Olympic Coast Backpack, Aug 21st

This trip is really hard to describe as we had some good moments and some really bad. For me, it was a bit of a train wreck although I have to admit that part of it was my own fault. I think I underestimated the trip and overestimated some of the hikers. In short, we were not able to do the intended trip which was supposed to start from Hoh River and go all the way north to Third beach covering some beaches, creeks, headlands, etc. Not being able to do the trip as intended left me with a bit of a sour taste as I think it would have been fantastic. On the good side though, I think that I’m better informed now to try it again next year. This trip was a three day thing with a late start on Friday. The reason for that was that we had to time the low tide to pass a section of the beach about two miles in from the Hoh River. Since the tide was going to be at the lowest at around 8PM, we had a window of about 4 hours between 6 and 10PM to make that pass. Due to some unfortunate events that include (and this is part of the bad part) late arrivals and departures from several places, getting showered with Diesel fuel, etc we started hiking at 8 PM instead of the intended 5PM. Thanks to that, we were not able to make the pass and had to hike back and find a campsite to spend the first night which happened at around midnight. At that point I knew we were not going to be able to do the whole traverse as intended, so I told everybody to sleep as long as they wanted and that we would discuss possible plans the following day.

Morning from our first campsite


On Saturday, we woke up to a sunny clear day. Right after breakfast we discussed the viable options to finish the weekend which included going back home, staying where we were one more night or moving to Third Beach and stay the night there. The general consensus was to move to Third Beach, so we packed everything, hiked back to the trail head, went to pick up the cars, brought them back, picked up everybody and drove back to Third Beach. In the end we got to a campsite at Third Beach at around 3PM. After setting up camp and having a light lunch, we went for a hike to the end of the beach, over the headland all the way to Second Beach. This hike ended up being the highlight of the weekend. The views were magnificent and walking on the sand in the low tide was just incredible. The amount of life and little creatures you see is phenomenal. As time was moving, we hiked back right before sunset getting to camp in time for some Frisbee and more sunset pictures.

Sunset reflection


That night we had a nice fire by the beach with good food and some smores that helped release some of the built up tensions from the last couple of days.

Campfire


The last day, before packing up and heading out, I went for a walk to the north side of Third Beach. It was a very nice walk and I got to enjoy some really nice sky reflections on the sea and seagulls taking flight right in front of me (with a little running and yelling on my part). After that, we hiked out and went for lunch at a little place in the town of La Push.