Thursday June 22 & Friday June 23, 0.0mi/0.0km

I was awake at 5:30am, and boarded the 6:15 bus to Corvallis, where I waited for a different bus to take me to Portland.

That second bus arrived at 8am, and by 10:30 I was reunited with my car in Portland. I stopped for lunch, and then drove 4 hours to Washington’s Olympic Coast. Since I would be car camping with my friend Randi for the next couple of nights, I stopped to get some food and snacks.

I arrived at Kalaloch Campground around 4pm, and even though both of us had been hiking all week (she had just summited Mt Rainier!), we decided to go for a short hike on the beach.

Pretty soon we came to the Tree of Life, a famous Sitka Spruce with its roots hanging in the air.

You could easily hike underneath it, and go inside of the cave that the roots made.

We hiked a little further enjoying the foggy beach.

Back at the campsite we exploded our vehicles onto the picnic table and had a feast for dinner, even including a salad! Both of us have been craving greens and vegetables, given our recent diet of backpacking foods.

And it was really fun having a campfire, which I almost never do on long hikes since it’s a lot of effort.

After dinner and some evening beverages, we returned to the nearby beach to watch the moon set.

The next morning we left our campsite and drove North up the coast to ShiShi Beach. Along the way we stopped in Forks, WA. According to a local resident, their economy is based on three things – Timber, Tourism, and Twilight. We did some tourism and checked out the Bigfoot museum and store.

I really wanted this bigfoot shirt but they didn’t have any size small…bummer.

Then we went across the street to the Twilight museum, which was dedicated to the series of vampire movies from the 2010s.

The movie franchise was really popular, and the two volunteer staff at the museum seem to know every little detail about the 5-movie series. They had a pretty good collection of props and costumes used in the movies, ha!

And of course at the end, we got our picture in front of the screen.

After grabbing lunch in Forks, we drove the rest the way to the coast. The parking for ShiShi beach is on Makah tribal land, so we basically parked in some guys front yard for a small fee.

From the parking area it was an easy 3 mile hike to the beach.

I love hiking through the dense temperate rainforest.

It was so green!

An hour later we arrived on the beach and set up camp. View to the north:

View to the South:

View of beer:

I wouldn’t usually camp on a beach, but this was a pretty sweet spot!

We had a few hours before dinner time so we took a walk to a rocky cliff area to check it out. There were tons of seabirds looking for food on the rocks.

Back at the campsite, we ate dinner and Randi started a campfire. (I don’t have the skill or patience).

Just before we went to bed, a group of hikers arrived at like 10pm. It was confusing to see a large group of headlamps wandering the beach looking for a campsite at that hour.

I fell asleep to the sound of the waves, tomorrow I will have to wake up early to make the trek back to the Oregon Coast Trail. It was a great two days on the Olympic Coast!

Wednesday June 21, 27.0mi/43.5km

Taft Beach (129.2/10ft) to Newport Yaquina Bay Bridge (157.1/140ft) (OR)

I left the motel pretty late at 10am, but fortunately the miles flew by quickly today. I hiked down Highway 101 for an hour and crossed over Drift Creek.

I was glad to leave the highway, and after cutting through a small neighborhood, I was on Gleneden Beach.

It wasn’t a very long beach, maybe only a couple of miles. Pretty soon I could see the headland that marked the end of the beach.

As usual, I exited up one of the official entry/exit points that are marked with these neon yellow signs.

I climbed up onto the headland, and even though it was very short, it still had a great view from the top.

The trail cut through the vegetation, which was so thick it made a kind of tunnel.

I emerged back on Highway 101, but this time I didn’t have to walk directly on the highway, since there was a trail right next to it underneath the power lines.

Occasionally the trail meandered away from the highway and went through some really neat looking mossy forests.

And then it returned to the highway. This section was pretty funny since it traveled directly behind the guiderail.

This amazing little spot was called Boiler Bay State scenic viewpoint.

Next I walked through Depoe Bay, which was the whale watching capital of the world.

