Report from the southern Oregon Dunes

[Ol'fogasaurus]

As I said I would I deleted pictures. Not buggy stuff, just was interesting to see wood carving.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Deleted the pix of the Hawaii volcano.

Lee

[dustymojave]

Or move them over to the Topic Of The Day forum...

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Heard from one of the guys in our group who was down at the dunes this last weekend. Because of the hot dry conditions you are not allowed to start a gas motor after noon. In this case the limitations are lawn mowers, blowers, chain saws, etc. and this is due to the fire danger.

I would suspect, but have not heard as much, that un-muffled or/or no spark arresters (which are already not allowed) rigs will be looked at and probably ticketed more than usual. Unlike most of the dune areas the Oregon dunes have trails through the trees and other forested areas.

I think I heard that, like the Seattle area, they are getting a lot of smoke from the Calif. fires that is being blown north. Now that the wind direction has changed and coming from the north the smoke from the forest fires in Canada are now blowing into the west of the Cascade Mountains areas (it is in the east also to be honest). I was out the other day on the road and you couldn't see either the Olympic Mountains or the Cascade Mountains when going over bridges which would normally allow this view but because of the heavy smoke haze all you saw was grey w/maybe a trace of an outline in the haze but not sure that was what I saw either. Here they are recommending that young and old plus people with allergies or problems breathing stay inside. It has become that bad here on the west coast.

Heading down this weekend so I will talk about what I see and hear. I can't ride yet due to the surgery I had and it's limitations.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Got down here about 2:00 pm after a fairly easy trip down. We ran into fog, sun. clouds,, splotchy smokey (CA and Canada forest fires) areas on the way here. Got here and the sun was out but a bit windy. The Siuslaw River by the Elk viewing are had white caps on it but the good thing was that they had re-upholstered road in the same area. It is now cool, overcast and windy but not as hard as it was earlier today; close but not quite.

The two bridges being rebuilt over the fish runs on the river now each have one side and they are working on the other side of the bridge. The stop lights are still there but you have plenty of slow down notice.

We saw a lot of riders going home and a lot of replacement riders coming in. I guess this is the last vacation day before school in most places.

Also heard some healthy sounding toys

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

The temp is supposed to be in the will range from the 77 to the 90s depending on where you re. There is also supposed to have a lot of smoke in the air also.

Yesterday it got windy in the evening then dying out after dark.

A lot of riders out there beating the heck out of the dunes but having fun.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

We took some (older) guys and girls out on the dunes to the ocean... they are hooked. Too bad they live so far away.

Fog/off-shore fox coming in so it is very cool right now. Tomorrow is supposed to be in the mid-80s... well see!

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

"Onshore flow" came in as fog last night, it is so wet out that one would think we had a rain storm. Still, at almost 8:30 am, you can only see a couple hundred feet. Last evening there was a run taking out newbies to the dunes ending up at the ocean they said you could only see about 4 waves out.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Some people on the dunes but not a lot; the few that were there were tearing things up pretty good though.

Almost now wind today but the blue sky was dampened some by the overcast/smoke, not sure which it was.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Sorry guys, I'm still alive after the 6.2 earthquake off the Coos Bay/Bannon area of the Oregon Coast. It was about 175 miles off the coast and about 6 miles deep so it was no real worry but it's fun to talk about. If there is going to be any wave action off the ocean it should be minimal so probably not very noticeable.

Weather: onshore flow (kind of like high overcast) off the ocean, a light north wind with a damp cool feel. Still quiet on the dunes as it is 'tween weekends. The onshore flow should burn off before too long and it supposed to be warmer for the next couple of days.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

High off-shore flow. Sun not burning through yet but it should be later on in the day. No real wind yet.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Sunny most of the day but windy and cooler. The wind is flattening out the sand but lot of toys out on the dunes trying of beat up on Mother Nature .

The weekend is supposed to be in the 70s but we are heading home and will miss it. Broke and fixed a lot of things .

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

On the way home my wife noticed a health advisory in the North Bend/Coos Bay area because of the smoke from the forest fires. Usually that means stay inside or wear a proper mask outdoors. Saw a lot of big toy trailers coming into the dune area last night and again today.

The trip home was unusual to say the least. Smoke hit us just as we hit I-5 then cleared and came back on different parts of the way home. Big smoke problems here in Seattle.

Lee

[dustymojave]

So Seattle is now the Big Smokey?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Its fairly clear today but they have had health warnings for a few weeks now. If it isn't Smokey airflow from the south (Cali forest fires) then it is from the forest fires in British Columbia, Saskatchewan or Eastern side of the Cascade mountains or Eastern WA. Bend Oregon is pretty much in the same situation and the Pacific Ocean Coast also. We get some relief with winds off the ocean but not everywhere is getting them.

Orange suns or you can't see it due to the overcast. Some mist has fallen which has also helped some.