Where’s Nico?

Am I just going for click-bait here with this post title? Am I making any of you taste your lunch sneaking back up in the back of your throat with the thought of me disrobed? At a minimum, are you intrigued enough to keep reading? Well if the answer was yes to any of those questions, then mission accomplished!

For the record, “Totally Nude” was a song on the final Talking Heads album – an album titled, appropriately enough, “Naked”. But if you’re wondering why I chose this title, we have to back up a bit. First things first… where’s Nico?

Siuslaw National Forest!

Siuslaw runs along the southern and central Oregon coast and is pronounced “See-YEW-slaw”. We’re noticing a lot of the parks in Oregon are pronounced different than we would have expected. Prior to Siuslaw, we stayed at Willamette, as I mentioned in the last post. As a homebrewer, I’ve used a ton of Willamette hops over the years and always pronounced it “Will-ahm-ETTE”. Turns out, Oregonians pronounce it “Wil-AM-mitt”. It’s hard to tell them they’re wrong when they live here and all… but I’m still tempted to. But if you google “Willamette pronunciation”, clearly they’ve paid off big Google to play along with them.

Anyway, the nude stuff… I told you in the last post about some of the gorgeous hikes we had already done at Willamette. We did some more fun stuff there, including a “clothing optional” dip at Terwillger/Cougar Hot Springs that was super cool.

“Clothing optional? Ken… the thought of you there… I ate Indian food for lunch and I feel suddenly really queasy…”

Don’t worry my friend! I did remain clothed during our visit. There was one gal who was topless for a bit while we were there, but despite the risque tease with this post’s title, it was really just a very nice series of four hot springs on the side of a mountain.

The next day, we went on a rafting trip down the Mackenzie River, which may have been the prettiest river I’ve rafted, if not necessarily the most adventurous. We’d done several hikes along the Mackenzie and even have a favorite happy hour spot we found on it’s banks, but it was really cool to get to raft down it and see it from that perspective.

After a really fun time at Willamette, we decided to head towards the Oregon coast. Our first stop was Eel Creek Campground in Siuslaw. We stayed there for three nights before scoring a really great first come/first served spot at Tillicum Beach Campground. Tillicum Beach is often listed as the best camground in the national forest and for good reason – our spot is about a one minute walk from the ocean.

It’s beautiful here – you can be on a nice sandy beach…

Then in a few minutes get to rocky shores with cool tide pools…

And then take a short drive inland to hike old growth forests and see amazing waterfalls.

Nico seems to vacillate between wanting to be a mountain dog and wanting to be a beach dog, and Tillicum Beach is the idea spot for him to hit both his yin and his yang, his peanut butter and his jelly, his Hall and his Oates.

Anyway, we plan on hanging out here for a while – at least until the Independence Day travelers clear through. In a trip full of highlights, this place… well, it’s a highlight.

– Ken 6/28/2024