Stealth At Haceta Head

I was up early, much earlier than the restaurants open in Yachats, so I checked my food and found I had an extra breakfast! Well, a bird in the hand and all that. I heated up my oatmeal and had a cafe mocha and a protein bar and was read to go.

I hiked out of Yachats and picked up the OCT which eventually merged with Amanda’s trail. This piece of trail was dedicated to a native woman that lived in the mid 1860s. 

From the Coos tribe further south she had been forced to go to the reservation in Yachats. She fled back south, had a child named Julia by a white settler named De-Cuys. In 1864 she was “found” and forcibly taken from her daughter and marched the 100+ miles back to Yachats. We know of her, because of a journal kept by a Corporal Royal Bensall. Her story became a symbol for the genocide and inhumane treatment of the native peoples in Oregon.

The Amanda Grotto is a meeting place for all the existing Oregon Tribes. A place of remembrance. I passed by the grotto in the forest on my way up Cape Perpetua. A half mile beyond there, I met two women from McMinnville,OR and had a great conversation.

It was a long steady climb up the 1000+ feet to the top. The view is spectacular and there is a lot of CCC stone work from the 1930s there as well. A building called the Rock House has a commanding view and I met a retired Air Force guy from Tucson there. He spotted some whales off the Cape a thousand feet below. And we watched them spout for quite a while. Then I was off down the other side of the Cape. 

When I got down, I continued the trail briefly in the woods. Then it was on the highway for 6 miles. The wind was picking up and pushing me south. I was able to get off the road and on to Roosevelt Beach for a while. But the wind was so fierce and the sand blowing so hard that I returned to the road which offered some relative shelter.

After 16 miles, I got to Washburne SP where I had intended to camp, but it was only 1:30 and I decided to press on. I am stealth camped on Haceta Head, 3 miles beyond Washburne. This will put me in good position to traverse the very narrow, Haceta Head Tunnel on 101 at an early hour tomorrow when there should be less traffic. I am not looking forward to it. There is zero shoulder in the tunnel, zip, zilch, none. I do have a flashing red bike light with me so that should help. Fingers crossed.