3 - Oswald SP to Nehalem Bay SP

Last night I awoke in the middle of the night in my not quite supposed to be a camping spot and could not see anything.  The tree canopy was so dense it was pitch black in my tent.  The kind of blackout I thought you could only have in caves where there are literally no light-waves.  In the midst of my half awake state I wondered for a brief moment if I had somehow died in the middle of the night.  I know that is a bit much, but why else could I not see anything!  I had a short claustrophobic panic, felt for my headlamp, turned it on, and found everything as it was when I went to sleep.  Xena looked at me with annoyance.  I am okay, back to bed for the rest of the night.

At 5:15 in the morning I did see the light of day squeezing its way through the forest canopy and I got up.  I wanted to make sure that I was up and out of camp before any ranger, trail crew, or early morning hiker had a chance to find my camp spot.  I was out of camp by 6am!

Neahkahnie Mountain Trail

Neahkahnie Mountain Trail

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I only had 10 minutes of walking to get to the trail crossing of Hwy 101.  From this crossing you begin the trail up Neahkahnie Mountain.  The trail was horribly overgrown, wet from the light misting/fog, and washed out in many areas.  If anyone decides to hike from this side beware of your footing.  In an area where I could not see the trail beneath the foliage the trail disappeared from under foot.  With little grace I slid down the steep hillside 10 or so feet.  It happened so fast I think I was more shocked than scared when I stopped and found myself half kneeling and half standing in waist high sword ferns and salal.  I crawled my way back to the trail and hoisted myself over the steep trail cut like I was getting out of a pool.  Only I don't usually get out of a pool with a pack on.  By this time Xena had come back down trail to see what all the commotion was.  She gave me a disapproving look that said, " really, what are you doing?"  I continued to the summit with more precarious steps.

View from Neahkahnie Mountain

The top section of trail opens up to larger trees and wider trail with the occasional muddy bog to slosh through.  The trail does not actually hit the Neahkanie summit.  To hit the summit I set my pack down and took the 1/8 mile climbers trail up the ridge.  I had views looking down over the fog blanketed Manzanita.  Descending down the other side of the trail was much nicer.  This trail seem to be more well maintained.  The trail takes you to a gravel road which you then take to Hwy 101.

Xena on Neahkahnie Mountain

The road walking on this section of Hwy 101 was a bit scary.  There are a lot of cars on 101 and I do not like when semis or fifth wheels pass by.  When there is not a good spot to pull over I feel like I am at a 50/50 odds of survival.  In short, I do not like the road walking!

The road walk ends at Neahkanie-Manzanita State Recreation Site where you begin walking the Nehalem Beach.  While walking this beach I had two women ask if they could take a picture of Xena.  Sure, why not.  They asked what I was doing and as we continued to talk I realized that one of the women looked familiar.  I could not figure out where from.  Then as we continued to talk we discovered that we had met last summer on the PCT near Palm Springs.  At the time her and her husband where training for the El camino de Santiago pilgrimage.  They had stopped briefly to talk to Tiffany and I as we were taking a break under the shade of a tree.  We had only met that one time.  They had kept up with our blogs, but otherwise we had not had communication since.  Crazy how the world can seem so small!

After the mini hiker reunion I continued to Nehalem Bay SP.  Here I checked into a hiker biker camp site for a much needed short day!  I set up the tent and put Xena on her sleeping pad.  I didn't even worry about leaving her while I went across the park to shower.  She was snoring in the same spot when I got back.

Nasty feet!

Later that evening I had to recharge my phone in the bathroom.  While Xena and I were posted outside the bathroom doors under a walkway I met a couple also hiking the Oregon Coast Trail.  Mr. E2 and Ms. C were recent graduates from OSU.  They wanted to use this as there beginner through hike.  They too had found that finding camp spots at more regular walking distance intervals was challenging.  They were taking the bus around the areas of Hwy 101 and other roads instead of walking the road.  I said that was a great idea, because road walking on such a buys highway sucked!  I cannot take the bus with a dog, but this has made me rethink of how I should be going about this trail.

With a full charge on my phone I went back to my tent to work on this blog.  The biggest concern of this evening are the red welts/spots, maybe a rash on my feet.  They have been there for two days now and they itch like crazy!

With the sun hidden well below the horizon and
another night of rain drumming on my tent I fall asleep.

Happy Trails,
Midnight Chocolate
and Sleeping Dragon