Our First 150 Miles on the Oregon Coast Trail

From Astoria to Depoe Bay, as we enjoy the more relaxing pace of the OCT and wait for PCT snow to melt.

About a week ago, we were in Rockaway Beach, about 60 miles down the Oregon Coast, eating lunch at Grumpy’s Cafe. Today, like most days when we backpack into town, we feel like we enter through a side door. We see a slice of life you don’t experience when you roll into town in an Audi Q5. And our backpacks invite conversation.

When the twenty-something cook at Grumpy’s realizes we’re hiking the OCT, he dashes to the kitchen to get something. I prepare a reasonable excuse for why whatever he brings “isn’t worth the weight.” I’m relieved when he brings a handful of magazines, highlighting local events and places to visit.

As he flips through the magazine’s pages, showing me the highlights, I reach into the top of my backpack and pull out our bible, “Hiking the Oregon Coast Trail,” by Bonnie Henderson. I explain that it has everything we need, and while I’m loathe to carry books in my backpack, “this one’s worth the weight.” He looks a little disappointed but recovers as we fall into conversation. At this point Grumpy has locked the door so the place is empty.

He asks me tentatively, “Do you know about the Rainbow Gathering?”

I answer, “Yes,” as I had just read about this annual gathering in the book, “Wild.” Each year the gathering brings together 10,000 Rainbow Family members on National Forest Land to focus on peace, love, and unity.

He continues with a smile, “My mother was a hippie. When I was sixteen she took me to the Rainbow Gathering in Wisconsin. On the way back, she pulled off to the side of the road in Idaho, pushed my car door open, and told me to, ‘Go have an adventure.’ I hitch-hiked towards home, but then found a new friend and we went all the way to Alaska instead.”

“Was she mad at you?” I asked, thinking of all the times I had threatened to leave my kids on the side of the road.

“I don’t think so, but maybe she wanted some time on her own,” he answered.

“When did you finally get home?” I asked.

“I walked back into my mother’s kitchen four months later. She greeted me like it had only been a few days.”

He looked wistfully at my backpack, and as he headed back to the kitchen, he encouraged me to “enjoy the adventure.”

This type of conversation happens every day on the Oregon Coast. It’s the benefit of entering small towns via the side door, and having a backpack as a conversation-starter.

Backpacking allows us to leave our protective cocoon and hear the stories of folks we’d never meet in “real life.” In this modern era where it seems the world is already fully explored, these conversations highlight how easy it is to embark on an adventure: just push the door open and head out.

History of the OCT

The Oregon Coast is nearly 400 miles long and its wide, sandy beaches cover nearly three-quarters of its length. The gaps in the sand are filled with rocky points and capes where the hills climb to a few thousand feet.

There’s also a temperate rain forest that lines most of the coast, so the Oregon Coast Trail alternates between long beach walks and moss-covered, wooded paths through Spruce and Pine trees.

Because the OCT is not as well-established as the PCT there are quite a few road walks, and occasionally you need to find a work-around for an inlet where the water’s too deep to cross. (There was a “boat fairy” at Jetty Fishery who provided a ferry ride across a narrow inlet.)

In most states, it’s not possible to hike the entire coast. Here’s how Oregon made this possible:

• In 1913, led by Governor Oswald West, the Oregon legislature established the state’s ocean beaches as a public highway; at low tide the beach was the easiest ways to ride north or south. For over fifty years, there was no threat to public ownership of the coast.

• In 1966, a Cannon Beach motel owner attempted to ban non-guests from the beach in front of his hotel. In response, Oregon lawmakers created the Oregon Beach Bill, proposing that all Oregon coastal waterfront be public up to the point where vegetation began.

• Developers responded quickly with a well-organized, well-funded opposition and the bill seemed headed to failure until an AP journalist, Matt Kramer, spurred public outrage. The Oregon legislative committee received 30,000 letters demanding public ownership of Oregon beaches.

• In 1966, the Oregon Beach Bill was signed into law, making all coastal beaches public land.

While the above law focused on Oregon’s coastal beaches, in the early 1920’s hundreds of miles of coastal capes and islands won a combination of state and federal protection. Oregon also built lots of state parks along the way, making the Oregon Coast Trail possible. (Thirty-five years ago KarMMa biked from Astoria to SF, and the frequent Oregon hiker-biker campsites she visited in the 80’s have all been upgraded with hot showers and charging stations—luxury!)

One of our goals during this break from the PCT was to explore our new home state. We’ve learned a lot while hiking its coast.

One Minute on the OCT

At the moment, we’re staying at the SCP (Soul Community Planet) Inn in Depoe Bay, about 150 miles down the coast. Our plan is to stop in Florence (mile 230) and find our way back to Burlingame, CA, then restart the PCT in Northern California. We’re hoping enough snow will have melted by early June, but if it’s not obvious by now, our plans may change. The search for dirt continues.

For those who like to follow our progress, here’s our Oregon itinerary:

To give you a better sense of the OCT, I’ll close with two one-minute videos. The first is during a beach walk, a little north of Cape Lookout. We had completed the day’s hike, but were slack-packing to cover a bit of the OCT we missed.

That day, we couldn’t find a boat ride across a small inlet so we had to walk all the way around the Netarts Bay estuary, which is hidden behind the large sand dune in this video:

To give you a sense of the diversity on the trail, here’s one more minute as we crossed Cascade Head, which is now owned and protected by the Nature Conservancy. This video gives you a sense of the view between Pacific City and Lincoln City:

More than half of our 150 miles so far have been beach walks, with another quarter through old-growth rain forests. We have explored lots of coastal towns and have completed obligatory road walks for the remaining quarter.

Unlike the PCT we have taken time to explore lots of side trails and have slept in real beds and have eaten real food at least half the time. We’re exploring Oregon at a much more relaxed pace than the PCT.

Many thanks to the OCT trail angels who have helped us along the way: Bonnie (author of the OCT book, shuttled us around Tillamook Bay), Grammy Pat, Jeff, Jeffery, HeyBearHey, Hippie Dave, Driver Pete, and Ross/Rachelle of Pines Dine. Last, many thanks for the continuing support for Kristen’s “Women In Science” fundraiser which has now jumped to $150k thanks to a large donation from Bristol Myers Squibb.

Happy trails!

Pudding and KarMMa

(Gib and Kristen)

PS. For more photos, you can also follow us here:

• Gib on Instagram

• Kristen on Instagram

PPS. If you want a best guess of where we will be when, or to see the crazy spreadsheet that powers our PCT resupplies, click here.

PPS:

Past PCT essays:

March 25, 2023: “Day One: Introducing our PCT hike”

March 26, 2023: “The Fears We Carry”

April 1, 2023: “Our First 100 Miles!”

April 7, 2023: “A Day In the Life”

April 15, 2023: “Deserts & Bears & Wind (Oh My!)”

April 22, 2023: “Luxury Light Thru Hiking”

May 4, 2023: “Demystifying the PCT”

May 11, 2023: “From Wrightwood to Agua Dulce: Our Shining Moment,” below: