Tag Archives: Oregon Coast

Jan13

A hike on the coast – 27-Dec-2020

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Sunday, 27-Dec-2020

It had been ages since I’ve hiked out on the Oregon Coast… It’s a long drive, is the problem, but still. The coast is gorgeous, and it was high time that I got back out.

So… I drove. Got going fairly early, for a day off, and was starting in to the Cape Falcon trail by 11:15, give-or-take. Not bad, since it was a two hour drive from my place in Wilsonville, so I was feeling pretty energetic as I hiked through the misty trees, hearing the sound of cars receding behind me and the sound of the breakers growing in the distance.


Once I made it out of the forest and onto the beach… I realized that tides are a thing.

Because there was no beach.

Turns out – high tide does happen, and when it happens at Oswald West, the tide comes all the way up to the trail, nearly. Not so much that it covers the whole area, of course… but the distance between surf and ground was quite small… just a tiny little strip of sand, covered by the waves half of the time, maybe a foot or two wide.

Made it a bit difficult to walk along the coast, as you may imagine, so instead Cape Falcon became the goal of the moment – heading back inland to walk out to the overlook, and give the tides a bit of time to recede so I could get some shore-line walking in later on in the day.

I hadn’t hiked all the way out to Falcon before, so this was an interesting experience… During COVID I’ve been able to avoid crowds pretty well, and having been hiking up on Hood I’d gotten used to the snow and slush of the high elevations.

I’d forgotten just how crowded popular trails can get, and how that can lead to some rather interesting trail conditions… specifically, the fact that I was wading through pretty much constant mud the whole way out to the Cape Falcon overlook.

But hey – that’s what boots are for, right? My boots were still pretty new too, and needed a bit of breaking in… and what better way to do that than to slog my way through deep mud, escaping the forest and striking out onto the cliffside?


The trail was churned up, like a herd of elk had cruised through, but truth be told I didn’t see that many people as I was hiking in. A few groups, of course, but nothing too crazy… Nothing nearly as intense as some of the more popular hikes out in the gorge on a sunny summers day, at least. I was able to make pretty good time, though I did get some added altitude training thanks to wearing my mask so consistently…

Anywho, the hike went well, and the overlook was singularly gorgeous.

In keeping with tradition, after hiking was dinner, or at least a late lunch, out at Cannon beach. I’ve been to the Pelican Brewery a few times, and thankfully they’re still open and kicking during the pandemic… if only for takeout. But you know what? Takeout calamari and seafood chowder is still pretty dang good.

Especially when there was a sunset like that…

Dec31

Post Thanksgiving adventures – Saddle Mountain

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Friday, 29-Nov-2019

 

This year, we went hiking after Thanksgiving.

Our first target was Saddle Mountain, and it didn’t go quite as planned.

The plan that it didn’t go quite as was that we’d park at the trailhead, cook up some hotdogs, ascend, maybe make some more hot dogs, and then descend and head home.

Instead, we parked about two miles away from the trailhead, where the road was closed, and hiked in.  Once we got to the real trailhead we cooked up some hotdogs, found an elk jaw, and then hiked in about a mile and a half before turning around before we lost daylight.

Ollie loved the elk jaw, even though we didn’t let her eat it.  We’re so mean.  She didn’t mind too much though, since she was busy running around the woods… which is almost as good as food and/or elk bones.

 

The hike itself was beautiful, and the sunlight was amazing!  It was an amazingly clear day, and we could easily see the ocean from our turnaround point, even though it was a solid few hundred feet below the summit.  The trail was pretty good, though it did have some snow and ice on it at times, and we made pretty good time.

Not much else to say.  We hiked, had a pretty good time, and got down safely.  Good job us.

 

Oct8

Hiking Elk Mountain… or attempting to, at least

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Hiking Elk Mountain… or attempting to, at least

Tuesday, 05-Sept-2017

 

Daniel came to visit!

We’d come up with a whole adventure plan for his time here in Portland – we’d warm up on Gorge climbing at Rooster, then climb the Beacon, then hike, then explore the city.  Great plans, right?  WRONG.  FIRE.

As in, there were fires.  Some kids, hiking at the Eagle Creek trail, decided that what that area needed were some explosions.  So they threw fireworks into the brush.  Which, funny story, caught fire.  Which then, totally unexpectedly, caused a monsterous conflagration burning over 48,000 acres.  Yup.  Because some [swear words here] people wanted to play with fireworks.

 

ANYWAYS.  I’M NOT BITTER AT ALL.

 

Since we couldn’t go climbing thanks to the fire, we spent the morning doing some research at a rather excellent breakfast spot that Sarah and I like taking Ollie to.  Advantages of Portland: there are a ton of dog-friendly spots nearby.  After perusing six or so guidebooks, we settled in on a solid hike – trekking up Elk Mountain, out toward the coast.  It wasn’t too long, wasn’t too high elevation, and more importantly it was out of the smoke from the fires.

So we thought, at least.

A few hours later, Daniel and I are sitting at our high point, staring off into the hazy distance, wondering how we’d gotten so winded by such a short hike.  Ollie wasn’t fairing much better… the poor puppy had burnt through her own water, and I’d started giving her mine.

We weren’t at the top yet, and actually still had something along the lines of 800ft still to go, but the time had come and we made the call to head back to the car.  Still a beautiful hike, no doubt, but it probably would have been a bit more beautiful with… you know… breathable air.