The ocean is very deep here since the land drops off a cliff into the sea, and the whales can swim pretty close to shore.

Apparently it’s also the world’s smallest harbor!

There were tons of people walking around and window shopping in all the little buildings. It kinda reminded me of the village of Lake Placid, except it was next to an ocean. Normally I would stop for a snack or ice cream but I got a late start and needed to keep moving.

I hiked through the Rocky Creek State scenic area, which had some cool little coves that made semi-musical noises when the high tide waves struck them, kind of like a symphony. I hiked a couple miles uphill to the top of Cape Foulweather.

The visitor Center was closed, but there were still views to be had.

The spot was quite popular with tourists, so I was able to get somebody to take a photo of me.

It was pretty cold and windy up there, even on a nice sunny day. I could see how it earned the name Cape Foulweather. I hiked downhill for a couple miles back to sea level, and arrived at the Devil’s Punchbowl Park.

The punchbowl is a hollow rock formation, where the water churns violently at high tide. Since it was low tide, there was nothing to see. So I took the stairs down to the beach and enjoyed another beach walk.

I think this was called Beverly Beach.

And this one was Moolack Beach.

By now the tide was starting to come in, so I had to hike up on the road for a mile to get around a tight spot. But pretty soon I dropped down to the beach again. This one was called Agate Beach, and it was very popular with surfers.

It was also very windy and full of dunes.

I looked behind me to see Yaquina Head, and its namesake lighthouse.

By now it was 7pm so I walked quickly down Nye Beach for a couple miles, and then left the beach at another lighthouse. This one was called Yaquina Bay lighthouse.

I walked through the little park, and pretty soon I was in the city of Newport. I could see the Yaquina Bay Bridge, which I would be crossing the next day.

Since there is no place to camp near the city, I unfortunately had to get a motel room. I walked half a mile through the little city, pausing briefly at the little attractions.

I thought this sign was hilarious, since this is the western end of US Highway 20, and the eastern end is at Kenmore Square in Boston, near where I used to work.

I checked into my motel room, dropped off my stuff, and then walked down the street to get a quick meal since it was almost 9pm. I was in bed an hour later, with my alarm set for 5:30am. My plan is to take a couple days off the trail, and meet up with a friend who is visiting the Pacific coast in Washington. So I’m catching a 6:15am bus to make that happen!

Tuesday June 20, 15.0mi/24.1km

FS1861 on top of Cascade Head (114.2/1230ft) to Taft Beach (129.2/10ft) (OR)

This section of trail is in a very developed area, so there are few camping opportunities. After last night’s campsite, I would be stuck with motels for the next two nights. Knowing I had another short day, I didn’t leave camp until 9am. It had also rained all night and finally stopped at 8am, so I had no incentive to leave my tent early! The first 3.5 miles of today were on a brushy wet trail, aka a carwash.

The first half mile of trail started off ok…

… And the dense fog up here at this elevation made the forest feel really ancient and isolated.

I don’t know the name of these plants but they had massive leaves. My foot looks little by comparison!

The next hour of hiking was basically just thrashing through dense vegetation and getting soaked in the process. It took me an hour to hike just 2 miles and I was pretty scratched up afterwards. I kept my phone safe in a waterproof bag so there were no photos of that horrendous trail. After I had descended a thousand feet and arrived back to the highway, I was back in the warm sunshine. I took a break at the Salmon River interpretive area, which had picnic tables and bathrooms.

There was an amazing view over the Salmon River estuary, which was preserved over decades by the Forest Service, which bought up local land, and removed the dams & levees that were impairing the ecosystem.

The distance I could see Cascade Head, which I had camped on last night, and it still had its top in the clouds! I hiked onwards, and turned down a side road which would lead to the beach. Unfortunately some local posted a homemade sign to imply that the road was private property (people are jerks).

