#10-36 Good bye to Cape Blanco Lighthouse

Before we leave, here are some of the last pictures I took. Above is the Arch Stone that was original to the building, telling when it was erected and who the engineer was. This lighthouse is fortunate to have this because just a few years later they stopped putting in an engraved arch stone above the door of lighthouses. Frank is on his way down from his duty in the lantern room.

Looking down the free standing spiral stairs that go up to the lantern room. These stairs are over 130 years old and are original to the lighthouse.

The five pictures below were taken by our co hosts Pat and Jack. The shadow of the lighthouse is an awesome picture and the day time picture of the back side of the light house makes it look really lonesome.

Lighthouse at dusk and second picture when light signal is at it’s brightest. The signal at Cape Blanco is a 20 second signal. Two seconds bright and 18.2 just light. It is at its brightest when the light shines out the middle of the bulls eye on the lantern.

Our co hosts Pat and jack all dressed up in period costume. We didn’t have to do that this year. They have been hosts here at Cape Blanco eight different summers and one year they did dress up to give the tours.

It’s not all work—this is our final get-together with other hosts at the different parks in the area. We had a really nice day and ate our snacks outside. But we did have the food inside in order to keep it all warm. We plugged in the crock pots and used the “utility shed” for our pot luck.

Some of us ate inside because there was a little wind, the hardy ones ate outside.

At the corner of Cape Blanco Road and Hwy 101 there were many cranberry bogs. Below is a picture of Frank at the edge of one of the bogs. The cranberries grow on low growing bushes, reminded me of heather with tiny leaves. Up close you can see the cranberries on the bush. The bogs are not filled with water yet—that comes in Oct and Nov when they harvest them. We would have loved to have been able to see a bog harvested, but we left too early.

If you notice above, even in the sunshine, Frank and I were always in sweatshirts and windbreakers.

One of the perks of being on the coast this time of the year is that the huckleberries are ripe. I spent many hours picking these little bitty berries. Above you can see that the bushes are full of berries and below you can see me picking the bushes.

It takes about 4 cups of berries to make one pie, and about 3 hours to pick the berries an hour to clean off all the stems and leaves, a little over an hour to cook it and just a few minutes to enjoy a yummy piece of pie!

10-35 Life guard Station and Port Orford

Monday and Tuesday are our days off. The lighthouse is closed. So on Monday we went to Port Orford to visit the Life Guard Museum. We had to have our lunch first and so went down to the dock by the marina to a little seafood restaurant. Above is the crab that greeted us in the parking lot. Below is the view from the parking lot across from the marina. Lots of rocks, with a calm sea and beautiful clear day.

It is only clear in parts of the coast. Off in the distance in the picture below you can see the fog hanging over the coastline.

After going through the museum, we hiked the trail to Nellie’s Cove where the life boats were kept. If you double click on the left hand half of the information sign it will tell you of the hardships these guys had to endure. Press your back button to go back to the blog.

Below is what is left of the Lifeguard boat house and wall built at Nellie’s cove, and the gorgeous view from the trail walking up to where the lookout tower was located.

Above is the view from the lookout tower base. The tower is gone and we were on the point of land where it used to stand. In the far right of the picture is a bridge on highway 101. I liked the shape of the cloud coming over the top of the mountain on the left hand side of the picture.

Above is a look at the fog hovering over the coastline.

Below is looking straight down. It’s a long way down there!!!

It was a wonderful day for a hike. The wind was slight and the sun was out. We had on our windbreakers and long sleeves, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. The fresh air was wonderful and the trails were well maintained and easy to walk.

10-34 Day trip to Bandon 9-12-10

On Sunday afternoon, after we finished our morning shift in the lighthouse, we took a drive north about 20 miles to the little town of Bandon. We decided to have dinner out, so left around 3:00 pm. We really goofed by not going earlier as it was the Cranberry Festival Weekend. We got their just about the time all the booths were packing up and leaving. We walked around a little and check out the booths that were still open. Then we went into quite a few stores, bought some souvenirs and even some home made fudge!

