After a day and a half of hiking down the flat beach I switched gears and spent a day and a half hiking up and down through temperate rain forest in Ecola State Park. I camped at a walk in site almost 1000 ft above the ocean. Hard work going uphill but fantastic views. And pretty muddy in spots - after all it is rainforest! Lots of nice big trees, although sadly not as big as the huge stumps left over from logging (many years ago). Some of those big trees fall over on the trail making for some challenging clambering!
It's the weekend so 5 or 6 other people showed up at the campsite. And of course they stayed up half the night talking and singing around a fire. On the plus side whoever was playing the guitar was very talented. I, of course, didn't talk to anyone!
I had assumed an official campsite would have a source of water but no such luck. I ended up hiking downhill and bushwhacking into a steep gorge to reach a creek.
I woke to find the campsite engulfed in cloud with light rain falling. It drizzled off and on all morning but nothing too serious. Contrary to the map, I managed to stay on trails instead of roads almost all the way to Cannon Beach. A fair bit of up and down and mud, but lovely forest and great views. It was warm in the forest, but on the exposed coast the wind was blasting hard enough to make it difficult walking.
In Cannon Beach I stopped for coffee at Bella Espresso- coincidentally the same place Shelley and I had stopped last time we were here. And the same place where I had overheard people talking about the Oregon Coast Trail which planted the seeds for this hike.
I'm ahead of schedule so I decided to stop overnight in Cannon Beach. And since I seemed to be stopping for coffee every day I figured it wouldn't hurt to shower before I got too ripe. I used the cafe wifi to find a place to stay. I thought I'd been pretty clever, but I hadn't paid enough attention to the location. It turned out to be almost 2 miles south of town. Which wouldn't have been so bad except that by this point it was pouring rain. Oh well, that's what rain gear is for! I tried not to drip on the registration desk too much.
The shower and clean clothes felt good and luckily there's a bakery across the street (where I'm hanging out drinking coffee and connecting to wifi) and a restaurant two doors down. So I don't have to walk 2 miles in the rain for supper. Uphill both ways :-) Or I could eat my camping food, but somehow the restaurant seems more appealing!
Actually, it's not so bad being out of town. It's not like I wanted to shop for cheesy tourist souvenirs. I missed the bookstore, but the last thing I need is books to carry!
Hopefully it won't be raining too much in the morning. It's always hard leaving a warm dry building to head out into the rain.
Now this sounds more like "fun"! Rain, mud, wind, steep inclines, bushwhacking, fallen tree obstacles. Wish I was there! :-)
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