connecticut River Valley,”
Goodwin said. “And helping stu-
dents in particular appreciate
their communities and what they
have to offer. So that’s the spirit
in which the quest name was
attached to the activity.”
Goodwin gained experience
with questing when she worked
for a nature center in
Massachusetts for Valley Quests.
“I moved to Oregon in 2006
and started working for Oregon
Sea Grant and I was like ‘This
place is crying out for quests.’
There’s so many cool things to
explore outside in a self-guided
fashion.”
She went on to create the
Oregon Coast Quest Program in
2007 after securing seed funding
from Oregon Sea Grant.
“I started the program by mak-
ing just a few quests to get people
familiar to the idea,” Goodwin
said. “Then I started holding
workshops to spread the word
and get community members
excited about the possibility of
making their own quests in their
area. Plus, I didn’t really want the
book to sound like me the whole
time. Now there’s lots of different
perspectives.”
Each quest is created by local
community members who can
add their own flare to their route.
Some of them are rhyming vers-
es, some quests take only 45 min-
utes while others can be much
longer, and some use clues along
the trial or alphabetical letters to
spell out the location of the hid-
den box.
“There’s lots of variety, which
is fun,” Goodwin said. “And the
quests are all located on publicly
accessible lands so they’re either
state or federal park, school prop-
erty that is open to the public or
city streets so that people can
come and do them whenever it’s
convenient for them.”
Goodwin received more fund-
ing from Oregon Sea Grant to do
See
QUEST 2B
35 EASY STREET
Easy access park model in Coast Village. Property is paved with extra parking
and has an RV hookup. Nicely arranged picnic area and sun deck.
Brand new wood flooring throughout. Great coastal getaway.
$135,000
MLS#20286681/CCB#11957
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Broker
100 Hwy. 101, Florence, OR • 541.997.7777
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COAST REAL ESTATE