I even called and left a voicemail with the Lincoln County surveyor’s office, asking about the status of this road, since the sign didn’t look official and all other data sources suggest it’s a public road. Regardless, I walked Highway 101 to the beach to avoid any irate locals, and keep a good name for OCT hikers. Back on Highway 101, I hiked a couple miles to the beach. I passed this interesting sign along the way, halfway between the equator and the pole!

Finally I was back on the beach and away from the traffic of the highway.

I like that this beach had cool rock formations near the shore, which made the crashing waves really interesting to watch.

Looking behind me I could still see Cascade Head, and that it was still covered in clouds! Crazy.

I hiked for a couple hours on the nice beach, with no high tide issues like yesterday. When I got to Spanish Head, there was this really neat rocky part that I had to scramble through.

Pretty soon after that the beach sort of ended, and the outlet of Siletz bay became an obstacle. I turned inland along the bay, and got to watch some seals play in the water.

Usually leaving the beach is the hardest part, because you have to hike through a bunch of soft sand that tries to prevent any forward progress. But Taft Beach had this nice mat, which made it easy to walk.

With the lack of usefully-spaced camping options in this section, I was forced to spend the night in a motel again. At least it was a Tuesday night so I got a pretty good price.

And the view over Siletz Bay was amazing.

Usually the back of the hotel room door has a list of rules, the checkout time, etc. Around here they have the tsunami evacuation procedure!

I walked to the local IGA grocery store, and grabbed some items to reheat in the microwave for dinner. After watching some bad TV (including a couple episodes of Hot Wings, Orange is the New Black, and Lego Masters), I went to bed.

Monday June 19, 14.2mi/22.9km

Pacific City (100.0/23ft) to FS1861 on top of Cascade Head (114.2/1230ft) (OR)

The available camping is awkwardly spaced in this stretch, so I only had 14 miles to hike today. I checked out of the motel at 10am, and walked over to the coffee shop where I redeemed the motel’s free smoothie offer. I chose the pineapple and blackcurrant flavor, which was superb. I finally walked out of town at noon, and the first stretch was on a local road.

After walking for an hour on that road, I turned onto highway 101 South. It was a busy highway, but it also felt safer with the huge wide shoulders. I thought a few groups of bikepackers, one of them said they were writing from Vancouver to San Diego…cool!

It was a scenic roadwalk through some farm fields and dairyland.

After a couple hours of road walking I returned to the beach. As usual the parking lot for the beach access had a bunch of surfers’ cars covered in stickers. This one seemed especially fitting for me.

I always like the beachwalks, they’re easy, relaxing, and there’s no navigation or traffic to think about.

Though sometimes there is a high tide to worry about! The beach got pretty narrow here, and I had to scramble up onto the rocks after a poorly timed wave approached me.

As I neared the end of this section of beach, I saw Proposal Rock come into view.

To get around the next headland, I had to hike inland and go over it using roads and trails. The first road went by a little ice cream truck, which sadly was closed today.

So I had to settle for a pint of ice cream from the general store across the street. As I waited in line I also browsed their book collection.

From there, I was back on highway 101 for a couple miles before turning off into the Siuslaw National Forest.

I could see why this was called the Rainforest Trail, all the vegetation in this entire area was very dense and green.

A tiny part of the trail had been washed out by some winter storms, but it was easy to get around.

I hiked up the trail for an hour and arrived at the top of Cascade Head, and a forest service road. Since it was 6pm, and the next available camping was at least 10 miles away, I put up my tent in the middle of the closed road.

It was probably the only flat and clear spot around for miles, the only downside was the firm gravel underneath. The tent stakes were hard to get into the ground, but eventually I managed and only broke one of them. After I made dinner and got into the tent for the night, I could hear it starting to rain while I was reading my book. Bummer. Hopefully it will stop soon so I can pack up a dry tent in the morning!

Sunday June 18, 13.4mi/21.6km

Cape Lookout State Park (86.6/20ft) to Pacific City (100.0/23ft) (OR)

Because I started hiking at 4:45am, the beach was still pretty dark when I left the campground.

