About 6 hours of sunshine, high 63, low 52, breezy out of the North. 24 miles hiked.
Today would be my best day so far, providing plenty of sunshine and tremendous scenery! I passed through Neskowin and Lincoln City. A lot of today would be road walking, but there were good shoulders and spectacular views!
Today’s goal is to make it to Beaverly Beach state park and take advantage of today’s everybody camps for free promotion! I hiked miles and miles of roadway with spectacular views, then miles of beach with spectacular views. I got to camp and talked with a handful of bikers that were biking from Seattle to San Francisco. It was wonderful to have people in camp to talk to!
The park service employees here were wonderfully friendly. I had a very interesting conversation with 2 park service rangers, a man in his 50s and a gal in her 40s. I asked why camping is regulated so much around here, explaining that I’m hiking there OCT and sometimes have a hard time finding a campsite. He explained that marijuana is legal in Oregon. In states that allow marijuana smoking, the homeless rate has skyrocketed to historic levels, and many state parks in and around cities become homeless encampments for marijuana smoking and other drugs.
I had some conversation with a few other individuals in this camp. People seem much friendlier now that I’m trucking through central Oregon!
Wow!