Trip Reports

Have you ever noticed that the ocean whispers in harmonious rhythm with the rush of rivers and the rustle of trees on the highest mountain peaks? A definite string of things, that initially seems separate but upon further inspection, the same. My solitary three day stay in our Northwestern corner of Washington delivered this continuous awareness, as I huffed up overland trails by rope and wandered amongst the clear cuts and high tide seaweed soaked beach decorated by trees sculpted by time and rocks marked by those that came many years before me along the nine mile Cape Alva to Sand Point loop, from Ozette.

I headed for the coast with the weather prediction crying for rain. Ocean wetness a given, the rain that did indeed eventually arrive, merely highlighted the experience. The trail began on boardwalk (caution-slippery when wet and some broken or rotting boards) and continued for just over three easy miles to the coast; thus lending itself to quiet contemplation and a steady beat to match my surroundings. Colorful mushrooms dotted the second generation forest, pungent with its perfume, alluding to the near arrival of fall. Tasty salal berries bulged larger than I have seen in years. They too, have blossomed from the bright light this season has so generously supplied.

I was fortunate to enjoy a balance of sun; a gift deeply revered when beaming through cloudy sky. To quote Mary Oliver, I “let the soft animal of my body love what it loves”. I told the ocean my secrets and it swallowed them whole with utmost care and cradled me in its timeless grandeur of past and present mixing with the tide. I sat and relished the massive body of water before me-lounging about in silky sand. Wispy clouds and golden twinkles intertwined upon its mysterious surface…still, the rhythm.

Many people came before me here; they left their carvings in the rock. Many people will come after I am gone. This journey lent a theme of oneness amongst all things from land to sea, earth to sky, human to nature and other human beings. Sometimes, we isolate ourselves from the scheme of things…sometimes we think we are separate. Sometimes we are. And sometimes, the tranquility of life reminds us in the words of Colin Ray that were shared with me by a beautiful friend: “I laugh, I love, I hope I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, So we’re really not that different, me and you”.

Namaste. May you find the pulse that connects the string of all things in our magnificent Northwest backyard!

A wonderful boardwalk and beach hike (9.3 miles total for the loop) Pay attention to the tide tables to be able to pass the headlands and have a few good firm sandy sections to walk. The beach section was a tough 3 mile walk....lots of rocky beaches at low tide and multiple downed trees to navigate around. Still a great hike. Be sure to scramble up the small headland at Sand Point for one of the best views anywhere. Allow 4 1/2 hours or more for the drive from Seattle to the trailhead. There are only 14 sites in the National Park Campground. The Lost Resort up the road has some decent primitive campsites, as well as micros on tap...great after a long hike.

God, I love this state. Sure, California's got miles and miles of coastline, which is great in the case you'd like to share it with the teeming masses. Oregon's rugged coastline is great for driving alongside, but with a freeway lining nearly the whole thing, solitude is short. So what better place to enjoy the Pacific coastline than Washington?

Even though we'd done this trip before, we still managed to get lost driving there (the GPS wanted to send us through miles of abandoned forest roads...ended up using a map and getting there just fine after that), meaning we didn't reach the trailhead until 3pm. The parking lot was packed and after being admonished for not having a reservation by the ranger, we were given a camp zone South of Sand Point - which is fine by me, as it is easily the prettiest stretch of beach on the entire loop.

This hike gives you almost everything. Boardwalk covered swampland, sun drenched prairie, razor sharp rocks, and finally, beautiful, sandy beach. We reached our camping area at about 5pm, the hike giving me the most exposed low tide I'd ever seen out here. It made for a smelly, dangerous hike amongst the rocks, but added to the sense of adventure.

The weather was warm and although no campfires are allowed, the weekend was filled with a lot of laughter and talk and stargazing, a great introduction to the wonders of Washington's coast for a couple of first-time backpacking friends. Its small wonder I always come back - the coast never disappoints. The creeks running into the ocean have not yet dried out, so that made things much happier for us.

