Windy

This last weekend we set out to hike at Ecola State Park. We wanted to hike the trail to Indian Beach, since the last time we were at Ecola the trail was closed.

On our way to the coast we happened to see this rainbow and I got a quick photo of it. See it there right in the middle of the pic? It was a little brighter in person.

We got to the park and used the convenient restroom. Then we made our way to Chapman Point to look at the ocean and the wind.

It was very breezy and we spent some time at the point taking some video footage.

We walked to another side of the park and saw the Tillamook Lighthouse.

The Tillamook Lighthouse, or “Terrible Tilly”

Closeup.

After a little bit of exploring, we headed over to the Indian Beach trail.

Some film info about the area.

Start of the Indian Beach trail.

We started down the Indian Beach trail and crossed a little bridge, then almost immediately came upon a “logstacle”.

Now, I didn’t get a photo of the top of the larger log here, but it was perched precariously in the top of a standing tree and looked like it might let go at any second. Nevertheless, we crawled through these two logs and kept on. When we came to a much larger log across the trail, and noticed a few trees really blowing in the wind, we decided to forget the forest trails and head to Cannon Beach where there were no trees to fall on us.

We first stopped at a little park in town next to the beach. It had some neat historical info signs about Lewis and Clark, but the tide was in so far that we couldn’t actually make it to the beach.

Lewis & Clark whale story

Tide was way in.

We drove around to downtown Cannon Beach and parked in the public parking lot. We made our way to the beach and walked for aways south into the wind. The sand was blowing steadily toward us but thankfully wasn’t getting in our eyes. I imagine some of the dogs playing on the beach wished they had goggles, though!

Those white lines are lines of sand blowing in our direction.

Foam on the beach – the foam was also blowing across the sand.

Haystack Rock

The sun was trying to break through – way in the distance you can see the lighthouse.

Well…birds.

After walking for awhile and coming to a river that ran onto the beach, and not really wanting to find a place to cross, we decided to get lunch downtown. I was interested in going to this restaurant but there was a long wait time, and then I looked at the menu and it seemed very expensive. Kangaroo had spotted a fish-n-chips place down the street so we went there.

Oros’ Fireside Restaurant

These signs were on many of the historic buildings in town.

We went to Tom’s Fish and Chips and had…fish and chips. It was pretty good and very reasonably priced.

Delicious lunch

After we ate lunch I wanted to go to the famous bakery next door and see if they had some haystack bread for Mom. They did, but the loaves were so big and I didn’t know if it would stay good during the couple of days that would pass before I went out to Mom and Dad’s, so I didn’t get any bread. I got a couple of pastries for The Hubs and a cookie and then we walked back to Kangaroo’s truck and drove home. For not having “hiked” very much, I sure was tired when we got back!

Just keep walking!

~Ninja

Waves

Marnie and her daughter decided to go to the beach on Friday, January 6th to look at the waves and invited me to join them. We had been having an interesting weather pattern and the waves were supposed to be huge.

We got to the beach and stopped at some waypoints to look at the waves, but they weren’t all that big and it was a bit disappointing. We stopped at one beach, however, and though the waves weren’t all that super there was a woman with a German Shepherd dog who was jumping up onto a big stump and launching him or herself off to chase a stick in the water. The tide was very far in so the dog was doing some swimming! Strangely, although I know I took many photos of the dog up on the stump, they have all disappeared from my phone. I’m not sure what to think of that.

Marnie gets the shot.

A pretty big wave.

Many birds hang out here…

But this was the only one today. Not sure what kind of bird it is, I don’t think it’s on the sign.

Survey marker.

Saw some friends in the water — who do you think they are? Why, sea lions, of course!

Seagull friend.

“Spouting Horns
The eroding of weaker material or the presence of lava tubes within the coastal rock formation allow the pulse of the sea to be released and thrown skyward in a release of energy.  These spectacular displays vary with the power of the waves.”

Spouting Horn

We ended up in Depoe Bay, and looked at the Spouting Horns on the ocean side. I know I had a video of the Spouting Horns but it has also disappeared from my phone. Weird.

Then on the other side of the highway we went to some little shops and looked around. We saw a lot of neat things, including these coolers made from old oil drums. I took photos of many of them to encourage The Hubs to make something cool from the 50-gallon barrels he has been collecting. The coolers are made by a man who lives in Vietnam and by some people he teaches to make them. They were very expensive.

