Roseburg is only sixty four miles south of Eugene. I know it seems as though I should have stayed in the previous hotel. That’s not a huge distance. However, I have generally been driving long distances to my hiking destinations, so cutting out an extra two hours of driving time is helpful.

I drove east on SR 42 to Myrtle Point and then drove up to Dora to pick up the Coos Bay Wagon Road. Right out of Myrtle Point I noticed that when they constructed this road there must have been a sale on curves. Oh and it’s pretty narrow too. Past Sitkum it’s a one lane gravel road. The area is pretty, although I can think of other roads I like much better. I stopped in just a few places. While I was stopped I had pickups drive past me like they were starring in a truck commercial. That was way too fast to drive on this road, especially considering that it’s used by logging trucks. I had to pull over, and/or back up to a wider spot three times to let the log trucks pass. But that was easy. It was much better than having one of those pickup truck guys crash into me.

I was very happy to get past that ten mile stretch of gravel road. There were more potholes on the west end, but they weren’t an issue. The only problem is that it was narrow and winding. I’ve been on gravel roads before, but this one seemed more dangerous than the others.

The drive from that point was a little bit steep and winding, but it seemed pretty darn good to me by that time.

It was fairly early when I got back to Roseburg. I had planned to drive out to Steamboat Creek, but it seemed like a lot of driving for not a lot of payoff. I’ll already be out there the next three days, so I decided to call it quits.

For a day that was supposed to be rainy, it’s been fairly dry. There were only scattered showers. Hopefully the weather will hold. I have a lot planned for tomorrow.