Walking In My Mind

Well, I have completed a ritual I do for almost every long hike, and that is to walk the trail in my head. This is usually accomplished by sitting down with a paper pad, a guidebook, topo and satellite maps, weather forecasts, tide tables, and whatever other information I have about the trail. I then zoom in on the maps and go along the trail mile by mile noting important points along the way, milage, things I will need to do in advance (like arrange for a boat crossing) and when that should be done, where to camp, important waterless stretches, when I need a low tide to progress, and the myriad of other details that go into planning a thru-hike. This usually takes hours and even days to accomplish. 

Frankly it can be exhausting. I often almost feel like I have physically hiked some of these trails when I’m done. It is super useful and grounds my fantasy of the route in the real world minutia that is the trail. That said, the details of the real trail are almost never like I imagined it, but the overall arch of the journey is usually pretty close. What follows is a summary of what I gleaned from all that “research.”

STATS: Usually hiked North to South due to prevailing winds. Total Length is 411 miles with a surprising 22,740 ft of elevation gain and loss. Roughly 266 miles of beach walking, 40ish miles total of road walks ( mostly in 1-6 mile increments) Four large rivers/bays requiring boat crossing ( or a long walk around to a bridge.) Numerous stream and a couple of smaller rivers requiring low tide fords up to waist deep. A dozen or so rocky points that can only be gotten around at low tide, and a complicated patchwork of mostly State Park Hiker/Biker campgrounds for camping. Although there are a lot of “camping on the beach” opportunities as well. There are miles of beachfront houses (especially in the northern part of the trail) and miles of wild coastline. All in all it’s a mixed bag. 

TRAIL ORGANIZATION: Five major sections: 

Sec. 1 Columbia River to Garibaldi. 68.3 mi 
Sec. 2 Garibaldi to Lincoln City (Siletz Bay). 73.1 mi 
Sec. 3 Lincoln City to Florence. 87.0 mi 
Sec. 4 Florence to Port Orford. 108.8 mi 
Sec. 5 Port Orford to California Border. 74.3 mi 

The first three Sections are the most urban with the trail going through a number of small towns and villages. This means more opportunities for groceries, cafes, restaurants, breweries, hotels, laundry, and showers. But many of these “burgs” are enclaves of vacation homes or small communities of only a hundred people with no amenities. All that said, the most “civilized” section is number 3, and in 87 miles you go through three (count em 3) real towns total; with populations of 10K, 2K, and 1K respectively. So, not exactly NYC or LA. 

The last two section in the south are much more wild, more opportunities for dispersed camping, fewer towns. The coast gets more cliffy as you go south, especially in Sec 5, so much less beach walking and more elevation gain in that section (7370 ft in 74.3 miles) 

One last point is that apparently, there is bus service along the whole route, so bailing is always a possibility as well as hanging out and catching up.. 

My present itinerary averages 15.8 miles per day for 26 days, although I will add some zero days to that schedule. 

Although I was originally thinking of starting in Mid June, I think I will be pushing that start day out to the end of June beginning of July due to all the moisture they have gotten in the Oregon Coastal Range. More moisture means higher rivers to ford. Stay tuned. 

See you back in 2 weeks, 

Stay Safe and Happy Trails

Entry 5 of 49