Crossing Tillamook Bay and Cape Meares

The guy in the RV space, next to my tentsite, stopped sharing his country music with everyone about 4PM yesterday and turned the volume down low. Then at 6PM he hooked his pickup to his trailer and disappeared, never to return. Still there were pickup truck driving by my camp well past dark, but I dozed off anyway.

I got up early and grabbed a breakfast sandwich and coffee at a drive up booth at the edge of town. Took them back to my campsite to eat in my hammock. Then I packed up and dropped into the laundromat to charge my electronics. After that I wandered over for my 8AM ride across Tillamook Bay.

For $50 the local marina in Garabaldi will ferry hikers over to Bayocean Spit. This saves us a 22 mile road walk around the Bay and is a fun thing to do. Unlike yesterday’s boat ride, they were very professional in Garabaldi. Explaining what to expect, where he would drop me, how to get to the trail, etc. We left at 8 sharp to catch the rising tide and after about a 15 minute ride he beached the boat on Bayocean Spit, I hopped out, and he was gone.

I found the trail and started hiking the 6 miles to Cape Meares. The guidebook wording about climbing the cape was reminiscent of the scary trail Cappuccino and I climbed from Whaleshead Beach a couple weeks ago. It said to scramble up a vertical trail over a landslide prone slope to a better trail above. When I finally got there it was pouring rain, just in case it might be too easy dry. Once again I was able to kind of levitate myself up the ten or so feet at the bottom to a shelf using rocks and nubbins. (I think all those years of rock climbing are still paying off). And, unlike the Whaleshead mess, there was an actual trail beyond the ledge which I ascended. After almost 500 feet of elevation gain I topped out on Cape Meares. The top was sitting in the cloud that was raining on me, so there were no views and I started the road walk to Oceanside where I would pick up the beach again.

The tide was going out when I got to Oceanside, so the beach was walkable for a few miles to the town of Netarts. There I got on a local road for 5.5 miles down to Cape Lookout State Park where I am camped tonight. It is still overcast, but the rain has stopped and tomorrow promises better weather. Another long day tomorrow and only two more days after that to finish!

Happy Trails…