Summer Hike Series: Birthday on the Clatsop Trail

July 24th is my birthday. I've had a few great ones, most of which included a night out with all of my friends, intimate dinners with a girlfriend, or traveling home to hang out a bit with my family. Maybe even a combination of all the above. This year however, was a bit different. By this point, I had made a few good friends here in town, but unfortunately, most of them were out of town for the weekend and I found my celebration options narrow themselves down to only a few. So, on the morning of July 24th, I grabbed my pack, leashed up Kino and headed for the coast. The last time I was out there, I noticed a coastal trail leading north from Indian Beach. It would be a fairly short hike, but I couldn't think of a better way to end the day.

To reach Indian Beach from Portland, you travel about an hour or so westbound on SR 26 until you hit Hwy 101, which follows the western coastline from Mexico all the way to Canada. Once you merge on to 101 south, drive about two miles until you see signs for Cannon Beach and Ecola State Park. Follow the sign into Ecola, pay the daily visit rate and after a three mile winding pass through an old growth coastal forest, you'll arrive at the beach. I parked my car here, tossed my pack on my back and along with Kino, started heading up the trail.

The first part of the trail rises sharply to the top of the bluffs, then levels out through some thick shrubbery (insert Monty Python jokes here), then switchbacks further up the bluffs in the midst of a dense forest of redwood and pine. After about three and a half miles, the trail spurs off towards the designated campsites, a small clearing that is dotted with adirondack shelters, centered around a huge fire pit. Knowing that I was about 400 yards away from the overlooks, I kept along the side trail until I hit a small clearing on top of the bluff. With the waves crashing along the shore a good 500 feet below me and a perfect view of Tilamook Lighthouse in the distance (yes, this is the very same Lighthouse from Goonies), I found this to be the perfect spot to set up camp.

The night was fairly uneventful, as it mostly consisted of my trying and failing miserably to make a fire from the dampened wood scattered around the area, but it was truly one of the more perfect birthday evenings I could have asked for. There were no complications, no worries about everyone making it home safe, ...no thinking about my age. It was just quiet, and Kino and I soaked up every minute of it. The stars where out and we both dozed off for a bit, staring through the canopy at the clusters of endless stars above us. I'll almost never look at them the same again. It was sensational.

I woke up the next morning to the hypnotizing sound of the surf and the sensation of a dense moisture all around me. When I opened up the tent, I found myself in the midst of one of the thickest fogs I had ever encountered. It didn't last long, maybe fifteen minutes at the most before clearing away, but for those first few moments, the air was incredibly disorientating. Even Kino was a bit leery of steeping more than a few feet away from the tent. However, when it did dissipate, I found myself in the midst of a pocket within the fog cloud and could see the outer edge of the pocket rolling across the sea towards the coast, engulfing Tillamook rock over and over again as fingers of mist crept up the bluffs and into the trees. It was nothing less than striking.

I took my time packing up my belongings and began heading back to the car, but when I finally did, I made sure to find the hidden army bunkers that dot this part of the coast. To my surprise, I found that the years of abandonment, neglect and the waning light from the night before hid them completely from my view until the morning. Covered in moss and overgrown between the trees, the bunkers have almost completely blended into the forest. I couldn't get it, but you definitely see the outside structure, once you realize what you're looking at.

Kino and I then descended back through the fog and the brush to reach the car about an hour later. The beach was surprisingly empty for what appeared to be a decent surfing day, so I let Kino stretch his legs a bit on the sand. I think he's happiest when he runs, even though he can't quite move as quickly or gracefully as he used to. Regardless, I can tell it's therapeutic for him and I let him go and get it out of his system as often as possible.

I've only been back to the coast once since that day, but I plan on heading back out that way again shortly and discovering a few of the smaller towns that make up the Oregon coastline. It is, after all, only an hour or so away. Frankly, I have no excuse for not going more often than I actually do. And next time, I don't need to rationalize it with a birthday.