Wally was the first person I saw from our camp this morning. It wasn’t long until the campground began to come to life. Tom showed up ready to get started with the job of retrieving our collection of crabs stored in live wells. Tom brought buckets for transporting our crabs from their storage area to the cooking pot.

Removing live crabs from storage

The morning was not off to a good start when we discovered that 12 of our biggest crabs had escaped from captivity during the night. We found a broken door hinge that allowed the critters to squeeze out to freedom. We might have lost all of the crabs in that trap, but the largest crab got stuck in the doorway keeping the others from getting out.

Must be quick when using bare hands

As luck would have it, the cooking pot wasn’t working properly this morning. It seems the tank that supplied fuel to the cooking pot was out of propane. So Charlene brought out a small pot and borrowed a second larger pot to use for cooking crabs. The combination of the two smaller pots had a total capacity smaller than the one big pot that was not working. This slowed down the cooking process, but we had our crabs in first, so we didn’t have to wait in line. I took pictures of the cooking process.

Jim almost disappears in a cloud of steam

As each pot of crabs finished cooking, I took a bucket of cooked, bright red-orange critters over to our campsite. After moving three buckets of cooked crabs, I helped Tom get the traps and boat ready to travel. We put the cover on the boat to finish the preparation to hook up the boat to our motorhome. But, before I did that, I had to go out to town to top off the fuel tank of our motorhome.

Cooked crabs go into cooling pot

By the time we returned to camp it was time for our last bunch of crabs to come out of the pot. So I went over to cooking area to take some pictures. When Jim removed the cooked crabs from the boiling water, the upper half of his body seemed to disappear in a cloud of steam. The cooked crabs were then transferred to a big pot of cold water to cool the crabs quickly. This part of the process is supposed to make the meat separate from the shell so it easier to get out of the shell when the crab is eaten.

Crabs in cooling pot

While I was watching the cooking process, I witnessed the bagging of bait for crab fishing. A tote full of fish carcasses was brought in to camp in the back of a pickup truck. Charlene began putting two or three fish carcasses in each plastic bag. This was the first large quantity of crab bait we had seen all week. There had been a shortage of the normal fish-type crab-bait all week. After awhile, I saw Tom helping to bag bait. The really big fish carcasses were thrown to the side because they would not fit in a bag.

Bagging fish-carcass crab bait

While watching the crab bait being bagged, the last of our crabs finished cooking. They were taken over to our camp circle to be put on display on the picnic tables. Last year our catch of crabs was spread loosely over one full table and part of another. This year, our crabs were spread out close together on two picnic tables.

A fine collection of cooked crabs

We all took a lot of pictures of crabs from all angles. I wanted an aerial view, so I climbed up on the roof of our motorhome to take pictures of the crabs. Everybody wanted a picture taken from the same angle. So, one by one, all the cameras were handed up to me to take pictures with each camera.

Taking pictures of crabs

With the pictures taken, it was time to haul our load of crabs down to the cleaning station. Harry, Wally, Tom, and I set up a crab cleaning production line. It was pretty simple; three of us cleaned the crabs with Harry washing the crabs we handed to him. Because there were three of us cleaning the critters, we got ahead of Harry. We simply out numbered him.

I noticed something different this year; there were no salmon fry feeding on the crab scraps that were washed into the water next to the dock. Charlene said the small fish were not there because the tide was so low, the small salmon were susceptible to predators in the shallow water. The result was that the water was full of little pieces of crab meat. I'm sure some aquatic creature would not let the very small feast of crab meat go to waste.

When the crabs were all cleaned, we took them back to the campground to divide up our catch of crabs. After dividing the load of crabs among all in our party, we put the crabs in ice chests and iced them down.

It was now time for me to pull our motorhome around to where we could hook the boat up. Tom had already hitched his car to his motorhome and Wally was all set to tow Dick’s boat.

While the guys were making preparations to get on the road, the women went over to the office to settle our bills with Charlene. She was in for a surprise. Nora had made a special "Thank you" card for her. The card was signed by everybody and had a gift inside. Charlene was very happy and hugged the women goodbye.

Charlene giving Cathie goodbye hug

So now we were ready to roll or so I thought. It was just after noon, so we all decided to have lunch before getting on the road. At approximately 12:30 we pulled out of the campground and headed south on highway 101. Not far from the campground, we drove right by the area where we had been fishing for crabs the day before.

Driving by our crab fishing area on 101

Our caravan of motorhomes found its way down the coast to a state park with a dump station. Harry was the first to dump, so he left his sewer hose connected to the dump station. Then we each took a turn driving up to connect our motorhomes to the sewer hose. This really speeded up the process of dumping very full holding tanks. Tom was the last to empty his motorhome holding tanks while the rest of us waited. The park had the usual berry plants that we've seen all over this part of Oregon. As Wally waited in their motorhome, Cathie was outside harvesting fresh berries.

Driving along Pacific coast

It wasn’t very long until we were headed south again on highway 101 heading toward Florence. We normally would turn inland at Florence, but this year we would try a new route back to I-5. So, we drove through Florence and on to Reedsport to the junction of highways 101 and 38 where we made our turn away from the coast. It was here that Harry, Shirley, Wally and Cathie continued south to return Dick's boat. We would see them later in the day at the campground where we would spend the night.

Scenery along the way

I was in the wrong lane when I saw the sign for our turn-off and missed it. I was able to turn at the next intersection where I found that Tom had followed me and missed the turn-off as well. In our maneuvers to get back to highway 38, Tom took the lead and I followed him through the streets of Reedsport.

When Tom, Nora, Kay and I turned onto highway 38 we found we were driving next to the Umpqua River. This river flows through, what turned out to be, one of the most beautiful river valleys I've seen. An interesting sight we saw along the way were herds of elk out in the valley meadows. Some of the elk were fairly close to the highway. This must be a common occurrence because there were "ELK" warning signs along the highway as well as pullout areas to view the elk. I really enjoyed the drive along the river.

Driving next to the Umpqua River

We finally found our way to an intersection where we turned on to highway 138, which would take us to I-5. This route, new to us, turned out to be a very nice way to get to and from the coast highway.

We crossed Umpqua River here

Our old route on highway 126 required that we run through a confusing maze, in Eugene, to find our way between I-5 and 126. The transfer from 138 to I-5, or visa-versa, is very easy at Sutherlin, Oregon. One minute we were on a pretty country road and the next minute we were racing south on I-5. Unless I have some pressing reason to go through Eugene, this will be my route of choice in the future.

Crossing the Umpqua River

Once we were on I-5, our destination for the day would be the Valley of the Rogue State Park. From here it was a short distance to the campground. We arrived at the campground after the office had closed, so we had to self-register our campsites. To make sure we had four campsites together, we reserved campsites for the two motorhomes that would arrive later.

We found four campsites that were arranged in such a way that our motorhomes would be in a somewhat circular configuration. Harry, Shirley, Wally, and Cathie arrived at park about one hour after us. Wally took a campsite across the road from Tom and Harry on the outer loop of the campground. I took a campsite on the inner loop that was across the grass from Tom and Harry.

Motorhomes in a circle again

We decided to have our evening meal on the picnic table next to Tom and Nora’s motorhome. Nora prepared clam chowder for all that wanted it and we all brought a food item to share. Back in the fish camp when the crabs were divided up, there was a large quantity of loose crab legs. So it was decided an easy way to divide the legs would be to eat those legs for dinner tonight. It was a delicious meal that ended with Tillamook ice cream for desert.

Dining on crab legs and clam chowder