It had rained pretty hard overnight, and it looked like it was threatening to rain again, but it held off for most of the morning. I love the smell of a forest after a recent rainstorm.

The trail climbed up to a short headland and I had a pretty good view of the ocean from above.

In theory this trail was closed due to “storm damage” but I didn’t see any fallen trees and even the bridge looked brand new.

As I descended from the other side of the headland, I started to see the sunrise creep into the treetops. Cool!

I could see Cape Lookout as I descended the trail back down to the beach.

In some places the trail was a little overgrown, but mostly it was a very nicely maintained trail through a mature forest.

By 6am I was back down to the beach, and I had a quick 4 miles to walk to get to the crossing of Sand Lake outlet. The outlet can only be crossed at low tide, which today occurred at 7:30am, hence the super early starting time today.

The view behind me to Cape Lookout got better as the sun came up.

Usually the little sea critters will move when I walk down the beach, but this crab stayed still.

Then the clouds started to build and the sky got darker…

I could tell it was raining out over the ocean, when this rainbow appeared.

In some places the sand on the beach had a really cool texture, I think it must be shaped by the wind.

At 7:45am I arrived at Sand Lake outlet, and crossed it easily. At 15 minutes after low tide it was only knee deep.

I had another couple hours of hiking on the beach, and the sky ahead of me looked clear.

The sky behind me, however, looked very angry.

Pretty soon those clouds caught up to me, and it rained pretty hard for 30 minutes. Then the rain tapered off and I could see cape Kiwanda in the distance.

It was an easy climb over the short sandy headland, it was basically just a very tall sand dune.

I dropped down the other side, and it was full of surfers.

I had a mile of walking on the beach and I saw tons of surfers out despite the terrible weather. Or maybe the terrible weather makes the waves better? I’m not sure.

At 10am I turned off the beach and went into Pacific City, which is the route of the Oregon Coast Trail. I stopped into Meg’s cafe to have a third breakfast, which of course is the most important breakfast.

I was kinda hoping to run into a bigfoot in the bathroom.

While I was waiting for my food, I checked the weather forecast and the rest of today looked very wet and cold (55F/13C). And tonight looked the same. So I got a room at the local Anchorage motel.

They gave me a small discount since I was a hiker, which was very nice and definitely unexpected. The room was surprisingly fancy.

Even the bathroom had this fancy sink, kinda more like an old timey fountain.

I checked out what was on TV, and because it was Father’s Day, they were running an all-day Baywatch Marathon. Ha!

After I unpacked and showered, I left to do my grocery resupply, but on the way I stopped and got some ice cream of course.

Chester’s market was a half mile away but a pretty easy walk through some quiet neighborhoods. I bought 3 days’ worth of food to get me to the next big town of Newport, 60 miles away.

On the walk back I cut through a park and saw this funny sign. “cheese, trees, and ocean breeze”

Also apparently there is a small airstrip running right through the middle of the town of Pacific City!

It would be shocking to be walking along the sidewalk and see a small plane right above you, haha. I stopped at a little restaurant called Beach Wok, and ate probably the most delicious Pad Thai I’ve ever had. With all my chores done, I went back to my motel room and caught up on my internet stuff before falling asleep early, since I had been awake at 4am today.

Saturday June 17, 21.9mi/35.2km

Barview Jetty County Campground (66.4/15ft) to Cape Lookout State Park (86.6/20ft) (OR)

I left camp at my usual 7am starting time, and as soon as I left the state park I was walking on some railroad tracks.

The tracks parallel highway 101, which I will avoid walking as much as possible. I walked along Tillamook Bay and saw a lot of people getting clams(?) out of the sand, since it was low tide.

An hour later I was at the Port of Garibaldi, where I needed to arrange a boat ride across the bay to continue the trail.

I talked to a woman at the marina and she agreed to get her daughter to ferry me across in a small boat. They can only do it when the tide is coming in (not going out), and it was $50. While I waited, I was kept company by their dog Goosey, who was very interested in giving me her bone.

