Chasing the Volcanos ( part2 )

September 28, 2009

Chasing the Volcanos ( part2 )

Early morning of day 2, we left Gold Beach along the spectacular Oregon coastline. The first landing of the day was at Cape Blanco, the most Western point of the state.

Circling the Cape, we had a great look at the Lighthouse, built in 1870... Guess that's old in American standards! ;). Once again we were clearly lucky with the Oregon weather. Having checked the weather reports for airports like Arcata,North Bend and Newport a few weeks in advance on a daily basis, we were excited to cruise along blue skies for our second day.

At Umpqua, 30km (16nm) North of North Bend, we overflew this interesting triangle shaped Oyster bed.
The lunch stop for the day was Florence (OR), an airport ran by a friendly couple who suggested to grab the free FBO car to the nicely restored Old Town of Florence. We elected to take 20 min walk instead and really enjoyed one of the most beautiful and charming towns of Oregon coast cities. Located on the waterfront, it is a perfect place to explore art galleries, antiques stores, gift shops and finish up with a nice lunch next to the Siuslaw river.

This crooked tree, proves that Florence can be windy at times.

Just North of Florence the scenery changes quite drastically with about 40 NM amazing sand dunes instead of spectacular rock formations.

Our favorite landing spot on the +3000 km trip was the destination for the night, Pacific City (KPFC).

The runway just over 500m (1800ft) long and a tiny 9m(30ft) wide, brings one right in the middle of the little coast town.

We stayed at the excellent Craftsman B&B, just across the runway. Mike was very hospitable and I can strongly recommend The Craftsman to all flying and non-flying people visiting this Oregon jewel.