This was our view of the beach as we walked along the sea shore.

I fell in love with the stone mosaic. All of the trim is stones of different sizes, colors and shapes. How cool it that. This is just a little band stand right out in the area of the docks.

A wood sculpture of a crab and sea shell. Everything is really fixed up nice.

This is the floating dock that you can catch crabs from. The bait shop will rent you a crab pot, sell you bait, sell you a license, give you a measurer and let you catch crab off the dock. The limit is 12 crabs each. He said the best time is when the tide comes in. Very interesting.

We drove out to face rock and couldn’t get a picture because it was getting dark. We ate dinner at a restaurant just south of Bandon. When we bought the fudge the woman told us to go to this place and ask for Karen. She was a hoot. We had a good meal and even met some of the people we gave a tour to that morning.

10-33 Trails and Beach at Cape Blanco, OR

After we do the morning shift at the lighthouse, if it is a nice day I like to walk the mile back to the campground. The scenery is magnificent, the air is cold (to me) and clear. The wind blows over the grassland as I walk through and then subsides as I enter into the wooded area. We have had a few nice days where the walk is very pleasant. I just wanted to share some of the views I see as I walk back tot the RV

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The path back to the campground overlooking the shoreline with the lighthouse in the background, before we enter the forest.

The path back to the campground through the woods.

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Mushrooms and ferns and moss! A day after a light shower.

Horses and riders greeted us as we descended the steep path down to the sand. The lighthouse far off in the distance, surrounded by steep bluffs and rock sentinels in the ocean.

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Driftwood on the beach.

Dixie and Gidget. A peaceful day on the beach

Footsteps in the sand. (actually they are hoof prints, but I just love the look of the path of footsteps)

10-32 Cape Blanco Lighthouse, OR—Sept 2010

This will be our work place for the month of Sept. It is a working lighthouse and we will be giving tours all the way up into the lantern room. Pretty awesome job!

Before we started working we toured the historic Hughes house which is about a mile from the lighthouse. This is where the Hughes family raised their seven children and ran a dairy farm, milking 100 head of cows by hand. They had ranch hands who also lived on the farm, raising their families. One of their sons did become a lighthouse keeper at Cape Blanco lighthouse.

This was not the original ranch house. Mr. Hughes had it built as his retirement home, although some of the children did grow up here. He died three years after it was built, but his wife lived in it until she was past ninety. It has been preserved and restored and another host does tours of the house.

This is the view from the front of the Hughes house. It sits just above where the sixes river flows into the ocean. Lots of grassland for cattle grazing. The day we visited was a beautiful clear day. The wind was blowing at about 15 miles an hour. The wind blows almost every day.

Our home for the month. There were supposed to be three host couples, but one had to leave for a family emergency. So there are just the two RVer’s here in this host site. There are two more couples that are the Camp Hosts, and then there are couples at Humbug State Park, The Lifeguard Museum and the Day use Area parks.

First day at the top of the lighthouse. What a view out this window.

Believe it or not that is a 1000 watt light bulb, inside the lens.

Below are shots of the lamp itself, and the views out the windows One shot is of the greeting center/gift shop where the people get their tickets to tour the lighthouse. It costs a whopping $2.00 each to get up close to the lantern. We each have a script we use depending on what part of the lighthouse we are in. The bottom part is the workroom and that person tells about the life of a keeper, what that room was used for and a little history of the men who kept the light burning. The Lantern room script tells more about the lamp, how it shown out into the ocean, when it became a rotating light and what kind of lens is used to shine 26 miles out into the ocean on a clear day.

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The two couples, who are here now, are Lighthouse interpretive hosts. We share the duties in the light house. Each couple works half a day. One of us is in the lantern room and one in the work room for our half day shift. We only have to climb the 64 steps once a day.

On Wednesday Sept 15, the Rangers held a BBQ thank you lunch for all the hosts in the area. There were quite a few hosts, from as far away as Umpqua River State Park, near Roseburg, OR. About 30-40 of us were there. It was windy and cold and the campfire felt really good. A nice time was had by all of us.