The only "downer" I guess was the plethora of rangers. We ran into no less than 5 rangers, which would have been fine had not 3 of them ask us for our trip details, warn us about racoons, and ask to see our pass/bear canisters. One of them was even armed and gave the women with us the creeps. Never thought I'd complain about too many rangers!

More details and photos at http://www.seattlecasbah.com/[…]/south-sandpoint-ozette-triangle.html

Picked 3 nice days this week in July to visit this scenic stretch of coastline. Headed down the Cape Alava leg of the trail, intending to camp one night at the Cape then the next day, hike down the beach past the petroglyphs on to Sand Point and camp there the second night. The boardwalk is in pretty good shape, but be careful! Even slightly damp planks can cause a nasty spill! My poles saved me more than once! Lots of nice camps just off the beach. I did manage to have a small fire, but finding wood at the Cape isn't easy! Don't count on having a fire unless you want to walk a ways down the beach for wood!
Do NOT leave any food out for even a few seconds unguarded! I left some cheese and crackers out for maybe 30 seconds to take a look at the beach and in no time several crows or ravens (not sure which) swooped down to peck away at my snack! Racoons stroll around like they own the place and will no doubt do the same if you don't use the required bear canisters! I was "visited" several times by these bandits, but fortunately, I was prepared and my food was either with me or "locked up". Visit the small "longhouse" memorial a bit north off the beach. It tells about the archeological Makah site found and escavated there many years ago and has lots of whale bones and Native American symbols/artifacts inside. One can almost sense the ghosts of Early Americans roaming and living in that area from long ago!
Strolled down to Sand Point the next morning and saw a handful of the Native Petroglyphs at Wedding Rocks: not sure where the other 40 or so are! Maybe will explore for more next time. Be aware there are a LOT of downed trees along this stretch of beach and going is slow and slippery, even at low tide! I hit the deck hard once, having slipped on a rock and almost did so a couple more times!
Great Sandy Beach at Sand Pt. Lots of nice camps, in spite of being a Friday night. A bit different "feel" than Cape Alava, due to the terrain and scenery there. Not as many raccoons or ravens either! Saw eagles at both camps. Bugs were there, but at a minimum. Both areas are very nice and well worth visiting. The water source at both is running at a bit more than a trickle and I'm not sure what did it, (tannins? sediment?) but my filter plugged up more than once and had to be cleaned!
Overall, a highly recommended (approx. 9 mile)loop trip!

Trail is passable; no major problems. Just wanted to note to overnighters: The "water source" at Cape Alava camp is a barely trickling stream of dark red water. You might want to pack in your own.

We (Myself, my husband and 11 year old daughter) started out around 9:00 am 5/8. It was 58 degrees, overcast white skies and beautiful. We hiked the Ozette-Sandpoint leg first. This was the easiest leg of the trip, through the beautiful forest on the simple wooden boardwalk. We arrived at Sand Point with perfect timing for the tide to be out and began our trek up the coast to Cape Alava. (If there is an inland trail.. I wish we'd found it! lol) We had trekking poles, and I would recommend them for this leg of the journey as most parts force you to cross basketball sized rocks, driftwood and fields of deep slimey seaweed and the poles helped immensely with balance. This three mile section was very slow, but because of the beautiful sunny weather, extremely scenic. Wedding rocks is fun to find the petroglyphs.. we only found three, but left thinking perhaps they are nearer to the campsite there inland. As we hiked north along the beach, the clouds crept behind us and the blue skies moved in over our heads- it was just breathtaking views all the way up the coast. When we arrived at Cape Alava, five hours after our start, there was only one other tent up and we had our pick of the remaining sites. We chose a beautiful site that had a 180 degree view. Lucky us, as within one hour, all the rest of the sites were taken. During our stay, we walked north on the beach and there is some gorgeous natural "patterns in nature" in the sands- well worth the mile and a half or so walk. The only four legged wildlife we saw was a chipmunk, but the variety of birds was incredible.. including three bald eagles. The tide pools in front of Cape Alava are awe-inspiring.. I don't think I've ever seen a tide pool field that large. Another unique thing here is you don't hear the tide coming in.. it creeps up the beach without a sound.. very beautiful but dangerous if you journey to the island across the tide pool valley and don't return in time! I was disappointed to see the amount of trash hikers have left behind here... please practice "Leave No Trace" if you go into any wilderness area. We found plastic bottles, old cans, bits of food packages, pieces of plastic and even a standard sized pillow complete with a froggy case left as garbage. This really made me sad as we could not pack out much more than we brought, but we did what we could (I am sure that pillow is still there). Beautiful weather in the 50s the entire weekend. We left mid-morning 5/10 and hiked the Cape Alava-Ozette Trailhead leg. As soon as you leave Cape Alava, there is a rather large mudhole on the trail heading upward that needs extra caution to go around, but other than that, the trail is in great condition. This route has many more "ups and downs" and our daughter and I started a running joke about all the steps. :) Not quite as scenic as the other route, but the Ahlstrom cabin is interesting to peek into and the meadows are very peaceful. A great hike that I would highly recommend!

