Individual Liberty — Individual Responsibility 

Cold, Wet, and Muddy

That's a fair way to describe our camping trip this past weekend, or at least how it ended.

We left Covington at about 7:30 PM on Thursday night, or rather that was the plan. We stopped at the local Safeway for a few things like ice and sodas to drink on the trip. Then it was off to McDonalds for sustenance to carry us through our journey. We finally left town at about 8:15 PM.

The temperature was around 82° and it was dry. As we passed through Portland the temperature was around 85°. It was still dry. By the time we were halfway from Portland to Salem, the temperature was 88°. It was still dry. In the short span of distance between Salem and Lincoln City the temperature dropped 30° and there was a light mist in the air. Due to a missed turn, it was about 1:30 AM on Friday when we arrived in Lincoln City, so the cooler air wasn't a complete surprise.

I had checked the weather forecast for Lincoln City before we left, and was expecting temperatures in the mid fifties at night and mid to upper sixties and even low seventies during the days. I had also checked the weather forecast for Covington and saw that on Friday the temperature was expected to be in the upper eighties with the weekend pretty much the same. The cooler weather would be welcome.

Friday afternoon, after spending the morning at my in-laws, we went to Devil's Lake State Park checked in and set up camp. As you can see from the picture, the ground was damp. Very damp. At least it was solid, and there wasn't any standing water that we could see. Well, there wasn't any standing water on the campsite. Just behind the bushes there was a large ditch that ran at least the length of the site that was filled with standing water, which didn't give me a comfortable state of mind as I thought of mosquitoes and other annoying things.

I don't recall the park being this damp when we passed through it earlier this spring. Of course in the spring, the temperatures on the Oregon Coast were unseasonably warm, and it was unusually dry. A least that was the case in May when I visited the park. I guess, having seen the park in May, I expected this trip to be like most of the other summer camping trips my family has taken in the past few years — dry and dusty.

One of the reasons we chose the location we did for this trip was to celebrate our sister-in-law's fiftieth birthday. Sue doesn't travel much, not being able to take much time off from her job, so we decided to camp near where she lives. She came out to join us on Saturday, when things were still relatively dry.

By Saturday evening though, strange rumblings were heard emanating from the sky. They seemed to follow shortly after these odd flashes of light that briefly illuminated the clouds. After a few minutes of this going on, we set up an extra tarp to make sure that we'd have more cover from the elements. Then came the rains. It didn't rain hard, nor did it rain persistently. But it rained often. We had lots of very brief thundershowers rolling in one after another. Soon the ground was soaked through.

The rain persisted overnight, and on into Sunday. Breaking camp was a cold, wet, and muddy experience. Even our dog wasn't too pleased with the weather, and needed to stay bundled up and off the ground for comfort while we put things into the van.

At least it wasn't hot like it was in the Willamette Valley where temperatures were in the hundreds. We did have a pretty good time on our camping trip. We always do. It was great to get away from the daily grind of work. Still, I think this final picture will leave you with the feel of some of our lasting impressions of the Oregon Coast campground at Devils Lake State Park.