June 11, 2005 - Day Two: North Bend (Oregon Dunes), OR to Yakima, WA
Miles: 443
Miles-to-date: 1105
States: 2
Gas Stops: 2
Rest Stops: 2
Number of Driver Swaps: 3
Number of Cokes Stolen: 0
Songs on XM radio: Countless
Injuries-to-Date: 1
Tech Editor Sean P. Holman:
Believe it or not, my best night's sleep in the last week came on a sleeping bag and air mattress in a tent near the sand dunes of North Bend, Oregon. After publishing our first update to www.fourwheeler.com at 2 a.m., we finally had enough of being coherent for one day and headed back to camp. With my iPod pumping some gentle tunes through my ears, I fell right to sleep and don't remember really moving until about 8 a.m. when some unruly dogs in a neighboring camp decided to play the part of roosters and declare the morning had arrived. I eventually accepted morning, but only after a refreshing shower was out of the way.
As I reluctantly emerged from my Coleman hideout, I found Ken, the quintessential morning person, enjoying a low-octane Coke C2 while watching all the ATVers riding off to the dunes. Ken is such a morning person that for the past couple of mornings I have heard him at the crack of dawn greeting Bluebirds with song. I on the other hand am the embodiment of a night person and find myself poking the Senior Editor with sharp objects just to get responses after 9 p.m. After 10 p.m., sharp objects no longer garner any reaction and the little voice in Ken's head is officially checked out for the day.
With the dunes beckoning our own H2 for play, Ken and I started working on putting the packing puzzle back together, piece-by-piece. Amazing to both of us, everything seemed to fit in the H2 easier this morning, all while taking up less space. In the mean time, Fritz Gross, owner of the Oregon Dunes KOA introduced himself and offered us a KOA flag for the dunes and a delicious pancake breakfast on the house. Being the often-hungry magazine editors that we are, we jumped at the invitation before heading out to the sand.
After both of our tanks were topped off we were finally on our way to drop our treads on the first off-pavement portion of the trip. A short trail leads straight from the KOA out to the dunes, which are reminiscent of the Outer Banks in North Carolina, with a huge expanse of wind-blown sands to explore. Even on the dunes, our H2 drew waves and grins and the Hummer Accessory reservoir shocks proved their weight in gold by taming the oscillations of our heavy beast through the nearly two miles of whoops laden trail.
Once in view of the ocean, Ken commented how the Oregon ocean water looks just like the California ocean water. After explaining to our normally landlocked Midwest Bureau chief that this was the mighty Pacific and that it actually stretches from somewhere around Alaska to the tip South America, and that those white-capped thingys were waves, Ken thought it would be a good idea to park the Hummer amid the crashing tide for a dramatic photo op. Dramatic indeed. Even more dramatic was when the tide decided to make up some ground on the beach during our little photo shoot and the Hummer's sidewalls started disappearing in to the sand. With great calmness, Ken lowered down the long lens of his Cannon 10D and said, "Hey, you might want to move that."
Out on the road it was about 8 hours until our next destination of Yakima, WA was reached. North on through Eugene, Oregon and Portland, we trudge through heavy rains and sporadic traffic before the clouds broke just before the Washington border. Finally, we can pump our own gas again. Oregon is a friendly, but somewhat wacky state.
After making camp, we took an impromptu tour of Yakima looking for some high-speed internet, so that we could fix the Day 1 report, which was littered with the misspellings and grammatical errors one expects from doing work at 2 a.m. Nestled inside of a Borders bookstore, Seattle's Best coffeehouse had the hi-speed Wi-Fi connection we were looking for. We finally added photos of yesterday's adventure, so be sure to check those out.
It is about midnight, and I am sitting on a picnic table in our campsite, finishing this up so we can upload it tomorrow morning before we wheel near Mount Rainier. Hopefully the technical difficulties are behind us. As long as we can find reliable internet, or even a seemingly antique phone jack, along the way we'll try to add our updates on a daily basis. Until then, keep a look out for us on the highway or in your town, as we'll be headed to Coeur d' Alene, Idaho tomorrow. Happy Wheeling!
Senior Editor Ken Brubaker:
Yesterday was the day that wouldn't end. It began in Hollister, California, at 6 a.m. and ended at 2 a.m. when we crawled (literally) into our Coleman sleeping bags at the Oregon Dunes KOA Campground in North Bend, Oregon. Tech Editor Holman looked like a zombie. I looked like a zombie with a bandage on its forehead.
With that said, we were trippin' when the owner of the campground, Fritz Gross, showed up at our humble campsite first thing Saturday morning. We figured he came over to kick us out for hogging the modem connection in the laundry room until 2 a.m., but he was simply there to welcome H2our De Force to the Oregon Dunes. He graciously hooked us up with a hot breakfast (the campground cooks up a storm on the weekends) and he provided us with a genuine Oregon Dunes KOA flag so we could explore the dunes in our H2 (thanks Fritz, you da man!).
If you've never been to the Oregon Dunes ORV area, go now. Seriously, drop everything and go, because it's an off-highway dream come true. It's huge, ridiculously scenic, and even on a summer Saturday it wasn't that busy. We explored the dunes for quite some time and never saw another truck!
Tomorrow we hit a trail north of Yakima that's supposed to offer spectacular views of Mt. Ranier. We'll be in touch.
Three observations.
1. It's amazing how the human body can function on virtually no sleep when it's andrenalized or trippin' on sugar.
2. It's amazing how much food Holman eats. He says that he loves to eat when he travels. I've never seen a guy eat so much and stay so skinny. Can't wait to see what's on the menu for tomorrow.
3. It's amazing how many Four Wheeler readers we've met in the weirdest places. We just hung out with Yakima resident Ryan Clifton, owner of a '79 GMC 4x4 pickup, at the Seattle's Best coffee house in Yakima.
VIDEO introduction
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9