It was a very windy and cold boat ride, but it only lasted 5 minutes, and was the easiest mile I have traveled yet on this trail.

Now back on land, I walked along the other side of Tillamook Bay for an hour.

At one point the trail left the bay, and crossed the narrow strip of land I was on….

…. To emerge thru the dunes and at the beach on the other side of this narrow strip.

After a relaxing couple miles on the beach, it ended at a headland so I walked inland through a small village.

I turned onto a road up to Cape Meares, and there was no traffic since the road was temporarily closed for a landslide. It was a relaxing walk through a very tall forest.

After a couple miles I was in the main area for Cape Meares, and I started seeing more people, since there is another access road from the other side.

After crossing the parking lot, the first thing I saw was the largest Sitka Spruce in Oregon!

It’s 800 years old and 144 ft tall, dang.

I put my backpack next to it for a size reference.

I continued down the path and rejoined the road that leads to the lighthouse. There were viewpoints looking north:

And to the south:

At the end of the peninsula was Oregon’s shortest lighthouse, the Tillamook lighthouse is only 38 feet tall.

It sits on top of a 200 ft cliff so it doesn’t need to be that tall. Even from the lower viewing platform it didn’t seem very tall!

I tried to get a look at the inside, but you had to make a paid reservation for a tour. Oh well.

I walked back toward the parking area and found myself a picnic table to eat lunch at.

It was next to this cool welcome sign that I had missed on the way in.

After lunch I continued South, and just before I left the park there was one last attraction, the octopus tree.

It’s a bizarre looking tree that has no central/main trunk, but instead has eight separate trunks. Wild!

I continued on a short trail through the forest and then had an hour of roadwalking before I arrived back on the beach again.

The beach seemed pretty empty and I hardly saw any people or footprints. I saw a couple cool tiny little waterfalls though.

And then I came around a corner, and I saw heaps of people. An entire wedding party, in fact.

It’s one of those wedding spots that would be beautiful in photos but everything else about it would suck – it was windy, there was sand blowing everywhere, and it smelled like low tide. Pretty soon the beach ended and I came to another marina. Theoretically it’s possible to get a boat shuttle across this bay as well, but I didn’t see anyone around except these two scuba divers in the water.

So I did the roadwalk around the bay, which was about the same distance and was a scenic walk.

Two hours later and I had arrived at Cape Lookout State Park.

I registered at the entrance booth, and then walked to the hiker/biker site, which was in a beautiful secluded corner of the campground.

Just like before, there were nice food storage lockers to keep my stuff safe from the critters. And a short 100m walk led to this amazing little viewpoint over the beach.

It was my favorite campsite on this trail so far! I went to bed early, since I have to start hiking at 5am tomorrow in order to make it through a spot that requires low tide.

Friday June 16, 21.9mi/35.2km

Above Short Sand Beach (45.1/120ft) to Barview Jetty County Campground (66.4/15ft) (OR) + 0.6mi Manzanita lunch stop

I packed up and left my improvised camp spot, which was surprisingly comfortable. In a few minutes I was at Short Sand beach.

It was only 7:30 and already there were a bunch of surfers out enjoying the waves. I sat at one of the many picnic tables and enjoyed my breakfast. Afterwards, I hiked out of the picnic area only to find that the bridge had been destroyed by a fallen tree.

The stream was almost dry, so it was simple to rock hop across and continue on. I began the long slow climb up to the top of Neahkahnie Mountain. The trail switchbacked up the hillside and went right underneath this big tree!

After a little ways I entered a meadow with great views back towards the ocean.

After crossing highway 101 there was a small trailhead.

The trail climbed over 1,000 feet/300m up through a mature forest to the top of a ridge.

At one of the many switchbacks there was this confusing sign. It didn’t say what the danger was, so I was rather curious.

An hour later I was at the top of the mountain with a great view down to the town of Manzanita and the beach.

I had a snack break up top but it was a little chilly so I didn’t stay long. As soon as I crossed over this ridge it was a little windy too.

The downhill went quickly and pretty soon I was back down in greener terrain.

