History and Challenges of the OCT

The north end of the Oregon Coast Trail (OCT) originates on the South Jetty at the mouth of the Columbia River just behind the bathroom at the “C” parking lot. A somewhat inauspicious place to start a 400 mile journey, but possibly befitting this unusual trail. Conceived in 1959 by Sam Dickens, a U of O Geology Professor, the idea languished for years. Finally, in 1971, state money was made available to create the OCT, but it wasn’t until 1988 that the bits and pieces of foot path, beach, and roadways were knit together to make a hikeable trail. 

Of course, people have hiked along the coast for the last 14,000 years, give or take a couple thousand years. That was during the last Ice Age and much of the ocean water was locked up as ice. It is estimated that the ocean was as much as 450 feet lower than it is today, so that old coastal trail is miles to the west of, and 450 ft lower than, the present shore. The current shoreline developed a mere 6,000 years ago when the ice melted. 

I mentioned last time, in my initial post, that there were “new and really different challenges” on the OCT and there are. Take camping, for instance. 

By law camping is allowed on all Oregon beaches with three exceptions: adjacent to a State Park, adjacent to city limits, and in areas of Snowy Plover nesting. There are a lot of state parks, and towns along the coast, and Snowy Plovers nest all summer along many parts of the coast. That shrinks the number of legal wild campsites significantly. Many of the state parks do have hike/bike campgrounds available for a fee and I will probably be using those. In other areas there are commercial camp and RV sites, so there is that. And there are motels, but it will be high season when I hike. Finding a place to sleep may be a challenge. 

Other unusual obstacles block the trail. On the first or second day there is a 3 mile section of beach that crosses Camp Rilea, an active military training facility. They regularly close their stretch of beach for live weapons training in the dunes. That is a good thing, I don’t want to be dodging bullets while thru-hiking, but it does change up the hike a little by requiring a detour of several miles inland. So another different challenge. 

Headlands or heads are great promontory of land that stick out into the ocean, some rising over a thousand feet above the beach. Getting around many of these buttresses can only be done at low tide. So I’ll, of course, be following a tide table throughout the hike. Although tides have not been a problem on my past treks, I have had to time my crossing of dangerous mountain streams to the early morning hours when snow melt flow is at its lowest. I guess tides can be thought of as just a variation on that theme. 

A more familiar challenge, but one I didn’t expect along this trail is the lack of fresh water for stretches of 20 or more miles in some legs. “Water, water everywhere, nor any a drop to drink.” And unlike my high mountain treks where I am at the top of the watershed and streams are relatively clean, along the coast I am at the bottom of the watershed with farm and industrial waste, toxins, and other pollution in the streams. My filter only removes the microbes. Where possible, I will have to rely on tap water. 

Those are a few of the challenges of this trail. There are many more that I will touch on as I come to them, but I am not complaining. Some of the reasons for undertaking any of these trips are in the challenges they present. They are puzzles to be solved and obstacles to be overcome. I think it will be a lot of fun to take this on. 

See you in about 2 weeks with info on my new tent.