Southwest Oregon

I read somewhere that December was the the worst time to visit southern Oregon. Seems typical over the last few months, that we’ve been visiting places during the “off season”. For some reason I feel that’s a good thing. If you can see the beauty where other people don’t then your way ahead. Plus, it makes visiting these places during the “on season” even better! And aside from being able to enjoy places without a crowd, we get to see what to expect during the “worst” parts of the year.

So far from what I’ve seen, Oregon has a ton of waterfalls and a lot of rain! It’s very soggy here and the humidity is high which is doing wonders to my hair and skin. I see that the mushrooms also thrive very well in this humid environment.

I prepared for snow. I prepared for heat. But what I didn’t prepare for is constant rain! Yes, all cotton clothing and no rain gear besides a cheap poncho. To say I wasn’t prepared is actually an understatement. Okay yes, I did want warmer weather and I knew we were going to a rainforest but I had expected to see the sun peak out every now and then in between showers. Now I’m wishing I had stocked up on some vitamin D!

Me soaking up the sun after not seeing any for a while!

That sun is no where to be found most days. When it does come out, I see it hit the tent and run outside only for a big streak of clouds to come in and cover it up!

I’ve always allowed my mood to be determined by the weather. Rainy days always make me sad and depressed. I need my sun! Usually I’ll do the typical thing…cook a pot of chili and snuggle up in bed for the night as I listen to the thunderstorms and lightning crackle. I have not heard a single thunderstorm among all this rain nor any rainbows! The closest thing to a noise caused by the rain was in the middle of the night when a large branch broke off from the tree above us and hit our tent. I can’t tell you why the thing didn’t pierce our canvas but bits of it were all on the side of the ground when we woke up that morning.

There’s no cleaning the tent here. Something I have always looked forward to but I save myself the disappointment. Keeping muddy puddles of water from being inside of the tent is my primary concern. We’ve dug a trench and put some tree branches with leaves under the lip of the floating floor in the front entrance to relieve and redirect most of the water but with heavy rainfall, it does little.

You would think that having a big area rug would help not track in mud and keep the floor from being too dirty but moisture traps in smells and pet odor. It hasn’t smelled pretty in here for a while. I would love to be hand washing the clothes and carpets right now but although we have the clothes line up, we haven’t hung anything on it and I haven’t washed laundry because it’s always raining!

We are right by a river and a waterfall. Also, the hills collect the rainfall and its filtered as it comes down so I’m able to collect it for drinking water, coffee and bucket showers! I have been wanting to try and setup a rainwater collection system but it’s hard to get motivated when it’s so dreary.