These vertical purple flowers were surprisingly abundant.

There were even a few of these thin little snakes! They were pretty short, only 12 inches/30cm.

After an hour of descending, I crossed back over Highway 101 and headed to the coast.

I walked through a neighborhood to get to the beach, and they had this funny sign.

The beach walk was windy, so thankfully I was only on it for a mile before I turned off into the town of Manzanita.

Time to grab some lunch! There were several burrito places.

Fortunately I chose the burrito place where you could get it smothered with red and green chile sauce.

It’s pretty rare to see that option outside of the Four corners States, so I was pretty excited. I made a quick stop to the grocery store for some ice cream and snacks.

And then I walked a couple blocks back to the beach. It was still windy and now it was foggy too.

I always walk on the hard packed sand since that is much easier to hike on, and I noticed there were signs that prohibited people from walking on the soft sand where birds were nesting.

An hour later I was at Nehalem Bay, and the only way across was to get a boat ride. I called the marina which was only a few hundred yards away across the channel.

While I was waiting for them to come pick me up I noticed someone had lined up a lot of crabs on the beach.

And these seals were in the water playing!

The guy from the marina came and got me 10 minutes later, and I threw my backpack in the fishing boat.

The marina also had a seafood business, so of course I had to try a Dungeness crab.

I had intended this to be a quick stop, but cracking into a crab is slow work so I was there for almost an hour. I finally left the marina at 5pm and hiked along the jetty back to the beach.

The beach walk was very nice and the wind had finally stopped. I passed by this cool formation called Twin Rocks.

As usual, there were a few people out walking on the beach. Two women were walking in my direction and joined me for 20 minutes of conversation. They were training for the “Hood to Coast” race in 2 months, a popular annual relay race in Portland. They were fun to talk to and the time flew by. Pretty soon I was at the end of the beach.

I exited the beach and walked into Barview Jetty County campground. It was a huge Campground, mostly full of RVs, so it took me awhile to find the hiker/biker site. I had to walk all the way out to the entrance station to get a map and a permit, and then walk a half mile back to the campsite. Clearly this place was designed by somebody with a car! I setup in my nice little camp spot and had dinner at a picnic table, it felt so civilized.

Another day on the Oregon coast!

Thursday June 15, 29.0mi/46.7km

Seaside Village (17.6/12ft) to Above Short Sand Beach (45.1/120ft) (OR) +0.4mi Cape Falcon, +1.1mi wandering in the dark

I slept in late at the hostel since the room was dark, and then I cooked a unique breakfast of random items from the free food shelf. Bacon & Mac & cheese…for breakfast! After cleaning my dishes and getting packed up I finally left the hostel at 9am. I finished walking through Seaside, it’s a nice little tourist town.It was still early in the morning so the ice cream place was unfortunately closed. Next time!I walked toward the ocean where they have a little park, commemorating the founding of the town.There is a statue of Lewis and Clark, since this is the spot where they encountered the Pacific Ocean.Instead of a boardwalk (which would rot and fall apart quickly), they built a nice promenade that was several miles long.There were people out rollerblading, walking, doing yoga, flying kites, and even breakdancing. The people-watching was so good, I almost missed the huge line of sand dollars glued down to the handrail.After a couple miles the promenade ended, and I was left with a little bit of beach walking to do.I quickly left the beach and walked up some neighborhood streets, which led to the hiking trail. I guess I’m safe now that I left the tsunami zone.At the end of the road I came to the trailhead parking lot, and in case I had any doubt there were Oregon Coast Trail signs everywhere.Even the trailhead itself had a prominent wooden arch!I climbed steeply up Tillamook Head for a couple miles.I could tell it was a wet environment because these massive slugs were everywhere.At the top of the climb, the environment changed to an old growth forest.It was really neat to walk through a dense shady forest, and it was quite a bit cooler up here at 1200 feet elevation.Occasionally the trail will get toward the edge of the headland, and I would get a view all the way down to the ocean.I stopped for lunch at one of the official OCT campsites, which had three wooden shelters and a nice fire pit.

