Finally the weather and the weekend lined up for a hike in overnight camping trip. Hikers Camp is in the Clatsop State Forrest, an easy hike up from Indian Head beach. Lewis and Clarke came through here.
The simple plan was to leave after work and get to the campsite before dark. We wanted to stay Friday night, Saturday, and travel back Sunday afternoon. As simple plans become complicated and any amount of work expands to fill the time allotted; we got a late start. We hit a fast food drive through on the way out. Dinner was taken care of.
It was a pretty drive to the coast, and not much traffic. The sunset was good, we saw it from the parking lot next to the day use pay site. We had to buy three days of parking for our two night stay.
I love getting into a campsite in pitch black. We were quite, on the way in we noticed a neighbor had a light on. We picked the driest spot we could find. Set up was ok, we got the tent up and unpacked quietly. After a nightcap of grapefruit infused vodka, we were ready to rest.
Sometime in the night, the loud group came into camp. People really don't understand how sound travels in the quiet wood. Finally it was silent again and we were resting. Sometime later, the lost one of the loud group came into camp yelling for Bret . . . something . . . and shinning a light on our tent. We politely muttered "No", and Bret yelled for the friend to join up with the group. Another hour or so it was quiet, and we slept.
The forrest here has no visible dirt, everything is made up of decomposed plants. The sitka spruce take advantage of this environment and grow out of downed grandparent trees, called nurse logs.
There's a WWII bunker on the trail to the lighthouse lookout. It's something to see while you are in the neighborhood. The lighthouse is now a bird sanctuary.
I guess that's why the trail is here, it's the old service road for this bunker.
The lighthouse is now a bird sanctuary.
Saturday afternoon we met a few other groups brave enough to try an overnight in the coast range. We started a fire in the common fire ring, wood was a five dollar donation. The fire attracted the nice groups. During our fire watch gathering a large group with fo
ur unruly dogs arrived. The dogs were uncontrollable with a lead Boxer that wanted to display dominance on everybody and everything. This group did not come up to join the fire.Sunday morning early we were awakened by the dogs, not so nice. We decided to pack up and leave early. We got breakfast on the deck of a café in Cannon Beach and went home to take a nap.
