We had our first visitors! (photo taken from our MastCam) Rob and Keri came for a few hours to pick Tim up as he headed back home. We went to town for a sushi lunch, and they took us to Fred Meyers to get groceries. Since we don’t have a car, this was a nice convenience for us. We stopped by Dairy Queen for dessert, and we discovered happy hour (2-5pm) is half-price for any item that you can suck through a straw. Sean just happens to be a malt man, so when we needed a treat to drown our autopilot woes, we’d walk the 2.5 miles to split a shake.
The river that runs through Brookings is the Chetco. Except for the lowermost 5 miles, the river is located entirely within the Rogue River – Siskiyou National Forest. No motorized boats are allowed in the national forest part, but we could dinghy up the river with our outboard motor for a few miles at least. It was a foggy morning when we lowered our dinghy into the water and headed upriver. The fog dissipated a bit as we went under the highway 101 bridge and around a bend. It was the perfect amount of fog to make a halo around the sun! As the river narrowed and increased speed, it looked like we were barely moving. We tied to an overhanging tree in the calms and had lunch before making our way to Social Security Bar, about 3 miles up the river. There were a few cars parked on the side of the gravel bar right next to the water. The river looked to be shallowing and faster ahead, so we turned around and alternated drifting and motoring back down the river.
On the side of the marina, is a nice sandy beach that’s lined with driftwood and logs. The marina manages the RV park and beach area and encourages beach fires to help clear the driftwood. We walked to this beach nearly every day. There is a plaque to memorialize a shocking event: the only bombing of the continental US by an enemy airplane. In 1942, a Japanese floatplane launched from a submarine bombed the Siskiyou Forest 35 miles inland from this beach. The intention was to start a forest fire. Read the plaque in the photo above for the heart-felt reconciliation of the event.
Author: Kathy (4/18/2023)
Tales of Misadventure 
That was very interesting. Thanks. We’ve done the jet boat ride out of Golds Beach on the Rogue River twice. So much fun.
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