1-17-09 Cape Alava
Spur of the moment trip decided on Thursday to head out to Peninsula. I’ve wanted to do this hike for over a year. After reading GaliWalker’s report from 1/3/09 I was inspired and figured why not..
So after finding a cute little cabin for the night at Chito Beach resort I set out. I left my house at 3:30 AM Saturday thinking I would arrive at trail head around 9:00 AM. But I didn’t realize that hwy 112 was closed. I saw the sign but figured I was getting off before the closure, so that little detour cost me about an hour. I have GPS, state map, and had to ask for directions in Joyce even..Oh well I got to the trail at 10.
I paid my $15 and set out. I had driven for 6 hours, the longest I’ve ever traveled for a hike. This had better be a good one! The trail started out fine until the dreaded boardwalks..I cursed these suckers.
 slipped SO many times and jerked my whole body trying to catch myself. It was NOT fun at all. I got to the Y of Sandpoint/Alava and looked at where the sun was originally I was going to do the loop Cape Alava first to Sandpoint but switched at the last moment and did Sandpoint first. It was a good decision so the sun was not in my face. It was slow going on those sheets of ice, pieces of wood that had any slant both feet just slid all the way till the end of the piece.. Not cool.
Anyway, I finally arrived at the beach at 11:30 right when tides were at the lowest for the day! Perfect timing I’d say. And if I’d arrived any earlier the boardwalks would have been even worse. The sights were truly breath taking. I ran to the big grassy rock, I’m assuming it was Sandpoint and climbed to the top, looked at the views from all sides… then I cruised around in the tide pools. Then saw a bunch of eagles flying around. Continued down the beach talking with a really nice couple. Everyone I came in contact with was complaining about those pesky boards. I wished I had my traction devices but I switched backpacks and they were at home. The beach was like nothing I had ever seen, the stacks were jaw dropping. I’ve seen pics before and was so glad I was finally there live in person and the weather was fantastic, 50’s and t-shirt weather… sure in the shade was frost and ice but on the beach there was zero wind. Definitely worth the drive!
I finished the trail around 4:00 and next was trying to find my room which I thought was in Sekiu but turns out it was 8 miles west and I had no cell phone reception so I stopped at the local diner and called for directions. I pulled in just as the sun was setting, god it was a perfect sunset. They have about 4 cabins here and mine was $115 a night, not bad at all, generally they like 2 night min, but I sweet talked her to hooking me up with a room. I had the Wolf theme room right on the water and it was clean and neat, little kitchen even. I got some beer and chilled out and went to bed early. Sunday I set out for Cape Flattery @ Neah Bay. Didn’t have good luck here, first the garbage is littered all over as you drive in the reservation and it was really sad how dumpy the town beer cans where everywhere on the beach, posted signs were everywhere you had to buy a permit, but I was limited on time and figured I would see if I could pay at the trail if I even wanted to hike. I was SORE today.. I got about 2 miles maybe before Cape Flattery and a couple of trees were over the road and you couldn't park or go any further, so I just headed home after that. Bummer I wasted gas and time on this area. I saw pics and it looks cool. I just don’t understand how you could have this land and then not take care of it and take pride in your home. Oh, well I don’t have to live there.
Stats 10 miles with side trips hiking 6 hours driving, 6 hours hiking 3 hours home..GREAT TRIP!

