OCT from illegal campsite to Barview Jetty camp, then to Garibaldi

Cloudy, highs in the upper 50s, lows around 50. Breezy. Approximately 25-28 miles hiked!

I started this day eager to leave my campsite since I wasn’t supposed to be there! I had to walk along the shoulder of Hwy 101 for around 5-6 miles until I got to Oswald West State Park. It was another cool cloudy foggy day. I was honked at 2 more times while walking the shoulder. I continued along the shoulder and not long before the town of Manzanita another vehicle passed by me, an empty can of pop flew past me, missing me by about 2 feet. Yes, somebody threw their trash at me!!

I entered Manzanita and bought a few groceries to carry with me. I was wearing my backpack while in the store, walked up to a guy stocking the shelves and asked him where the pop tarts were. I couldn’t find them. He looked me over, looked at my backpack, and nodded his head in a way that said ‘over there’. He then said “other side of the store”. The cashier was quite friendly. It was wonderful to interact with a friendly face!

Unfriendliness was the theme throughout lots of the northern one-third of Oregon. In fact, it almost feels like a foreign country to me. I’ve never experienced anything like this before in such a widespread manner in all of my travels! This would change dramatically the further south I get. Friendliness would be much more prevalent in the upcoming sections I’m hiking.

I left Manzanita heading to the ocean! I would get to hike about 15 solid miles of beach! It had been heavily overcast as I hiked southbound into Manzanita. The sun finally came out as I left Manzanita heading towards Nehalem Bay State Park. It was a relief to be off of the highway, AND in sunshine! The sun would only last about 2 hours before the costal fog would again roll in.

Nehalem Bay State Park provided a boost to my dampened spirits. I finally made it to the end of this state park and came to Nehalem Bay. I needed a hitch across the bay because I was on a 5 mile long spit without roads. A boat actually came over and ferried me across the bay. There were seals on a sandbar in the bay!! It was low tide and the seals were up on the sand bar. I got great pics of the seals. This was really neat to see.

I continued southbound on the beach, crossing Manhattan Beach and Rockaway Beach. I came to Barview County Park, eager to put up my tent and rest my weary feet after 20+ miles of hiking! There isn’t any elevation change when on the beach, but road walking wears out the knees, ankles, and feet. Walking 10 miles of road feels like 20 miles of trail.

I paid for my campsite. Campsites are $20 a night for tents!!! They’re advertised as $9 for thru-hikers and cyclists, but they don’t tell you about the $11 processing fee.

I set up my tent and put my backpack on the picnic table, leaving my campsite to use the bathroom about 100 feet away from my site. I was shocked when I returned to my tent. A squirrel chewed THROUGH my tent to get inside. There was no food in my tent, so I have no idea why that squirrel did that, and and I was gone for less than 2 minutes! I unzipped my tent door and it ran out. My next order of business was to walk to the camp host’s motor home to report this. They weren’t there. I walked back to my tent and saw another hole chewed through my tent, 2 squirrels in my tent and 4 others in close proximity. They got chased out and away. This had me steaming mad. I went inside of my tent and zipped down the rainfly, looking over my OCT maps, still seething about the holes chewed into my tent. There was a chattering noise outside of my tent and I unzipped my rain fly, looked out and saw 2 squirrels, each about 4 feet away from my door, looking at me, just out of arms reach. One of them was actually chattering.

It was at this point that I realized I needed to pack up and keep on walking. I’ve never encountered, nor even seen such aggressive behavior out of a group of squirrels. The park rangers had gone home by now, so I simply left the park and started walking south, right before sunset. There were railroad tracks in close proximity to the road, so I followed them.

The next town 5 more miles down the line was Garibaldi. There was a motel in town and I decided to get a room, having hiked at least 25 miles and still without a campsite. I had called my wife and told her what happened and let her know that I was having serious thoughts about quitting this hike and going somewhere else. Things were not going as I had envisioned. Maybe a good nights sleep is all I needed. I would reconsider in the morning, realizing that good decisions are rarely made when in the irritated, exhausted state of mind I was in.

After checking into the motel room, I went across the street to buy some grey tape and sanitation wipes to try to repair my damaged tent and thoroughly wipe down every inch of every piece of gear I had. Something must have attracted those squirrels! The cashier at the store was very friendly and I told him what happened. He is an avid camper/hiker and told me that the state parks around this region are having a huge problem with animals like that. Mine is not an isolated case. He said that friends of his have tents damaged by aggressive squirrels, even chewing into tents while the occupants are sleeping!! Barview Park even has problems with resident coyote packs coming into camp at night and chewing up belongings. People leave food out, or think it’s cute to feed the squirrels and birds. Now the squirrels equate tents as free and easy snacks.

Back at the motel, I “rearranged” the furniture, making enough room to set up my tent, repairing it by taping over the holes. Every square inch of every piece of gear got wiped down by sanitation napkins. I decided to continue on in the morning. I’m going to make it to the California border no matter what it takes!!!

I’m glad I made the decision to continue on because things would improve dramatically in the future. When things get tough, it can be as simple as putting one foot in front of the other, no matter what happens. As long as I can keep putting one foot in front of the other, progress, of some kind, WILL be made!! Resiliency is the key now. I suppose this can be sort of a life lesson.

Success in life can be compared to a poker game. Success in poker isn’t determined by how good the cards are, but by how well you can play the poor hands when they’re dealt to you.