Day #12 - Mt. St-Helens Day Hike

Yesterday we left Portland for Seattle via Mt. St-Helens.  We stopped for a couple hours and did a short hike.  It was pretty cool seeing the mountain with our own eyes.  We walked up through a lava rock field and through the forest.  The trail itself was ashy in places.  My great aunt June lived in Coos Bay, Oregon several hundred miles away and sent us a bag of ash from her picnic table from when the volcano erupted back in 1980.

Today we are planning to do a hop on hop off bus tour in Seattle.  Should be another fun day!

Day #9 - Neskowin to Lincoln City - We Made It!!

We made it!!!!  Sorry we didn't post last night.  After we got to Portland and got settled, we were all pretty much in the horizontal position for the rest of the evening.

The boys set a furious pace yesterday, Ben taking the lead.  With the finish line near I think they were very motivated to get it done.  What had been promised as a shorter day still ended up being 16 km due to a miscalculation on my part, but that didn't seem to matter.  They just kept walking.  We were off the beach all day on a mixture of road, gravel, and trail.  This took us over Cascade Head which Google says is a headland and UNESCO biosphere reserve.  It was a very lush rainforest with jungle like qualities.  The trees (cedars?) were huge, probably hundreds of years old.  The trail was very well defined and soft on the feet.  Being under that canopy kept us in the shade and made for some comfortable walking.  I really enjoyed this part of the walk.

Once over the head, the last 6 km was on coastal highway and was done with no breaks.  We walked back into Lincoln City where our vehicle was parked around 3:00, got in and drove to Portland where we will be for the next couple of days.

Everybody seems pretty happy about what they have accomplished, as am I.  Although the kids may have some mixed feelings, this was definitely our type of vacation.  We saw a lot of new things, we were outside, we met some interesting and friendly people, and we experienced some things only possible on foot.

I am not sure what the next six days will bring.  We do want to get out for one more walk probably near Mt St-Helens, but aside from that not too much planned.  I will post if we do.

So thanks again for reading everybody.  It was a real boost knowing that some of you were following along.  Hopefully you enjoyed it and I hope I was able to do a decent job telling our story.

That's it for today.

Day #8 - Pacific City to Neskowin

Well we are officially on the home stretch now.  Tomorrow is our last day of walking, and the adventure will be over.

Today we did 17 km total - 2 km on the beach, 8 km on the road getting around Nestucca Spit, and then another 7 km on the sand.  These were our last footsteps on the beach as tomorrow will be all road and trail.  I had mixed feelings about it, but I think the overall sentiment was "thank goodness".  Sand walking was a new experience for all of us and I think it was an eye-opener.  The effort required is probably a third to a half more than normal trail walking.  This was not budgeted for in our trip planning, and made for some long days.

The mood as we started the road walk was pretty low.  I think all of us would have gladly accepted a ride had anybody stopped, but nobody did.  It ended up being a little more interesting than we thought.  We learned that there is a brotherhood or kinship between VW or Westafalia van owners and hikers/backpackers.  Pretty much every one that went by us in either direction honked and waved.  The highlight was when from behind us we heard a bellowing "WELL HELLO THERE!!!".  It was a VW van with a loudspeaker on the front.  He was leading a caravan of 35-40 VW vans and Bugs, all of which honked at us, waved, and gave us the thumbs up.  It was hilarious and amazing all at the same time!!

After our feet took a beating on the pavement we were happy to get back on the beach.  We met lots of curious and friendly people once again today which always made for a quick diversion and break from walking.  Once we reached Proposal Rock at Neskowin we got back off the beach and stopped in at the local store for some cold drinks, and headed down the road a ways to our campsite for the night.

Ty, and Sam are in the pool as I type this, Ben is in the tent reading his book, and Mandy just finished drying some boots in the washroom, where she made friends with a lady - of course she did!!  A guy overheard them chatting and it turns out he used to work both in Prince George, and Fort McMurray.  Small world!

