The Great Northwest Air Race and Vacation – Part 4 Down the Left Coast

Departing Arlington we flew west of Paine Field and Boeing Field picking up advisories from Seattle Approach and later Center as we made our way south toward the Columbia River, Portland and finally Salem, Oregon. As we passed by Mount St. Helens we didn’t see much of it since its lofty summit was shrouded in mystery. Rarely have I been here to see it. However, I did once fly around it in a Learjet once at 20,000 feet probably 17 or 18 years ago while enroute from Boeing Field to Portland. While I did photograph it at the time, the pictures never can do justice to what the eye actually sees.

 

 

We spent a few days in Salem visiting with my mom and sister. I didn’t have much chance this time to visit with my cousins on their farm or my younger brother who now lives over in the Bend area. I wish we lived closer so we could visit more often and since we were this close we were not going to miss the opportunity. Mom is getting up there in years and slowing down quite a bit and I enjoyed all the time we were able to spend together. We spent almost four days here and had to start heading back. We were going to continue down the coast and then turn left at San Diego…



 

We had an open invite to spend some time with fellow racers Red Hamilton and Marilyn Boese had invited us to visit and stay at their place in Ft. Bragg right on the coast. So we headed that way. All the way down the Willamette River Valley I pointed out mountain peaks I knew in the Cascades and landmarks on the ground as we approached the Rouge River. Crossing the coastal range out to the coast I was able to point out Mt. Shasta in the distance. One place I’ve always wanted to land but never have is Weed right near the base of that mountain. But that’ll have to be another trip.

Once we hit the coast we crossed over Arcata, the airport I landed so long ago just as I broke my first 100 hours. Now 16,000 hours later, it doesn’t seem to have changed all that much. I just hope I’m not too jaded in my age to appreciate it. We were on descent into a little airpark near Ft. Bragg called Virgin Creek. With the marine layer moving in from offshore I did a pass down the runway determining if I felt comfortable with putting the plan onto a 1,900’ X 12’ strip. This time I opted to for the little River Airport (KLLR) 12 miles south.

Marilyn met us at the airport as Red had an engagement to go to that night. We toured Mendocino on our way back to Ft. Bragg. This is the town that was used as the fictitious town of Cabot Cove, Maine in the Murder She Wrote series. It has been used in a number of movies as well. Then she drove us out to the airpark and we had a wonderful dinner when Red showed up after his engagement.

The next morning we enjoyed the morning mist as we walked along the rocky shore that is less than a half mile from the airstrip. It is a really neat place and Red gave us a tour of his parts warehouse since he specializes in specialty car parts. He’s been in the machine shop business almost his entire life and now they run a mail order business so they can live anywhere and what a lovely place to live.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch we headed back to Little River Airport as the marine layer was once again coming on shore. Luckily it still had a high enough ceiling and good visibility underneath that we could depart VFR and head toward the east.

Bidding goodbye to Red and Marilyn we headed off on another adventure, the ceiling rising the further east into the coastal range that we flew. Eventually the clouds gave way to a beautiful blue sky and we headed on south towards Porterville and Bakersfield where we spent the night.