Aug 12, 2025 8 min read Oregon Coast Trail

Hiking The Oregon Coast Trail, Day 11: The Raccoon Thief & Tunnel Beach

A bold bandit tries to steal my giant backpack in the middle of the night! Plus, some unfinished business in Oceanside during this "zero day" on the Oregon Coast Trail.

The mysterious entrance to Tunnel Beach in Oceanside, Oregon

Around 1:30am, I wake up to a scurrying sound near the vestibule of my tent. My consciousness, however, is still stuck between dreaming and wakefulness so I drift back to sleep. A few minutes later, I hear more scurrying, more scuffling, and it's louder this time. More undefined, half-asleep moments pass by until my the alarm in my brain syncs up with my body's actions. I unzip my door, click on my Garmin's torch and peer straight out, then left to my backpack.

Correction: where my backpack used to be...

My first suspicion is that someone strolled right up and stole my pack in the middle of the night for some reason. I stand up and frantically sweep the area with my light, but there's no one nearby. I spin 180-degrees on my heels, and my light catches a glint near the bushes on the western end of the campsite, about 20 yards away. Bewildered, I look closely at the vegetation and there's the culprit, with what I imagine is a smug expression on its cute but thieving little face as the light shines into its eyes.

A raccoon is dragging away my enormous 65L Gregory Baltoro backpack!

It actually takes a non-trivial amount of effort to pull the pack away from its greedy grip, but I yank it free angrily, set it down near my tent, and start assessing the damage. Even though I had intentionally left my bear can full of food across the campsite before turning in, I overlooked something rather important; I forgot about a bag of half-eaten trail mix in one of the hip pockets.

Mr. Raccoon had tried to gnaw through the pocket first, got defeated, and then probably made the decision to drag the entire thing back to its den to work on later. Major props to Gregory for the durability of that pocket! You can clearly see a vigorous attempt was made to chew through to those nuts and berries, but there were no puncture marks on the pocket fabric even though the Ziploc baggie containing the trail mix was littered with holes.

After miraculously managing to claim a couple more hours of sleep before dawn, the Stellar's Jays woke me up with their squawking alarms, and then promptly started appearing in the lower branches of surrounding trees to wait for breakfast scraps.

A Sidequest to Tunnel Beach

Today, I won't be going forward on the trail. I have some unfinished business in Oceanside, and it's not merely about missing the welcoming vibe and tasty food at Current Cafe. No, apparently I was steps away from a secluded beach there, but since I'm always fixated on moving south, I completely missed it! K insists I remedy that, and I certainly have no problem spending a rest day in Oceanside. Call it an extended celebration for the 100-mile achievement. Or simply a rare chance to revisit a stretch of this coast that felt like a brief blur during my hike yesterday.

Read more about Oceanside and Current Cafe in this entry!

A sliver of light from the other end of the 90-foot tunnel guides your way.

As it turns out, Tunnel Beach is pretty special. It's a 300-yard stretch of beach just south of a basalt headland called Maxwell's Point, but given that the OCT route takes you around that entire area, I have to assume the only sane way to enter Tunnel Beach is through a dark man-made tunnel. (Or perhaps by rounding Maxwell's Point perfectly timed during a minus tide.)

The tunnel was constructed nearly 100 years ago, in 1926, by a family that owned a nearby resort, allegedly for no other reason than the convenience and enjoyment of its guests!

At Tunnel Beach, looking south towards the tunnel.

I felt a touch of trepidation entering the 90-foot tunnel, because it gets dark quickly and demands the use of a torch or, at bare minimum, the light from your phone. But any trace of fear turned to wonder as we emerged on the other side and set our eyes on Tunnel Beach.

It definitely feels secluded! As you walk from stones near the tunnel exit to fine tan sand closer to the waterline, you realize you're sheltered by tall cliffs behind you. And the beach itself is decorated with numerous sea stacks to climb, and tidepools to explore.

Looking north atop a sea stack at Tunnel Beach. K and I are the only people here.

If you're into rockhounding, locals say the best time to explore Tunnel Beach is in the winter during low tide, after storms and resulting king tides wash away layers of sand to reveal hidden treasures like agates, jaspers, and marine fossils.

After spending a couple hours calmly exploring Tunnel Beach with K, we spent a couple more hours in the delicious embrace of Current Cafe. I devoured a cheeseburger decked out with Teriyaki sauce, pineapple, and bacon, complimented by perfectly crisped fries and a thick milkshake.

The last entry for today in my notebook simply says: "I'm living my best life here."