We are all looking forward to tomorrow.  I think there will be some relief upon finishing in order to take care of a bunch of health issues:

Multiple blisters

One cold

One sliced thumb

Multiple sun burns

Two chaffed bums

One poison oak/ivy cut

One cold sore

One ingrown toenail

One upset tummy

It's a basic garage sale!  Despite all of that, everybody has pushed through and done a great job finishing each day strong.  Mandy and I have been very surprised with the boys' ability to find enough energy to horse around the campsites at night after all these walks.  Who know where they get it.

Time for tea, coffee, and hot chocolate before settling in for the night.  It should be quieter than last night so we should feel good and rested for our last walk.

Thanks for reading everybody.  Goodnight!

Day #7 - Cape Lookout State Park to Pacific City

Sorry we skipped the blog yesterday.  We had a lazy day and did some mending and healing.  We also spent an hour at the outlet mall in Lincoln City looking for some deals, and a new hat for me since I lost mine on day 1 of the first leg.

Today we got back on the trail.  We took a taxi to the trailhead at Cape Lookout State Park and started hiking at 9:15.  I think there was some hesitation about leaving the comforts of normal life behind, but we felt better once we started moving.  We took a very nice trail for the first few kilometres that  descended through some huge spruce tree forests to the beach.

Today's walk was tough but we had some pretty cool adventures along the way.  For the most part the sand was very packed which we really like!!  We hit a strip of beach a few kilometres long which could be described as ATV Alley.  It made for a good diversion to watch the four-wheelers and dirt bikes race up and down the beach, but we were happy to get back onto restricted beach which is a lot more peaceful.

At about the halfway mark we came to our toughest river crossing yet, which was not helped by the fact that it was just about high tide.  The crossing forced us to get wet twice (waist high) and added a couple of kilometres.  On the upside it was a little refreshing to get wet and cool down for a bit.

Once we got back to the main beach we found a small pool which made for a nice break spot.  The boys and I decided to go for a swim in the ocean, while Amanda enjoyed a few minutes of peace and quiet.  While we were getting our boots back on a guy who had been kayaking in the area struck up a conversation with us.  He described himself as a naturalist and we learned a little bit about the area from him.

Towards the end of the day we approached Cape Kiwanda.  We had to walk over the neck of the cape, which basically looked like a mountain of sand.  It was the biggest dune I have ever seen, and for a little while it felt like we were in the Sahara.  Once we made it over we had less than a kilometre to our campsite and the end of our day.

We are in a campground in Pacific City tonight which allowed us to have showers before dinner.  We walked across the street and had dinner at the Pelican Pub a small microbrewery right on the beach.  From our table we looked out on the beach towards Haystack Rock which is the picture on the background of our blog.  It was very enjoyable.

We met a lot of nice people along the beach today who had lots of questions and encouragement for us.  One man offered the to call child protective services for the kids.  I changed the subject before they could say yes!

That's about it for today.  Mandy just mentioned from the other tent that she hopes tomorrow's campsite is a little louder. Hahaha!!!

Thanks for reading everybody!  Talk to you soon.

Day #5 - Cape Blanco to Port Orford - We Made It!!!

We made it to the end of the first leg of our trip today and are lazing around our apartment in Lincoln City watching Family Feud and Arm Wrestling Championship.

What a Tired Hiker Looks Like in the Morning

We did better with camp cleanup this morning - woke up at 6:30, and left camp at 8:00.  Good job everybody!

We had our biggest river crossing of the trip so far, the Elk.  We had to take or boots off and put our river shoes on.  It was mid-thigh for Amanda and I, high thigh for Sam.  No missteps, so we ended up across dry and safe.

Further down the beach we met up with a couple of locals collecting agates which are banded, semi-translucent pebbles.  We asked what they did them and the answer was "Mostly put them in a jar and admire them."  Our look must have begged further explanation because one of them said "It's just an excuse for us to hang out and get away from our wives."  We had a good laugh.  The boys found a few agates the rest of the way on the beach which we gave to the two locals when we saw them again later in the day.

As we were getting close to the end of our walk we ran into a couple who had refilled our water bottles for us last night when we were walking through a state campsite.  Small world!

