Calendar

Past Activity

OCT- Waldport to Heceta Head

  • Start date: 08/01/2021

  • Start time: 12:00 AM

  • End date: 08/03/2021

  • End time: 11:59 PM

Description:

Mail a $35 check (members) made payable to the "Obsidians" to Mark Hougardy, 418 Heritage Oaks Drive, Eugene, Oregon, 97405; this amount covers your campground reservation, firewood, parking at the group camp, and Obsidian trip fees. Cancellations: The payment is nonrefundable unless your place is filled by someone else.

The Oregon Coast Trail (OCT) explores Oregon's dynamic edge, a resource-rich environment that has attracted explorers for centuries and into today. This section hike is intended to be enjoyed with a daypack and then return to a central location for tent camping. The focus is on beach walking, utilizing lesser-traveled side roads and trails. Hiking next to Hwy 101 will be avoided as much as possible. We will be car shuttling between the start and end locations each day. Flexibility is a must. Obsidian Covid protocols will be in place. The trip leader is vaccinated.
This trip is a 3-day, 23-mile section hike of the OCT between Waldport and the Heceta Head Lighthouse. We will be camping in the group camp at Cape Perpetua. The hike is split into several smaller sections with the middle section being first (the daily schedule is below).

Food: Bring all of your food and money for eating out (breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks). The trip leader suggests bringing food you can cook with a camp stove as fire restrictions might be in place.
Clothing: Dress for the weather; it can be cool on at coast in the summer or have full sun. Plan on small creek crossings and getting your feet wet.
Equipment: Bring your tent and a small camp stove, sleeping bag, etc.
Camping: We will be staying at the Group Site at the Cape Perpetua Campground. There are pit toilets nearby and flushers at the nearby visitor center, though you might have to walk a few minutes. Drinking water spigots are in the campground. Bring earplugs, and items that help you to be comfortable. Showers are not available.
Drivers: Drivers needed, we need at least 3 drivers who will shuttle. Vehicle Fee: Trip fees *should* pay for all our vehicles.
Passes: Bring your state park and federal park passes.
Departure Time: 12pm (noon)
Departure Location: Cape Perpetua main parking area (44.2803, -124.1078)

SCHEDULE:
Day 1: Sunday - 8 miles hiking. We shuttle from the Cape Perpetua main parking area to Yachats. We will explore Yachats a bit then hike Amanda's Trail to the overlook at Cape Perpetua. We return to the Cape Perpetua parking area then drive a short distance to the campground. The trail is 6 miles with 500 feet of elevation; allow 2 additional miles for side explores. We will have the rest of the afternoon and evening to explore tides pools, etc.

Day 2: Monday - We walk 8 miles on the beach. We shuttle to the Governor Patterson Memorial State Recreation Site in Waldport and walk back on the sand to Yachats where we will enjoy lunch at a local cafe. We will drive back to the campground and have the rest of the day to explore or rest. If the weather allows, we will watch the sunset from Cape Perpetua.

Day 3: Tuesday - 7 miles of beach and trail walking with a 300-foot elevation gain. We break camp and drive as a caravan 9 miles south. We are skipping sections or areas that are too remote for hiking, have a short beach area, or have no shoulder on the highway. We will re-group at the Murial Ponser Memorial State Scenic Overlook. We will arrange a shuttle to Cape Creek while the rest of the group explores the mouth of Big Creek. The entire group will then venture south on the sand, past the Washburne rest area, to the Hobbit Trail, and continue over to the Heceta Head Lighthouse. We end our walk at the nearby parking area under the picturesque Cape Creek Bridge. In the late afternoon, we return to Eugene.

  • Event Leader: Hougardy Mark

  • Assistant Leader:

  • Event category: Extended Trips

  • Area Type:

  • Departure Location: See Trip Description

  • Rating: Moderate

  • Roundtrip total drive miles: 250

  • Season: 2021

  • Permits Required:

  • Event Status: Passed

  • Supplies and Equipment Required: Everything you need to car camp, hike and all meals (see above).

