Fwd: OCT hiking

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Annette Demel <annette.demel2016@gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Subject: OCT hiking
To: Rvsters.postsecret@blogspot.com

Here we go!!

Our little hiking group hits the beach early on Sunday, June 12, hiking to South Jetty, the official start of Oregon Coast Trail (OCT). Starting in the cold and drizzle at Fort Stevens State Park , we hike north toward the Columbia River whose flow marks the border between Oregon and Washington. Along the way, we find a bottle bobbing in the tide containing a scrolled message and a dollar bill. We stash the bottle in a pack and resume our walk while rain and hail, fog and mist welcome us to coastal Oregon.

By the time we get back to Fort Stevens' campground, we're cold, drenched, and ready for a hot shower and a cup of tea. Lynn's hands are so cold she fumbles the key trying to unlock the door. We dry Shug off and she hops on the bed, stretches out, and puts herself to bed on the wooly, Rockies blanket. We crank the furnace on, sip our hot tea, and appreciate each drop of the hot showers. Knowing that backpacking affords us none of these niceties, we savor our last few hours of creature comforts.

Today the RVsters step back into our WanderWomen boots. We move from camping in Lynn's trailer into our tents in hiker/biker camp. Just after checkout time at1:00, Kristy and Lynn drive Lynn's truck and trailer to a storage lot while Shug and Annette hunker down in the new tent camp to await their return. Five hours later, Kristy and Lynn trudge into camp with a surprisingly cheery, "Anyone home?" Unfortunately, the trailer storage place ends up being a big run-around, bait and switch hassle, resulting in a change of venue which triples the cost, but at least offers a feeling that there will be a truck and trailer there to collect upon our return.  

Annette and Shug handling the rain

After that long day of hiking and transitioning,  Lynn awakens us in the middle of the night hooping and hollering at three raccoons she hears rousting around in our backpacks on the picnic table. Wielding both of her trekking poles and blasting light from her headlamp, Lynn thumps and shushes the three wild-eyed raccoons up a tree. Kristy jumps out of our tent, runs up the hill and grabs Shug's dog food-filled backpack which the raccoons are trying to drag into the woods. Meanwhile, Annette collars Shug and holds on for dear life as Shug pulls and strains to join the fray. Eventually, we move all the backpacks into a nearby restroom and flop back into our sleeping bags. Surprisingly, we all fall back to sleep and manage to wake up ready to hike early Tuesday morning. 

Tea and cream of wheat cooked on our backpacking stoves nurtures us enough to start us on our way at 8 a.m. The weather waits at least 10 minutes into our hike down to the beach to show us it's full potential. With a swoosh the wind speed accelerates from 10-15 mph to 25-30 mph. Pelting rain turns to wind-driven hail as we head south for our 11 mile walk to Del Ray Beach. The weather cycles from drizzle to pelting hail with tiny intervals of sunshine. We get a pretty decent upper body workout just pulling our rain ponchos on and off. Shug looks daggers at us, but plugs along like a trooper. Shug is not a fan of intense wind or hail...honestly, neither are we. 



Beach front property on the Oregon Coast

As we approach the stretch of beach where we want to camp, the sun shines beatifically on our shoulders. We've warmed up, our clothes are dry and we are ready to relax. We casually pull our tents from our backpacks and bam--the rain starts again, swirling around us in tornadic gusts. Rushing to get our tents up and getting soaked in the processes the wind whips our tent as we set the poles and stakes. We hustle Shug into the tent and toss our backpacks and our bodies in after her.  Lynn gives up and wraps her rain fly around herself and her gear and waits it out on a log looking like a bedraggled Madonna cradling her backpack in her arms. 

Minutes later, the wind slows, the rain abates, and we tentatively emerge from our tent into a sun-filled scene, the beach grass wafting gently as the waves crash and foam in the distance. With a bit of anchoring help, Lynn snaps her tent up and we all collapse onto our sleeping pads for a well-deserved rest. Day 2 OCT hiking writ large in our backpacking memories.