At about 11:45 we walked into Port Orford and headed right to the grocery store to get some food while we waited for the bus back to the trailhead in Bandon.  We had quite a feast at the bus stop, and really enjoyed having our packs off and sitting around.

After we got the van we drove a few hours to Lincoln City.  We unpacked quickly then we took turns having our first showers in three days.  So nice!!!  We had dinner at an old-fashioned diner with juke box and everything.  The boys really enjoyed it.

We are now about to get ready for bed, and probably a long sleep.  No plans for tomorrow but I don't think we'll be doing much as we will be back on the beach the next day for our next leg.

View From Our Balcony

Informal poll of the day - Favourite part so far:

Diving into the Pacific after a long day of hiking

Camping on the beach, watching the sunset

Meeting people from Alberta in Oregon

Sleeping on the beach

Having so much beach to ourselves

Thanks for reading, and have a great night everybody!!!

Day #4 - New Lake to Cape Blanco - Second Day Walking

Day two of walking was pretty amazing.  Sam is our new hero!!  While we all worked very hard, he dug deep to allow us to get 8 km further than planned which is going to allow us an easy 10 km day tomorrow.  Good job, Sam!!

We got up around 7:00, but are still a little rusty with our morning cleanup, so did not get on the trail until 9:30.

The first 8 km or so were on loose sand which is not easy on the legs, and makes for slow walking.  At this point we needed to find a trail that left the beach and took us up onto the cliffs at Blackrock Point.  Luckily we ran into a lady from Three Hills, Alberta who pointed us in the right direction. What????  True story.  We couldn't believe it.  We were then off the beach for about 4 km on hard trail and it felt awesome.  What a relief.  At about 12 km we made the decision to continue to the further location.  This brought us back down to sand for 2 km, followed by 4 km of hard sand (Yahoo!!!), then 2 more km of trail to our camping spot for the night.

Break Time

Almost There!

We are right on the beach now, about 50 m from the water.  We pulled in around 7:30 and all rested our feet for a bit.  We then cooked up some grub, which we ate while watching the sun set.  There is nobody else on the beach, so we have it all to ourselves again.  It is truly unreal.

Good things from today:

Beautiful scenery

Section of hard sand

Trail walking

Sunset on the beach

Bad things from today:

Blisters

Chafing

Sore feet

Spilt some camp stove fuel on my pack

New things we saw:

A broken up freezer on the beach

What I forgot to mention yesterday:

Ty's denture cracked so he is walking around with a missing tooth - going to the dentist again, Jenni!!

That's about it for today.  Everybody is asleep, and I am about to be.  Thanks for reading again!

Day #3 - Bandon to New Lake - First Day Walking

Day one of walking is in the books and it was sandy, eventful, and challenging based on the informal poll I just conducted.

The alarm woke us at 5:00, and we were packed up ready to go by 5:45, and at the trail head by 6:30.  The weather was misty for the first half of the day but we didn't really mind as the scenery was unbelievable.  Pretty much as soon as we were on the beach we were seeing the big rocks just off shore, just like most people imagine it.  After the first few kilometres we had the beach to ourselves for the rest of the day.  We did see a park ranger who gave us some good information, but that was it.

Things we saw on the way:

Sand

Waves

Crabs - dead and alive

Seals - alive and one dead one on the sand that looked about the size of two cows!

All sorts of birds including a few Canadian Geese

Jellyfish

Rocks

Driftwood

Seaweed

Sand dollars

Sand dunes

More sand

The walk got more tiring as we went as the sand got drier.  Everybody powered through and we finished walking around 2:30.  The boys went for a swim after we arrived at our destination.  They seemed to really enjoy it, but it looked cold to Mandy and I!  It was amazing to think we had the whole beach to ourselves.

Our camp tonight is just off the beach in some dunes, and I'm pretty sure there is nobody within 20 or so kilometres.  We had a delicious dinner - lasagne, chicken piccata with pasta, and mashed potatoes.

We are in our tents now listening to the waves, and thinking back on the day.  A good rest tonight will help us rejuvenate for tomorrow.

Thanks for reading and we'll post again tomorrow if we have a signal.