  • participant prerequisites:

  • Conditions:

  • Total Distance: 23

  • Member Fees: 35

  • Elevation Gain: 1000

  • Non-Member Fees: 40

  • Committee: Extended Trips

  • Junior member fees: —

Trip Report

After a stop at the ranger kiosk at South Beach State Park, the trip leader was able to recover his sunglasses lost during the previous OCT walk, which had unknowingly been found and delivered to the kiosk by a good Obsidian. The group participants arrived at the Cape Perpetua main parking area at noon on Sunday. We then arranged several shuttles to Yachats. We walked through town, on a side street, then a pathway next to the highway before venturing inland to the Amanda statue. After that, the trail had an unrelenting elevation gain. Finally, we reached the top at just over 1,000 feet and descended to 800 feet to the shelter at Cape Perpetua for amazing views of the Pacific Ocean and Oregon Coast. We walked down the switch-back laden trail, with some continuing to the group camp while others retrieved vehicles from the nearby visitor center parking area. The evening was quiet and we were able to enjoy a campfire in the cool ocean air. The next day, we broke camp and arranged several shuttles between Yachats and the Governor Patterson Memorial State Recreation Site, about 7.5 miles away from where our hike began. The fog quickly returned. We passed the Big Stump, a relic of a "ghost forest." The card attached to the tree says this is an ancient redwood tree that died about 1,200 years ago. The associated website for additional information is not active at the time of this writing. A second, seeming ancient redwood was found about a quarter-mile top the south on the beach. The group made several creek crossings. The wind kicked up. Entering Yachats, we walked on the 804 trail along the rocky coast and through Yachats to where our car shuttles waited at the Yachats State Park Recreation Area. The group split up, with those in town finding some lunch while several shuttled back to pick up our vehicles. Upon returning to town, we joined the others for lunch. Several commented that Yachats had lost its "quirkiness" from previous decades and was becoming another Carmel. Near the parking area, we watched several whales just off the coast. That afternoon, we returned to the group camp, where we relaxed and hiked local trails. BTW, on the interpretive display at Perpetua about the CCC camp from the 1930s, a Thanksgiving Day menu is shown. One of the items is "Goat's Milk," which is code for beer. That evening, a juvenile barred owl visited the camp. The owl sat on a prominent dead, broken tree about forty feet away for about 45-minutes. The owl looked at us and was very curious about some rustling in the nearby grass. The owl departed, and we enjoyed the evening. On the third day, we broke camp and drove south by-passing several hard-to-access beaches or areas with a hazardous shoulder for walked to the Heceta Head parking overflow lot. We arranged a shuttle to the Muriel O. Ponsler Memorial State Scenic Viewpoint. We walked south to the Heceta Head, where we observed an osprey and briefly two bald eagles. We traversed the Hobbit trail and over to Heceta Head Lighthouse. Just beyond the lighthouse, there were two possibly three juvenile gray whales playing and having lunch. We continued under the Cape Creek Bridge to the picnic area, where we ended the trip. Over three days, we hiked 25 miles and saw some fantastic wildlife.

Members & Guests signed-up & waitlisted

  • Number of spots on trip: 10
  • Number of spots available: 0
No. Status Full name Phone Transportation Needed? Trip Fee # Can Take?
1 Signed-Up Hougardy, Mark 541-206-9532 N 35
2 Signed-Up Hougardy, Christiane 541-914-4556 N 35
3 Signed-Up Bryan, Keiko 541-342-1240 N 35
4 Signed-Up Tao, Fumiyo 703-774-6662 N 40
5 Signed-Up Carpenter, Kathie 541-505-2370 N 35
6 Signed-Up Whitfield, Nancy 541-520-0450 N 35
7 Signed-Up Orsi, Barbara 541-515-9665 N 35
8 Signed-Up Gould, Whitney 510-368-8941 N 35
9 Signed-Up Skarda, Joan 541-590-0205 N 35
10 Signed-Up Skarda, John 541-902-1450 N 35
11 Signed-Up Gerdes, Marti 541-337-3659 N 35
12 Signed-Up Davies, Russ 541-525-3719 N 35
13 Signed-Up Nelson, Nola 541-942-5326 N 35
14 Signed-Up Randall, Kathy 541-844-5916 N 40
15 Signed-Up Leong, Annette 541-335-9283 N 40
16 Signed-Up Crafts, Fred 541-343-4251 N 35