Brookings & Beyond
Now that we have settled into our new home and unpacked our belongings, it is time for us to explore our new surroundings. Brookings is located on the southernmost point of the Oregon Coast. This gives way to a very unique landscape. The coast is pinnacle “Oregon Coast” landscape; with rugged shorelines featuring cliffs, gigantic rock formations and hidden beaches tucked between the cliffs. Inland from Brookings lies something new to us; Redwood tree forests! This duality has given us a lot of hard choices. Should we go to the beach? Should we go see trees bigger than houses? All we know, is that we are in a good spot! It will be hard to spend any open time chilling. We have sunsets to chase, beaches to comb and fresh forest air to breath! Gear up, because the next 13 weeks is going to be full of adventure and Living Rad!
Mile: 86,784
Quote of the Blog: “We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came." - John F. Kennedy
Song of the Blog: “Take Me To The Ocean” - The Movement
The town of Brookings is a small, quiet coastal town. Although, it is in the heat of the all the great coastal spots and the redwoods, it’s a very rural area and not much around it. This keeps it from being a complete tourist town, and more of an ocean community of mostly retirees. Our rental is a beautiful little spot, walking distance to town, although the hills here will eat you alive! Amity’s new clinic is an outpatient setting. She is the only full-time PT at the clinic and the building is quite small. This is a drastic change from her last position in a massive hospital with dozens of coworkers. Having a little more chill setting will be a great change for her! She does have a couple coworkers, and we were pleased to learn that one of them is from Montana, and grew up not far away from Whitefish. He, along with some of her new patients, have given us some amazing pointers on where to explore. One of the main spots everyone keeps mentioning is Harris Beach Start Park. This area is very close to our new rental. It is just over a one mile walk to the beach. We have spent quite a bit of time down there exploring the beach, watching the sunset and just relaxing. We have spent several days down there exploring tide pools and beach combing. There are so many amazing things to explore down there. One of the nights we went down there for sunset and ended up having quite the fiasco. The tide was scheduled to reach its peak at sunset. We were quite a ways up from the shoreline, when a larger than usual wave came in. I moved back behind Amity and a rock we were sitting on. Right then I looked at here to see her turn away from the wave as it crashed into the rock and up over her head. She was instantly soaked. She immediately laughed, so I was able to laugh with her and not at her. It was less than a minute later that she realized that her phone was gone. What was dry sand was now calf deep water. We did our best, but the phone was gone. This was our first experience with a Sneaker Wave. While Amity did lose some photos and phone numbers, we were able to replace her phone relatively quick. Luckily most of the best photos she took are here on our blog for her to download onto her new phone (if you are reading this, text her your phone number).
The local community is very friendly and welcoming. They have given us so many tips on where to go and what to do. One day I was dropping off some lunch for Amity when one of the people walking out of her clinic started talking to me. She informed me her favorite beach in the area is Mill Beach, which is no more than a 2 minute drive away from Amity’s clinic. We eventually went down to check it out. I would say, Mill Beach has all of the iconic Oregon Coast elements. Massive cliffs flanking the sides of the beach, tide pools to be explored when the tide is out and a really mellow wave set that crashes into a soft sand beach. I have now gone down to this beach for a morning walk a couple times, and one of the great things about the Brookings area this time of the year, is that there are not a lot of people. I typically seen around 2-4 people on any given beach or hike.
Moving along with exploring the new home, my Aunt Traci had suggested a spot to go spend the day on the Chetco river, and one of Amity’s patients had mentioned a hike that was right in the same area. This made for a perfect afternoon activity. The Chetco River is a major river that meets the ocean right in Brookings. Along the river there are several river banks and rock bars you can drive out on. We were suggested to go to Miller Bar, which turned out to be a beautiful area! I did a little fly fishing, and checked out the river for a little while Amity read her book and relaxed by the river. It has been a while since we have lived so close to such wild and pure river system. It is a refreshing element to have back! On the way back to town, we stopped to do some hiking in a redwood forest right off the road. After driving through the redwoods in Northern California, we were excited to get some more time to observe them in their full grandeur! The hike was only 3 miles long, but it gave us some amazing views, and it fully introduced us to our new backyard! Not only are the trees massive, but the ferns and undergrowth are a spectacle in their own. We already have some other redwood zones planned, and we are excited to be able to spend time around such natural giants!
The biodiversity of this area is crazy! The ocean, rivers and forests all come together to form the unique coastline of the Oregon Coast. We were excited when this opportunity presented itself, and we are even more grateful for it to start to become a reality! Being able to walk to the beach is amazing. Our ability to go down and watch high tide smash astonishingly large waves will be taken advantage of a lot. We are looking forward to catching low tides to explore tide pools when the low tides aren’t at 4am. With the river and forest only 15 minutes away in any direction, we will make sure to fulfill our need for rivers and water. I can’t wait for the river fishing to pick up and to get to know all of the good fishing zones! Time for us to get to know our new home and explore Southwestern Oregon! Here’s to many sunsets and the smell of fresh pine! Live Rad Y’all’s!
