Nothing like a little adversity to put some pep in your step.

Low tide was at 4:45am. The Sixes river crossing was 5ish miles from our campground. The Elk River was another handful of miles past that. Both should be crossed at low to mid tides. High tide is at 11:15am. What time should I start?

😬

Add in storm surges and rain.

😬😬

I decided on a 4:30am start, 3:50am wake up to make coffee and pack my day bag.

Out by headlamp. I should get to the first river crossing just at first light. No problem, right? Just hike hard and don’t stop.

Fortunately, Kirk and I hiked a few miles of this section of the Oregon Coast Trail a few days ago when it was merely pouring, not dark and pouring. It was a lovely little coastal tree tunnel of a hike then. Now it is a dank dripping dark tunnel of odd shapes playing in the shadows of my headlamp. Let’s do this!

Kirk and I are based out of Flores Lake for the last week of September for some much-needed R&R. Kirk has fallen down the foil boarding rabbit hole for a while now, and we were camping next to one of the best places to foil board in Oregon. (The link is not a photo of Kirk…maybe one day he’ll get some air!) Flores Lake is an inland lake that sits a mere sand dune away from the ocean, and all that wind is perfect for wings, kites, and sails.

He saw water. I saw trail.

We were also camping on the Oregon Coast Trail, well, everywhere on the coast is the Oregon Coast Trail. I had done small sections here and there, but nothing very deliberate. This would be the same: more opportunistic than intentional. I perused my copy of Bonnie Henderson’s Hiking the Oregon Coast Trail. Bonnie’s book is a wonderful resource and has most of the information you could want…aside from real-time conditions, which turns out is very important! I can imagine hiking the whole trail is a daily race against the tides…but then again there is something wonderfully humbling about walking next to the ocean. Your agenda becomes very small next to the expanse. You are on ocean time out here, and that is something you can’t forget.

But back to the hike.

The sky dried up shortly after I left the warm camper, and brought a brillant blue to keep me company.

I kept a brisk pace and made it through the river fords in time. Both crossings were almost fanny pack deep. Almost, but not quite.

I thought I could relax then…I had been hiking hard for about five hours and was ready for a sit-down. I found a bluff perched over the incoming tide and puzzled over the next section. The guidebook didn’t say anything about high tide and the beach disappearing on the last stretch to Port Orford, but there I was, looking down at a beach with just feet of sand showing and the tide continuing to rise. No mam! I would NOT be walking that spit of beach. It must be the storm surges, surging up on the beach I was supposed to walk. I could wait hours for it to come back down again, or find a way around.

After quite the deliberation and some fancy map work, I managed to get myself to Highway 101 and continued my hike south from there. It wasn’t as picturesque as the beach would have been, but it was safer, and on a thru-hike, it’s about connecting footsteps, right?

But I wasn’t on a thru-hike. I was on a day hike. 😔

Nevertheless, I did what all good thru-hikers do when they get to town: look for food. I came up to Crazy Norwegian’s Fish and Chips shop and ordered a snack while I waited for Kirk to come meet me for lunch.

The higher-than-usual tides and river crossings certainly make the Oregon Coast Trail something to respect and plan for. When I come back I’ll bring a packraft….those river crossings would be a cinch most of the time with one of the tiny inflatable boats like I used on the Columbia Plateau Route this spring.

The rest of the afternoon we did the tourist thing, walked the beach (!!) And visited the Cape Blanco light house which I had crusied by hours ago.

I’m not sure when I’ll be back to hike more (or all), but you can be sure it is on my list, that ever-growing list of trails and routes. I’ll be back, oh yes! I’ll be back.

If you have read this far, thanks! If you want a sneak peak at what I’m up to next, click here. More info coming soon 🙂