We then spent some money on salt water taffy, and I got a block of seafoam, which is a hunk of candy covered in chocolate. It is light and crunchy and delicious. I’m not sure what it’s made of, but it is a must for me to have if we go to a candy store at the coast. Salt water taffy is so yummy and if you’re not careful you can buy pounds and pounds of it by just taking “one of these and one of those”! I didn’t get a photo of the taffy, which is a shame.

I did, however, get a photo of our lunch. We stopped at the “Chowder Bowl” and had lunch, the fish and chips lunch was pricey but it was good and came with a salad as well. The salad was good too, but the pieces of lettuce were so big it was hard to eat! I resorted to using my fingers to pick up a large piece of lettuce, fold it up, and dip it in the dressing. You can see from this photo that Marnie also got a picture of her food, ha. The waitress had a baby in a front carrier and we heard her tell someone that they had just bought the restaurant and opened on the 1st, and they needed all the help they could get so the baby came along. Baby was just sleeping most of the time and the Mama handled everything quite well.

After our lunch we headed back to Lincoln City and stopped at an antique store and the antique mall there. None of us found anything we couldn’t live without, so we came home empty-handed. Since The Girl has been cleaning out her room to make room for the new Son-in-Law we have had a lot of stuff everywhere, so when I got home after not buying anything I thought it was just fine that I didn’t bring more things into the house!

I started this post awhile back and never finished it, so there will be a couple of posts all together. The reason I haven’t been blogging is…we had a wedding!! Stay tuned for the wedding post!

Hike — Cascade Head

Last week Marnie, Linda, and I hiked to Cascade Head on the Oregon Coast, near Lincoln City, as a training hike with our big backpacks. It was Linda’s first time there, and Marnie and I hadn’t been there for a couple of years since it was closed during COVID. It was nothing like I remembered. For instance, I didn’t remember all the steps:

Many, many steps like these.

Or the roots:

Also, many, many roots.

While it is only supposed to be 4.2 miles round trip with a 1200 foot elevation gain (which in 2 miles is sort of a lot), it is so steep in places that it feels like you are gaining 42 hundred thousand feet. Mr. Sullivan in his book rates the hike as “moderate”, but as I’ve learned to my dismay his ratings are often not accurate for us.

Marnie, Linda, and me in background.

The views from Cascade Head are rather spectacular, though, so it is worth the stairs and elevation gain to get to the top and see Cape Foulweather, God’s Thumb, the Salmon River estuary, and Devil’s Lake. There are also some lovely wildflowers, pink foxglove and a purple flower I couldn’t identify. Some rare wildflowers also bloom here, rare pink checkermallows and violets that serve as food for the rare silverspot butterfly caterpillars. We didn’t see these flowers so it must not be their season. We stayed on the trail until we got to the top where there was no danger of trampling any rare flowers.

Foxglove

Not sure what this one is. Anybody know?

On this trail you walk through the woods for awhile, and then come out into the lovely meadows where you get the first glimpse of the views.

Salmon River Estuary and the Pacific Ocean, with a lovely beach we don’t know how to get to.

Marnie getting the shot.

Marnie on left getting more photos, Linda on right.

Linda and me on the trail.

Ocean view from the tippy-top.

The survey marker at the tippy-top. We enjoy looking for survey markers, especially if we have done a hard climb to find them. This one is very worn for some reason.

You can see in the photos that the grass is very high. A few years ago the Hubs and I hiked here with a group and one of the girls decided to stay at the middle meadow and not go to the tippy-top. The Hubs and I stayed with her, and he was so tired he just laid his head down on his Gatorade bottle and took a little nap while the others went to the tippy-top and got their photos. This time the grass was so overgrown that I couldn’t even find the middle meadow, and we just went to the tippy-top and had our snack break. There was one young man ahead of us and a couple who came up after we got there, but until then we had the hike to ourselves which is why we always go early! Since we aren’t fast hikers, it’s nice not to have to pull over every two minutes to let a bunch of people go by. On the way down once we got into the forest there were many people who had just started their hike. We ran into a lady I had hiked with to Pamelia Lake the week before, and had a nice chat with some older hikers in a little clearing on the trail.

We finished off by going to the ’60s Cafe and Diner in Lincoln City where we often eat after our coast hikes. No photos of food were taken, but we each had a very yummy lunch. All in all a great day!