Jan 3, 2009: Cape Alava – Sand Point loop

Rain and snow, determinedly leaching out every bit of color from the surroundings...cold, gusting breezes, sapping every bit of warmth from my body…a sun that had thrown up its hands in disgust and just given up…Northwest hiking at its finest!

This trip was supposed to have been done 2 weeks ago. However, the recent heavy snowfall, followed by the slow thaw kept it being postponed; finally, I could wait no longer and decided to give it my best shot, no matter what the conditions. After a fitful night, I caught the 5:45am Edmonds-Kingston ferry and made my way over to the Olympic Peninsula. Gloomy driving had me at Lake Crescent, where I was determined to stop and take a few photographs, since I hadn’t done so on another recent trip. To my surprise and delight the skies parted for a moment and a beautiful sunrise over the lake enthralled me with its serenity.

The rest of the drive was completed in ever worsening conditions; the last 21mi to the Lake Ozette trailhead was on 3-4 inches of fresh, powdery snow and took me 50min! The rain and cold were out in full force so I bundled up; of course, pretty soon, as I warmed up I had to de-layer, which is never fun when you’re getting wet. Slippery boardwalks, made slipperier by slushy snow made for careful walking.

My aim was to head to Cape Alava, then south along the beach to Sand Point and then loop back to the trailhead. After walking through some uninspiring forest - most unlike the Olymipcs - things opened up somewhat as I walked through the shrubbery of Ahlstroms Prairie. A coating of fresh powdery snow made for pretty hiking and took my mind off the otherwise dreary conditions.

An hour after starting I was at the beach, or should I say giant rock field. It was low tide and the ocean was a long way away. On a better day I would have braved the slippery rocks to make my way to it but on this trip I was content to only wander a few dozen yards or so towards it. Grey clouds massed far and wide along the distant horizon and I was struck once more by how the mightiest mountain pales to insignificance against the immensity of the ocean.

I love the beach, since it can be such an interesting place. This stretch of the Washington coast was different from others I have been on – much more cluttered. My initial surprise was soon replaced by anticipation. Pretty little pools, mossy greenery and other little treasures lurked amongst the rocks. Ozette Island and jagged sea-stacks rose up from the ocean, lending interest to the near horizon. The only regret I had was that photography was quite difficult, since in the swirling rain even an umbrella was useless in protecting the camera; I took a few snaps here and there but all were of the hurried, anxious variety.

I made my way south along the beach and was soon at Wedding Rock, where I spent a happy few moments hunting for petroglyphs. I found a few here and there, but I think I need to return at some point to find some of the more interesting ones.

By now the beach walk had become decidedly less rock-strewn and I made much smoother progress. Pretty soon Sand Point was in sight and as if to celebrate the moment the rain let up for a bit. However, as I reached the point and climbed up a grassy sea-stack, I was met by a driving, biting wind, armed with fangs of ice pellets. The views from the sea-stack were superb – some of the best I’ve seen. The coastline receded away from me in both directions on one side, while the ocean was littered with jagged rocky outcrops on the other. Pity, I could only spend 5min up there, before I was chased down by the cold wind.

The rest of the hike, back to the car, was straight-forward. The drive back was also much quicker, since all of the snow on the roads had melted.

