Our time in Oregon!

Plus a look behind the scenes at ~errands~

May 31, 2023

It’s errand day which means I’m writing the first draft of this letter at the laundromat 🫧

When you live on the road, there’s a lot of maintenance that’s required to go “off grid” for a week or more. The weekly (or every two weeks if you’re frugal) errand list:

Fill up on drinking water
Fill up on propane
Dump the 💩
Grocery shop

But the monthly errand list? That adds the laundromat into the mix.

3-4 weeks worth of laundry in one sitting = a fun task (a joke), but at least all the loads can be done at once. Honestly, it’s not the worst — I have been known to forget a singular load of laundry (several times) and have needed to rewash it (several times) because it sat for too long. So it actually works out in my favor. Plus, while I do the laundry, my partner deep cleans the camper soo it’s kind of a double win?

When we’re heading into a city though, the errand list gets far longer because more stores are available! Which means stops for Amazon lockers, the hardware store, the auto parts store, pet store (cause dog food is also a thing), an REI, etc. may get added to the todo list.

This wraps us around to today’s errand list — the monthly to-do while passing through a city:

Grocery store
Dump 💩
Fill 💧
Laundromat
Auto parts store
Exhaust shop
Starbucks
Hardware store

So that’s this week’s snippet of behind-the-scenes you may or may not have wanted to read 😅 On to the fun stuff!!

We’re back on the road!

After our month long pause for a wedding, family visits, and camper updates, we’re back on the road! 👏🏼👏🏼

We began along the Oregon Coast heading south, spending some time directly on the beach as well as in the coastal forests 🌲

The Pacific Northwest is really hard to find dispersed camping — there’s not a lot of free options! In the southwest, there’s so much BLM land and open space that it’s very easy to find a secluded area to stay for free. Here? You’re limited to basically just logging areas, which many times are gated. But my partner (the wiz he is) was able to find this *stunning* campsite off a logging road. It’s not the prettiest on the logging side, but it was safe, secluded, had a view of the ocean and tons of trees. The most important part? It was in an open area, so we were able to generate solar power and have access to the open sky for Starlink (our satellite internet — a necessity for the work week).

I was able to get a ton of work done at this spot & I can officially confirm my new studio set up has dramatically improved my work flow! The dogs loved being off leash, sunbathing and eating sticks, and my partner was able to try out and explore the area with his new (to him) dirt bike.

Heading East

Originally we were thinking of continuing south along the coast into northern California, but our plans were centered around when our paddle board would be delivered to the REI in central Oregon aaaaand it was set to be delivered on the earlier side of the estimated timeline! So instead of continuing south, we headed east —

But we of course had to find a backroad through the wilderness (let’s call it a scenic byway) instead of heading on a well traveled highway. Why? It’s less boring! The road we ended up taking was a forest and service road that to our surprise was 98% paved (yay no bumps!) 🎉

The goal was to find a cool spot to camp at for a few work days. But it proved to be more difficult than expected to find a campsite with enough open sky to get a stable satellite connection. We were, to be fair, in a forest though. So… how much open sky could we have really expected 🤷🏼‍♀️

We ended up finding ourselves in an area typically accessed by the Rogue River for the night, leaving the hunt for open sky to the next day.

Our campground for the night was right next to the Rogue River Ranch — a pioneer farm + National Historic Site. Many people raft + tent camp at this ranch, but we unfortunately couldn’t fit under the gate to park in the designated camping area. This location would have been perfect to stay at for a few days otherwise! A pleasant find in the middle of nowhere.

Central Oregon

The work week campground we ended up at: a BLM site (one of the few in the PNW)

It wasn’t our favorite spot — not incredibly beautiful, or secluded, but it had open sky which (as you’ve read) has been hard to come by. Plus it was near two pretty creeks that we spent some time exploring and fishing!

My new studio set up continued to serve me well this week and I was able to finish up a large body of work for Venue, a retail gallery I stock in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. I finished it all just in time for when we needed to pack up camp to pick up the paddle board!

We of course wanted to try out our new toy over the holiday weekend, so we snagged a reservation at this beauty of a lake in Central Oregon —

My partner and I both took a few days off work to enjoy the weekend and it was a much appreciated break after the weeks of constant movement.

We spent the weekend paddle boarding and swimming with the dogs on the lake (the dogs swam, I did not — it’s still too cold for me), hammocking in the trees, reading, and hiking!

I took Sadie on a hike that started a quarter mile from our campsite — it was a great little day hike to another lake. 7.5 miles round trip with minimal elevation gain, so it was very comfortable for my out-of-hiking-shape body. There was still some snow on the ground so the loop trail was covered and difficult to follow. I ended up turning around after the lake, but I ran into a couple who knew the way so I tagged along with them! Sadie and I had a blast (she’s still tired) and we made some friends 🌟

Don’t worry Mom — I had a whistle, pepper spray, bear spray, and my inreach tracking my location, so I was very safe hiking alone (and very over prepared). Yes, I did follow strangers into the forest, but the vibes were good and my gut was right. We had a great time talking the rest of the hike and exchanged numbers for the next time we are in the area!

(Stranger does not always equal danger)