Over Two Capes and Around A Lake

I left the hiker/biker camp at 6:45 as the fog was rolling in. That meant I was able to pack up my gear while it was mostly dry. A big plus. 

First order of business was to climb over Cape Lookout. The trail switchbacked up through big tree forest and past sparkling streams. Then, suddenly, the forest gave way to a wasteland of downed trees and landslides. The trail was recently opened after repairs due to winter storms. This was the spot. Little trees, big trees were broken off part way up or toppled over and laying every which way. Trail crews had cut through scores of trees across the path. They had rebuilt tread and sand bagged the slopes in some places. They had cut new trail where old trail had been obliterated. It was impressive, as apparently were the winter storms that wreaked all this havoc.

Once over the top, I started down the far side of the Cape. This trail had an infinite number of switchbacks as near as I could tell and seemed to take forever, or maybe about an hour, to get down to the beach on the other side. When I finally got to the sand, I marched 5 miles to Sand Lake outlet.

Sand Lake outlet is only fordable in the summer at low tide. And not just any low tide. It should be a low tide of no more than +2 feet. When I arrived at 10:40 the tide was going out, but would be 3.6 ft. at its lowest. So it was a no brainer, I had to road walk around. I started out walking and stuck a thumb out to see if I would get lucky. The second pickup that came by stopped and took me 3 of the 6.5 miles I had to walk, so that was great. I had no more luck with my thumb, but 3 miles saved me an hour of walking, so that was huge. When I got back to the beach it was 4 miles to Cape Kiwanda.

This cape is made of sandstone, unlike all the volcanic capes to the north. As I approached it I could see is was much smaller that the other capes I have been over. It consisted of some sandstone cliffs jutting into the ocean and a really large sand dune connecting the cliffs to the mainland. My task was to climb over the giant dune and down the other side. Climbing in soft sand with a pack on your back is not as much fun as it sounds, but step by step you go up and pretty soon you’re going down again.

This route dropped me on to the beach at Pacific City, where I decided to stop for the day. Webb County Park next to Cape Kiwanda has hiker/biker sites, but no hammock trees, so I’m tenting it tonight.

Tomorrow I will take a short hop on a bus to save myself a 6.5 miles road walk on 101. Yay!

Happy Trails…