The inside of each shelter had four wooden bunks, it actually looked pretty nice.

As I was eating my lunch, a couple of families walked through and told me about another nearby point of interest, an old military radar station. So of course I had to walk the quarter mile to go see.

There was another lookout point near the radar station, and I could see the Tillamook lighthouse off in the distance on a rocky island. It’s no longer in operation and is now a bird sanctuary.

I packed up and continued on, and as the trail descended towards Indian Beach, I got better and better views of the beach.

I quickly passed through the Trailhead parking lot, there were heaps of cars and it was crowded. Once I was past there I got a look back at the beach in the Tillamook headland where I had just hiked down from.

Pretty soon I came to another Trailhead parking area with a nice grassy meadow and picnic areas.

Apparently a bunch of movies had scenes filmed in this spot, including the 1985 classic, The Goonies.

I hiked on through the forest for two more miles, and after cutting through a neighborhood I arrived back to the beach.

I strolled down Cannon Beach for several miles and there were tons of people, the most I had seen on any beach so far. The famous Haystack Rock was the main attraction, and there were at least 100 people gathered around it.

I kept walking and was happy to leave the crowds behind. In three more miles I came to a small rocky outcrop that could only be bypassed at low tide.

Apparently in the 1800s they had blasted a crude roadway through this rocky cliff. Even at the lowest tide at 4pm I still had to wade a little bit.

This part of the beach was more remote and had a little cave and a bunch of boulders.

I hiked on the beach for another hour, before leaving it for the final time today. As soon as I was inland I started hiking on a forested trail. I love these bouncy swingbridges!

I climbed up and up, to the top of the headland above Cape Falcon.

Once I was back up over 1000 feet elevation, I reentered the familiar dark forest.

And the trees were completely draped in moss.

Just before sunset, I got a couple of good views down to Cape Falcon.

My plan was to camp at a little flat spot near Cape Falcon, but unfortunately that spot had eroded away and was now sliding into the sea hundreds of feet below. So I kept hiking. And hiking. The forest is so dense here that even when the land is flat, there’s no way to camp with all the vegetation. Finally at 9:30pm, after hiking by headlamp for almost an hour, I found a tiny spot tucked under some bushes. Good enough!

Wednesday June 14, 17.9mi/28.8km

Mouth of Columbia River (0.0/10ft) to Seaside Village (17.6/12ft) (OR) +0.3mi to Hostel

I ate breakfast and packed up my tent while talking to two other campers who were at the campsite. When I went to get my breakfast out of the food locker, I noticed each locker had an outlet for charging. Amazing.

I walked over to the ranger station to pay for my campsite, since they had been closed the night before when I arrived.

I walked out to the main road to hitch a ride to the start of the trail.

About 45 minutes later my ride dropped me off at the jetty and lookout tower, both of which were under construction for repairs.

Even without the lookout tower, the view was still pretty good from up on the jetty.

Every trail has a starting photo!

I walked on the jetty for 10 minutes, heading toward the dunes and beach.

The unmarked trail through the dunes was pretty easy to follow.

I dropped down to the beach, and it had a cool cobblestone texture.

Pretty soon it changed over to the normal hardpacked sand. Even though it was almost high tide, the beach was still huge.

An hour later I hiked by the shipwreck, Peter Iredale. It ran aground in 1906 on its way to the Columbia River.

This area is known as the graveyard of the Pacific. Neat!

This is the only section of beach in Oregon where cars are allowed to drive on it. And sure enough, I saw a dozen or so driving up and down the hardpacked sand.

Even at the highest tide, I still had plenty of beach to walk on.

This was a massive tree stump that must have washed ashore, it looked cool the way it was cut at a bunch of different geometric angles.

Somebody has wedged a sand dollar in one of the stump’s cracks, ha!

