There are no crowds along the Oregon Coast in September, maybe that’s because it rains a lot along the Oregon Coast in September. And that makes tent camping along the Oregon Coast in September quite an adventure.
We started our late-season vacation on September 13 with the idea that we would leave our pop-up trailer and Trailblazer home, and pack the bare necessities of camping into our little Toyota Corolla, thereby not only saving gas, but enabling ourselves to zip in and out of traffic without the hassle of a trailer dragging along behind.
It turned out that our little car held quite a lot of stuff: a big, roomy 9X14 foot tent; 2 Coleman camp cots with foam pads; a 2" memory foam mattress topper; 2 sleeping bags; 3 pillows; 2 camp chairs; a small camp table; a cooler; 2 Rubbermaid totes for paper plates, saucepans, soup, and instant oatmeal; a case of bottled water; 2 duffle bags for clothes; 2 winter coats; 2 rain jackets; 2 light jackets; a one-burner propane stove; 3 small propane tanks; a bag of field guides; and various cameras, binoculars, and telescopes. When we had finished with the packing, the trunk was neatly filled -- not cram-packed; and the back seat was filled only to the bottom of the side door windows! I would have thrown my guitar on top if I’d thought I’d have time to strum it.
We planned to take two days to get to the Coast, because we like to stop and look at everything and anything. So our first night was at Memaloose State Park on the edge of the Columbia River near The Dalles.
We had just set up our tent when 4 vans rolled into the four tent sites next ours. Slogans were white-washed all over their sides indicating that this was a group of biology students from Bowling Green University on their way home from the Coast. Out poured at least 36 kids with 19 tents. We looked at each other and groaned – this was going to be a long night. And it was, but not because of those kids. That group turned out to be the most quiet group of campers we had ever heard. They set up their tents quickly and quietly. We heard nothing from them during the night and they were gone the following morning having left no trace of their ever having been there.
What we didn’t know when we reserved was that aside from the beautiful park-like setting on the banks of the big river, the Denver and Rio-Grande railroad tracks to Portland and vicinity ran along the same bank of the river approximately 500 feet on the north side of our tent! It didn’t take us long to figure out that those rails have to be the busiest in the Northern United States – trains going east, then trains going west with engineers who delighted in blasting their screaming air horns just outside our tent every 35 minutes throughout the night.
And also what we didn’t know when we reserved was that 300 feet on the south side of our tent was Interstate 84 – the only highway carrying traffic between Denver and Portland – four lanes of bumper-to-bumper semi-trucks with tires whining and air brakes roaring all through the night.
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