4 - Nehalem Bay SP to Barview Jetty Campground

Xena watches me put away camp.

I awoke to rain on the tent.  I stayed in my warm sleeping bag until natures urges could no longer be ignored.  I took Xena on a short walk to the restrooms.  We both got our business over with and crawled back in the tent for breakfast.  Lucky for us the rain stopped after breakfast long enough to pack everything away.  Though, it would be pushing luck to wish for a dry tent to pack away!

Nehalem Beach walk.

Xena inspects Beached Seal

Xena and I headed to the beach with our fellow OCT hikers Mr. E2 and Ms. C.  They became our hiking partners for the day.  Although the rain clouds were nice enough to hold the rain during pack up, they did not hold once on the beach.  More rain and wind for the beach walk to the end of Nehalem beach.  On this beach walk we saw a fairly large coyote which was feasting on a dead and beached seal.  I know these things happen, but it still makes me sad to see.

At the end of the beach we rounded the end of the spit and hiked inward toward Nehalem Bay where we were able to catch a ferry from the Jetty Fishery across the way.  This helped us avoid 12 miles of road walking.  Xena was not to fond of the tipsy boat ride and I was worried for a moment that she might try to jump out and swim across.  At the Jetty Fishery we paid for our fare, took a quick bite to eat, and set out again in the rain.  When you are already wet it seems easier to keep going to avoid getting cold. 

I am not sure how the three of us together missed the trail signs or misread our maps, but we ended up on Hwy 101 longer than we should have when we missed our turn off.  After walking 2 miles of unpleasant highway Mr. E2 spotted a random side trail off the road.  It seemed well built and had a wooden mask nailed to a tree near the top.  I was a little worried this would lead to a private property, but didn't see why they would have a trail to the middle of the highway.  We all decided this option was worth a shot of we could get to the beach and avoid the road walk.  It turns out this trail was built as an emergency evacuation route for a beach side neighborhood during a tsunami warning.  Yay!  It lead us right to the beach.

Xena's favorite spot to sleep!

Campsite at Barview Jetty CG

We continued on our rainy beach walk toward Barview Jetty.  About a half mile before the Barview Jetty I said goodbye to my OCT hiking partners for the day.  They were turning off early to walk into Barview where they would take a bus to avoid the upcoming road walk.  I continued down the beach to the Barview Jetty.  At the jetty I turned left and headed towards the campground.  At the first park bench I sat down and reviewed my maps.  After walking and thinking, and thinking and walking I decided I needed to reevaluate my approach to this trail.  In the next 2 to 3 days I was looking at approximately 30 miles of walking on Hwy 101 and 20 miles on smaller back roads.  These were all roads that I really did not feel comfortable hiking, especially with Xena.  It was here that I began making plans to get off trail.

As I was making these plans I saw another hiker coming up over the jetty rocks.  It was Ms. J!  Even though I only met her two days ago, a trail friend is always a welcome site.  We both ate our snacks and talked trail.  She was headed into Girabaldi where she would meet her husband and then return to the Barview Jetty campground.  After our snack we walked through the campground to the entrance booth.  Ms. J continued on to Girabaldi and I headed back to the hiker biker camp spots.

I was lucky enough to have a break in the weather where I could dry out the bottom of the tent before I threw the rest of my gear in.  However, as has been the trend of this trip, the rain did not hold out for too long.  With some half made plans between my sister and my dad I went to bed to the sound of falling rain and pine needles on my tent.

Happy Trails,
Midnight Chocolate
and Sleeping Dragon