I hiked on the beach all morning and some of the afternoon, this is the longest stretch of beach on the entire Oregon Coast Trail. This bird seemed rather intent on its meal…

…. So of course I had to go check out what it was trying to eat. A dead sea critter! Its skeleton was about 6 feet long, I wonder what it was.

It was pretty cloudy all day, and a couple times it even misted it a little bit. I continued to hike with my warm hat and vest on, since it never got above 60°F/16C.

After 15 miles, I left the beach and exited through the dunes.

I walked through the small seaside village of Gearhart, which apparently has a problem with roaming elk.

I walked on highway 101 for about a mile, which wasn’t ideal. But using roads is sometimes the only way across coastal rivers, which can be pretty deep and wide.

Pretty soon I had left Gearhart and entered Seaside, a larger tourist town.

The slogan of this business made me laugh, “get to higher ground” ha!

This trail was starting to remind me of the Te Araroa in New Zealand, with all of the beach walks and fish & chip shops.

I love every kind of fish, so of course I stopped and bought some. Delicious.

I finished my second lunch, and continued my walk through Seaside. The houses were all pretty nice, and a normal size too. Often in coastal towns there are giant McMansions that don’t fit in with the town character.

It was 4pm, and I was debating what to do. The next legal camping was 7 miles away, which would mean a 25-mile day. Or I could walk a couple blocks to the hostel, and stop for the day, which means only an 18 mile day. I decided to have an easy first day, and checked into the hostel.

Seaside Lodge & Hostel had a pretty chill atmosphere and I relaxed on the back deck overlooking the water. Eventually I got settled into my bunkroom and got a nice hot shower.

I had been a little cold all day, since it was cloudy and windy outside. The hot shower was a perfect way to fix that. I walked a couple blocks over to the tiny “grocery store”, which was terrible. But I found enough stuff to make dinner with. (There is a huge Safeway in town too, but it’s a mile away). After dinner I did some trip planning to try to figure out camping for the next few days, this trail is complex in that manner. It was an easy first day, but I still fell asleep by 10pm.

Tuesday June 13, 0.0mi/0.0km

Peter Iredell Campground (3.8/20ft) (OR)

I was awake at 5am, and drove across all of Oregon. Eastern Oregon is always a beautiful drive thru the high desert, and it was great to see the Wallowa mountains. Western Oregon was a little cloudy and cooler (20C/68F), and I saw plenty of snow on top of Mount Hood.

I stopped in Portland to buy a few things. The first stop was at Fred Meyer to do my food resupply. They have the grossest flavors of Doritos nowadays….

I stopped at Next Adventure, one of Portland’s local gear shops. I bought a new fuel canister and I was looking for a rain kilt, but they didn’t have one. Then I went downtown to get my Patagonia shorts replaced (warranty), and of course stopped by my favorite bookstore.

I had arranged to store my van at a place in Beaverton, so I dropped it off there, and then got a train to the Sunset transit Center. Public transit in Oregon is pretty good, and there is even a bus line that goes twice a day out to the Oregon coast & Astoria.

The bus arrived a little after 6pm, and after making stops in every little town along the way I finally arrived to a Fred Meyer grocery store on the coast at 8:15pm. Perfect! My plan was to get an Uber to the start of the trail, and then hike the 3.5 miles to the only legal campsite, at Fort Stevens State Park. It would get dark at 9:30pm, so this was just enough time. Unfortunately the Uber driver called me and said he wasn’t coming, “it’s not worth it”, and since he was the only driver available (both local taxi companies were out on long trips), I was now stuck. Time for an impromptu plan B. I decided to go directly to the campground at Fort Stevens State Park, which was only 4 miles from my current spot. I went inside the store to ask one of the employees about other local taxi services, and she said she was done with her shift in 10 minutes and would just drop me off there herself. Sweet! I got to the campground at 9:15pm, and setup my tent in the hiker/biker site.

I sat at a picnic table and made my dinner….it felt so civilized! I didn’t get any hiking miles done today but I am technically on the trail. Tomorrow I will hitch a ride 4 miles north to the start of the trail and then begin the hike south!