Oregon Coast Trail: Journal Anthology

September 29, 2019 “Done is better than perfect” Read my Oregon Coast Trail anthology: Oregon Coast Trail Beach Walking Discovery Since John and I completed the Oregon Coast Trail and drove south through  California to Borrego Springs and our winter home at Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, I’ve been compiling the blogposts that I wrote during …

Oregon Coast Trail: Port Orford

September 13, 2019 There are many aspects of this particular journey that are different than my other long walks – the Appalachian Trail, Pacific Crest Trail, Benton MacKaye Trail, and others. One of those is what piques my interest today. Generally, I have walked each trail once, in a single direction. By contrast, we have …

Oregon Coast Trail: River Crossings

September 4-6, 2019 Three days, in which we walked into the night toward a lighthouse, stopped briefly at a County Park, camped near a river to cross at midnight, stopped briefly at a State Park, walked another six miles on beautiful beach and finally rested at a hotel in Port Orford. I’ll bundle these three …

Oregon Coast Trail: Double Day

September 3, 2019 We got up at 4 a.m. anticipating a grueling 16-mile beachwalk through ATV land. We cooked our oatmeal and stored it in our Ziploc bowl to eat later. We made tea and coffee. That put us two liters of water ahead so our combined 6 liters could keep us safely hydrated. We …

Oregon Coast Trail: Osprey

September 2, 2019 Labor Day Holiday…in which we hiked over a dune, walked the beach, got picked up by a boat, shopped at two convenience stores, a bakery, and a fish cannery, then walked a road to end the day at a state park Hiker-Biker site. We started at a wooded campsite near Three-Mile Lake, …

Oregon Coast Trail: High Tide

September 1, 2019 Our hotel rest stop was a welcome break and a sort of new beginning for the rest of the trip. We took an entire day off at the Villa West Hotel, at the crossroads of US101 and 126 in Florence, Oregon. We stayed until checkout time at 11. John’s willingness to take …

Oregon Coast Trail: Amanda

August 28, 2019 Although I have been disappointed by the roadwalking along 101, my suffering pales to that of Amanda, the Yachats woman, and the thousands of others, who were cheated out of their homeland here, tortured, murdered, and forced to walk along the lava rock coast to an encampment. It would have taken great …

Oregon Coast Trail: Seal Rocks

August 27, 2019 This day had similarities to yesterday, with a few variations in the details of food and campsite services. We had beautiful beach walking, some awesome rocks, not so much roadwalking, and early evening arrival at South Beach State Park Hiker-Biker site. My notes for the day: 7:20 away from camp at South …

Oregon Coast Trail: Bridge

August 26, 2019 My notes for today tell the story of this pleasantly short day, a good follow-up to yesterday’s long walk! 10:44 After hot breakfast and showers, we’re leaving the Beverly Beach Campground escorted by Jack, a 7-yr old who rode by me on his bike several times while I waited for John to …

Oregon Coast Trail: Whale of a Day

August 25, 2019 On which we walked big miles, made a big leap in our thruhiking style, and saw some really big creatures! Adding a few more words or phrases to the words above, like in one of those grammar games, we walked something like sixteen miles, starting our day at 5 a.m. at Devil’s …