From the Mouth of Nehalem Bay we continued beach walking south along the shores and community of Rockaway Beach. We heard from many of the locals that there are many second homes and beach rentals in this community. Therefore, in the winter months… the town can often seem quiet and empty.
Its actually quite amazing how close some of the homes are to the water and what measures people take to keep the high tides and wintertime storm surges from flooding their homes. In some areas where there are jetties, beach can still be forming and extending out into the sea, whereas in other areas, the ocean is reclaiming the land one grain of sand at a time.
At the North Jetty of Tillamook Bay we Hitched a ride into Tillamook to avoid walking on Highway 101. We resupplied at a full scale supermarket and enjoyed an afternoon breakfast at a diner. We often only carried two to three days of food with us. However, on average, this was unnecessary since most towns had varying sizes of grocery or convenient stores. There were more restaurants that lit the way than lighthouses.
We then spent the rest of the evening road walking to Cape Lookout State Park where we were the only people using the Hiker-Biker Campground as the rain showers were ongoing. Such overnight accommodations are five dollars per person which often includes the dissolving and melting power of hot showers. When one is already wet, why not get even wetter by absorbing the full essence of this basic element of Life
South of Cape Lookout there is a tranquil and remote stretch of beach leading towards Sand Lake. We arrived at the mouth of Sand Lake at high tide, so we were diverted around the bay yet once more. At a lower tide, we could have waded across this streaming outlet of water.
From Sand Lake we were in Sight of Cape Kiwanda and Pacific City.
Hiking over Cape Kiwanda was like traversing a gigantic sand dune. Kids would often use sleds to slide down the steeper slopes as if they were upon frictionless snow.
It felt like we were like sails floating on sand from One Cape to the next Cape. Whenever we came across a river, we had to circumnavigate a bay in search of a bridge to cross such fresh snow melt pouring down from the nearby mountains. At one crossing we happened upon a couple of beavers enjoying the splendor of new spring growth.
Compared to Northern California and Northern Washington State, it seemed like Oregon had tremendous amounts of vast sandy beaches. Apparently in the past when cars were first developed and when there were less roads, many people traveled the beaches at lower tides by automobile. Certain stretches of these beaches are still open to such four wheeling movement.
Below Cape Kiwanda is the town of Pacific City where we once again left the outer coast to hitch around another bay to eventually reach the overland trail of Cascade Head in Siuslaw National Forest. A land of vast inland sand dunes were soon squishing between my barefoot toes.
