OCT day 1

And we are odd. Off. Same thing. 

 

I feel like this trip is an exercise in winging it. Food today? We’ll figure it out. Getting to the bus stop and getting a ticket? Head to the train station and figure it out. Getting from the Fred Meyer in Warrenton to the end of Fort Stevens? …it IS Fort Stevens, right? It’ll come together. At the time of writing, I was on a bus with a massive, clean window watching lodge pole pines passing at a speed that was kinda giving me a headache, so back to the phone I went. 

I am here. Was here. Uh. 
Uh. Here’s Warrenton. 

Warrenton! Bus stop was both shockingly convenient... I hopped off with my pack and just under 1L of water at a Fred Meyers. Awesome! Got the tortillas and cheese I was missing as well as a bagged salad and a piece of chicken for lunch. Forgot bug spray and baby wipes but tomorrow is another day! All is looking good, until I was able to confirm 1) I was given correct info about Uber and Lyft not being a thing here. No matter! Back up plan! Oh. 2) none of the three taxi services are running today. Oh. Neat. Well. If I can walk from Georgia to Maine, I can walk the six miles to the state park… and then the two miles to terminus. And then the two miles back. Wheee. Gonna end up with 12 miles today and only 2 of them counting. Ah well. At least it was hard to get lost… once I got across town. I remained hopeful for a hitch until I came across a park where I enjoyed my lunch under my shade umbrella.

Embrace the Bonus Miles. 
Learn to love the road walk. 

With a belly of food groups, we made our way to Fort Stevens! They do, indeed have a hiker/biker camping area, $8, but I was wrong. It is about 4.5 miles, each way, to the terminus. Huh. Welllllllllll. It was only 3 something by the time I got my tent set up soooooo. We can make it! 

Fancy!!!

Side bar! This h/b camping area is pretty neat. Lots of picnic tables (useful!) and fire rings (…maybe someone bothers), a beatbox of sorts WITH an electric outlet!!! Yo! Thanks, REI and Visit Oregon! 

Does not suck. 

Anyway. With about 20lbs of less gear, I tossed the pack on containing some water and my sandals and headed toward the jetty where the OCT begins. Took a walking/biking trail through the trees most of the way until that dumped me on a road. Kinda over road walks for the day and made way way to the beach. 

Oh yeah. I’m supposed to be on the coast. Right. 

Um. The trail kinda took me to the top of a rather large sand dune and puttered out… after checking, double checking, and triple checking that the beach below had access to the jetty I was aiming for, I kinda… launched myself down the dune on my bottom. Standing was not an option, too steep, and getting back up would be… a challenge, hence the caution before commitment, and boom. One mile of sand and we are at the end/start of the Oregon Coast Trail. 

Gravity is your friend. 

Kinda anticlimactic once arriving. I mean. I was ten or something miles into the days, and we didn’t start moving, really, until 12:30. Sat and enjoyed the jetty for about three minutes, love that short recovery time, and was like, “well. It ain’t getting any closer,” before heading back towards the sand and the 4.7 back to camp. 

First blaze! Let’s goooooooo!

Uh oh. Will to type. Fading. Okay! Lightning round!

Beach. It looks like this. 
You are all caught up. 

Saw several living sand dollars, a bald eagle (rather close!!!), a huge dead seal (?), and lots of cool little sea bird dudes. Lots of iron in the sand, nice dark black with twinkles of what my mom said are micro diamonds (she’s a science teacher. I trust her), and bivalve shells. As I got closer to the turn off the beach back toward the campground, the skeleton of the Peter Iredale ship came more and more into view. The temptation to stay for sunset was slightly present, but chores are so much easier to complete when the sun is up. I love settling into my tent just before I feel like I need my headlamp. 

So. Here we are. In my tent, a HUGE wave of nostalgia setting it up and seeing some of the leaves and detritus from Georgia still clinging to the corners. Popped by the (cold water) shower house to rise some of the salt and sand off my skin. Despite the h/b camping area being quite large, of course some dude set up rather close to me. Okay. Your choice. Imma snore on purpose now. Going down to the lower 50s tonight, not bad at all. I can hear what sounds like a rough ocean even though it’s almost a mile away and tons of frogs. The frogs are also a bit nostalgic…

Okay. Stats:

47, 492 steps

19.47 miles

5,309 calories burnt

Soooooo. I probably gained a pound.

Good night: 21:21