The Oregon Coast Trail

In 2016 I finally discovered the joy of hiking. Less than a year after setting foot on the trails of the Spring Mountains outside of Las Vegas, I made a vow to myself that one day I would thru-hike the John Muir Trail. In 2025 I decided it was time

It’s 10:20am and we are rolling! The plan is to spend two days driving from Sacramento all the way up to the Northern Terminus of the Oregon Coast Trail (OCT) inside of Fort Stevens State Park. Along the way I’m hoping to get a brief glimpse of

I wake up feeling waves of anxiety and excitement and uncertainty. That’s because a day unlike any other day in my life is dawning. On this day, I’m taking my first steps on the 411-mile Oregon Coast Trail. The anticipation that’s been building the last 48 hours

It was not a wonderful, blissful night of sleep. I woke up twice to pee and then tossed and turned after 3 AM. But morning is the first of many opportunities during the day to shift your attitude and embrace whatever is in front of you. What’s immediately in

The highest form of cruelty is having to leave this perfect bed after an uninterrupted and blissful night of restful sleep, but the trail is calling! Today will be my first hike through the Oregon coast’s headlands, beginning at Tillamook Head. Before I hit the sand, K makes an

The cozy little seaside house K rented in Rockaway Beach is in a neighborhood that’s somehow dead quiet, and I slept like the dead last night. I woke up feeling surprisingly refreshed. The blister pain is gone, the knee pain is gone, the exhaustion has evaporated. Which makes me

Today I’m hiking from Indian Beach to just north of… wait, let me back up. It’s not all about the trail, after all. It’s also about the experiences bookending it. Part 1: The Bliss Before The Storm This morning has been incredible! Riveting conversation and great company

I had “California brain” yesterday while hiking the Oregon Coast Trail, and I’m determined to never let that happen again. Even though I’m wired to learn lessons by living them, I stumble out of my tent just before dawn with a crushing sense of regret. I feel ridiculously

The otherworldly scenery from Hug Point is still vivid in my memory as I wake up from a night of restful sleep. I feel supercharged this morning, which I wasn’t expecting. I assumed I’d need an extra day to recover from what I’ve started calling “the incident,

If I can pull it off, today will be my longest hike at an estimated 19 miles. Not just my longest hike on the Oregon Coast Trail, but the longest since starting this wonderful hiking obsession in 2016. The plan is to reach the summit of Neahkahnie Mountain, then descend

[Continued from Day 8, Part 1] It feels awesome to yank off my shoes and feel my bare feet on the Oregon beach sand. I’ve just walked onto the Nehalem Bay South Jetty, and it looks like some kind of driftwood graveyard. I’ve never seen anything like this

The Oregon Coast Trail guidebook presents a trio of options for getting across Tillamook Bay and picking up the trail. Depending on variables like tides, times, and weather, you can hire a boat ferry service to transport you from the port of Garibaldi to Bay Ocean Spit. Or you can

I currently live in the Central Valley of California, and every time I return home from an adventure in the Sierras or from a peaceful few days at the ocean, there’s a certain moment on the highway when I notice the inescapable, overwhelming stench of cattle farms. It smells

Hopefully the second half of today’s hike will be less eventful, but I’m really missing my iPod already. On the bright side, the next 9 miles should be the best of both worlds: equal stretches of beautiful beach hiking and coastal forest. The plan is to take a

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,