First stop, furthest south over the Californian-Oregon border: Brookings. Eeeewww. Creepy. The population is 6,800 and the homeless percentage is way higher than any place I've ever been! I attempted to find a place to park for the night and encountered debilitated RVs, junky cars, and banged up vans with homeless men staring at me from their sitting spots in the dirt. Hoards of homeless roaming the streets together like feral dogs. I left and headed north. I was told later the closer one is to California, the more drug addicts are living on the streets.
I parked overnight on a trailhead pullout right on Highway 101 called Thomas Creek. It's within the Samuel H. Boardman Scenic Corridor. The temperature was a cool 57 degrees, but everything felt so wet from the fog. I thought I'd hike down to the water the next day, but I didn't realize how far up on a cliff I was and there is no access to the beach! The trail to who knows where was steep and scary looking! Do I need to break another ankle? No thanks.
July 7, 2026: In the morning a really nice, very clean, white car pulled up and parked. The man in it got out. He looked homeless. Clothes brown with saturated dirt. Very dark, dirty tan and scruffy, long hair. I thought it very strange the dicotomy between his appearance and his car. He went into the woods.
Soon after I could hear a dog barking like crazy and both the man and the dog came out of the woods. The man kept trying to catch the dog, but the dog was not having it. Beautiful dog and looked well-cared for. The dog came near my van. I opened the side door and tried to get it to come closer. He seemed scared. I had a weird feeling I should not leave my van unattended with that guy around. Another car pulled up and the dog was continuously barking at everyone. Very nervous. I heard the homeless-looking guy say it wasn't his dog. As I left, the new car was calling the authorities on the dog worried it was dumped off. I told them the dog was not here last night and seemed showed up with that white car although I did not see the dog get out of the car. Something was going on there...my instincts said to leave.
I headed north to the next pullout and hiked the trail through the woods. The views through the trees were spectacular even with the heavy cloud cover and fog, but again, I was up on a cliff with no access to the beach or what is known as Secret Beach. (See photo above.)
I continued north and stopped at another lookout with a view of The Arch. Very frustrating not being able to get down to the sand as I've seen photos of people frollicking on these beaches.
