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| Hiking | 15.84 Miles |
2,500 AEG |
| | Hiking | 15.84 Miles | 6 Hrs 59 Mns | | 2.43 mph |
| 2,500 ft AEG | 28 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | With a few lazier days under our belts, I had put the 7 mile hike between Ecola and Seaside in my plan book. Add a mile at the end to get back to the house, and a few miles on Cannon Beach then connecting north to the park, and it ended up being a solid day on the coast.
With an extreme low tide aligning with the full moon, we set out to visit Haystack Rock on Cannon Beach, arriving about an hour before low tide to observe the abundant sea life that clings to these rocks but are rarely easy to reach. We were not alone, but that was expected on the 4th of July!
Krista and I headed north toward Ecola (which we alternated all weekend calling Ebola, or opera-singing it to the tune of the Riccola commercials). The plan was to follow the beach around to Crescent Beach, but there was one rip channel that cut through the sand before we could get around the corner. Besides being a delightful 51 degrees, it was more than waist deep, and the now-incoming tide was providing an unsurmountable current. So we headed uphill from Chapman Beach via the tsunami escape route, before reaching the park entrance road.
There were a handful of people on the trail to Crescent and Indian Beaches, but other than that, only Ecola Point had many people, plus there were two groups at the Hiker’s Camp on Tillamook Head.
The climb from Indian Beach to Tillamook Head is 1100 feet but ascends on well-built tread so it almost didn’t hurt too bad! What had been a mostly dry hike thusfar transformed into a bit of a mud bog across the top of Tillamook Head. The weather had been nice, but evening clouds settled on the highest elevation, and it seems that it either rained lightly each night, or just stayed cloudy and humid enough to never really dry out. I’d almost expect that this part of the trail is NEVER dry?
The four miles back to the Seaside trailhead dragged a bit at this point in our day, and the sweeping ocean views were less common on the north part of the hike. We powered through it arriving at Seaside in the midst of midafternoon holiday mayhem. Apparently this happens here when temps reach into the 90s in nearby Portland!
A well-earned nap was followed by independence festivities as apparently only the coasties can provide. (Think beach, meth, fires, explosives, and safety-third. Entertaining af though!) |
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| I'm not sure what my spirit animal is, but I'm confident it has rabies. |
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