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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 28, 1958)
PAGE TWO HERALD AND NEWS, KLAMATH FALLS, OREGON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1958 r-I tr ' sj: - . COLDLY GLISTENING SANDS greet the casual stroller on the beach when, the tide is out on a winter day. This picture was -la ken in November just north of the little coastal town of Taft and shows that portion of the beach from there to Nelscott. Shortly after this picture was taken the beach filled with many people keeping a watch for passing grey whales on their southern migration. For many the true charm of the ocean is to be found in the winter months rather than the relatively crowded summer vacation periods. Wimifteir At -The.. Beach By BILL JENKINS No matter how much we may love our high desert and the clear, clean air of the eastern plateau of Oregon there will come a time in almost every life when a trip to the coast is called for. Just for a change if nothing else. Not long ago Florence and I took off for just such a two or three day breather. It happened, due to circumstances, right around Thanksgiving. And we couldn't have picked a better time for the trip. I left with a free mind because all the winter work was done. The kindling supply had been split and stacked, an adequate supply of fireplace fuel laid by, the handle of the smw shovel sandpapered so It wouldn't cut Florence's hands come the snow time, the snow shoes well shellacked and ready for any Sunday emergency involving work. We left here in a dense fog that lasted all the way to Williamson River. From there on it was hazy and overcast over Highway 58 and on to Portland where we made a business stop. Put when we left that city a day or two later it was clear and cold. It was still clear and cold when we got to the coast.' We took the road down through McMinnvillc, Valley Junc tion and Grande Rhonde which brings you into the coast at the beginning of the 20 Miracle Miles. Our favorite haunt while viewing the - broad Pacific is the , Ester Lee, a lovely little set of apart ments situated just north of the town of Taft and operated by the genial and gracious Carrie Mc Clanathan. The buildings are set behind a concealing bank just off the highway and overlook the ocean from an elevation of perhaps a hundred feet. There is a broad terrace on the ocean side of the two story building and a set of steps leading down to the beach Most of the apartments have fire places and kitchens. There is an ample supply ol firewood fir which burns sort of like a chunk of solid water until you master the knack of handling it and the service is splendid. There are, of course, multitudes of places to stay and everyone will have his or her favorite. Once there we settled down to a routine that varies but little and yet stays fresh for us. The first thing is to lay in a supply of erab. This is obtained at a place called Barnacle Bill's in Ocean lake. He lays out plenty of crab all picked and' ready to go. Then we invest in the necessary cock tail sauce, shrimps for cocktails, any other seafood that looks good, and a specialty. This time the specialty was abalone steak, froz en since it had to come all the way from Mexico. With crab there is nothing bet ter than a baked potato. I advise that you take your own. Procur ing a potato that is fit to eat anywhere on the coast is a job requiring more skill than I pos sess. If you like wine with your meals I also advise you to take this as the selection in most coast-' al stopovers is limited to a few sweet dessert wines and a handful of red inks traveling under the pseudonym of burgundy, cabernet and others, most of which are out and Out messes. Anyway, add a lit tle butter, the necessary crackers and other appurtenances of a meal and you are ready to settle back. Clothing is never a problem with us. Since the weather is -as un predictable along the coast as it everywhere we merely take everything we own. This solves the problem. It also loads up the bat tered old station wagon pretty well, but, shucks, what's room to a cou ple of beach hounds. Over the years I have found two avocations at the coast which never dull. One, of course, is pho tography. Scenes are never the same twice in a row because the light is never the same, the tide! is never the same and the people are never the same. This trip I tried black and white film for a change. Some of the results are shown. Obviously I recommend color. You have a better chance of coming home with a good pic ture with color at the beach than you ever will with black and white. But it is all fun. ' The other thing that keeps me amused by the hour is visiting the various junk shops. I am not referring to the antique shops, but the junk shops and second hand stores. I am convinced that every one on the coast runs a junk shop of some kind. . . These are fascinating places for men and offer a sort of away-from-home hot stove league for them to feel at home in. Most of the coast is a logging region of one kind and another and the shops are full of all kinds of logging equipment. You can find axes dat ing back to the days when men were strong enough to swing them, great heavy machines that remind one of the legendary weapons of the Vikings. There are all sorts of two man handsaws, called - misery whips over there, and endless sup plies of hammers, sledges, short lengths of cable, anvils, chisels, adzes (Fred Pope bought a beauty over there a couple of years ago to square off corral posts with wonder if that ever got used?), wedges which women adore as door stops, old pots and pans, cheese graters, coffeepots, second hand books most of them the Per ils of Pauline type by the score, shovels, old chain, bits of welding equipment, coffee grinders from the logging camps of yesteryear and enough potmetal to keep -the Navy in ships forever. Nice friendly stores, too, where you can potter about while your wife haunts the antique shops. My wife goes with me, incidentally, be cause she is looking for a certain gargantuan cabbage , cutter we once saw and then forgot about. She wants to give it to friends of ours who are avid manufac turers of homemade sauerkraut. Of course there are other things you can do at the coast. All sorts KB. 1 (r. . n f Hi ST', .1 4 THE FISHING FLEET at Depoe Bay seems to attract all camera nuts as they pass.. This shot was taken from the south end of the bridge and shows a small portion of the fleet lying .at the pier. In the background are the typical bare coastal hills with their naked, logged over areas. Depoe Bay is one of the better known fishing ports and is the site of the fleet blessing ceremony In the spring. of things, but these two are my hobbies. You can 'go fishing, you can go to Oceanlake and visit, the Lincoln County Art Center where you can generally find a one man, or woman, show of some kind. We stopped by but the show was by a chap who painted what he saw and not what he expected others to see so I didn't buy any of the "works." You can also visit the various eating houses, go dancing. bowling, shuffleboarding, golfing, swimming, hiking, horseback rid ing, tavern hopping or, if you in sist, walk on the beach. The best of all times at the Ore gon beach is in February when you stand a good chance of getting in on a real whopper of a storm that piles the surf up in mad boils along the rocks and sends spray whirling clear up to your cliff- top windows. Since you are snug and warm and don t have any property to be threatened you can enjoy it to the full. There are also the ever present myrtle wood shops. We stopped by one this trip. Wolf's in Delake, I think, and left an order for a set. of dinner dishes to be turned out of the exotic wood. He buys his wood from the mills down around Coos Bay, going down and picking it out himself at the mill to be sure he gets the best. He told us it might be some time since for dinner plates the wood must be of a certain high quality and one chip out of it or a tiny flaw would mean a ruined plate. I guess we can wait. And if you want to you can drive along the back lanes and roads. This is a pretty chilling experi ence since you are universally met with suspicion. Once you get-off the beaten path you are an in truder and the miasma of "Go Home, Yankee" hangs thick in the air. Can't say that 1 blame them much. I'd feel the same if I had found a little sanoluary somewhere and had to put up with travel on the county roads by total strangers. Anyway, the coast is a nice place to visit. I can recommend it. When we ordered the new press down here at the Herald and News plant we got an instruction book let but it has apparently been mislaid. As soon as we find it and learn which button to push for editorial color I'm going back over to the land of salt spray and fresh crab and come home with some color pictures. In the meantime you'll have to use your imagina tion on these.