Additional photos: http://www.flickr.com/[…]/72157612172035262

Cumulative stats:
- Distance: 9.5mi
- Elevation gain: 500ft
- Hiking time: 4.5hrs
- Trip time: 16.25hrs

~
The weather was forecast to be spectacular this weekend (and after our craptastic excuse of a spring and nearly non-existent summer, we deserve a nice October) so Tom and I headed out to backpack the Ozette Triangle in Olympic National Park. (We wanted to do Toleak, but the timing of the tides just didn’t work out this time)

For those who just want the pictures and not the report (although the bear story is amusing) they are here:

http://www.flickr.com/[…]/72157608440124961

You can view it as a slideshow here http://www.flickr.com/[…]/

Ozette is a unique experience because you can backpack out to one point, then up (or down, depending on which direction you're going) the beach and return to the same trail head (no shuttling of vehicles).

The trails which run from the Ozette Ranger Station out to Cape Alava to the North and Sand Point to the South are mostly boardwalk. They are also most often slippery and slimy. I don't enjoy walking, more or less carrying a 50 pound pack on boardwalks because you have to constantly watch and carefully place you feet at all times, lest you take a nasty fall, which makes it difficult to enjoy the fabulous scenery.

But fabulous it is, and therefore worth the pain in the butt boardwalks (which are there for a good reason)

We chose to camp at Cape Alava the first night as we could have a fire there, and I brought my <strike>famous</strike>infamous seafood kabobs (shrimp, scallops, red & green bell peppers, sweet onions & mushrooms) to grill over a driftwood fire.

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I received some very bad news on the trail. We stopped and chatted with one of the visitor protection rangers. Once you've been an NPS ranger for any length of time, you're part of a <strike>fraternity</strike>family. It's virtually impossible to meet a ranger that's been around and not know someone in common.

Sadly, I learned that the person we knew in common, my first NPS Chief Ranger and good friend from Devils Tower, died well before his time in a tragic accident.

I won't go into that here; I will post about it in my blog at a later date. Let is suffice to say, that the NPS lost a good ranger and a lot of people lost a great friend.

The rest of the hike out was silent and a bit slower. When we decided on our camp, I chose the “chop wood/carry water” method of “walking meditation” for coping and processing the news I had just received. Jim would not have wanted the news to ruin a trip, he would have wanted me to have a drink and laugh about the good times.

I first went South to scrounge driftwood for our fires, which is very rare at the end of summer when the area is mostly picked clean, and winter storms have not yet washed a new load up on the beaches, but I’m pretty good at scrounging.

I dumped a load off at camp and then headed North.

Just before I got to the now abandoned Ozette-Makah Tribal shack near the old village and burial ground, I got a surprise.

A bear.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2979485989_d6f113f8d8.jpg

The bear was surprised as well.

We looked at each other for a moment and the encounter went pretty much like this.

[Bear] Holy Crap! A human, what is IT doing here?

[Lisa] Holy Crap! A bear, on the beach?

[Bear] Are you lookin' at me?

[Lisa] Heck, yes I'm lookin' at you; just stand there, I want to take your picture

[Bear] Like hell I'm going to stand here and let you take my picture, I'm heading for the trees

[Lisa] Well then I'll follow you just a bit to get a good shot

[Bear] Well then I'll turn around and walk right towards you to freak you out because you don't know if I have cubs and might try to maul you.

[Lisa] Well I'll back off then

[Bear] Well I'll back off then

[Lisa] Well since you backed off, maybe I'll try for one more picture

[Bear] Well since you didn't back off, maybe I'll show you whose territory this is

[Lisa & Bear] jockey for position a bit

[Lisa] gives up and goes back to camp (after taking one more picture)

[Bear] says good riddance and plops its butt on a rock

So I go back to camp and let Tom know that we'll want to be keeping a fastidiously clean camp because we are not alone as we thought.

“You wanna see it?” I asked. “Sure!” He said, and we walked back up the beach.

We found the bear right where I left it.

[Bear] What are you doing back?

[Lisa] I just want a better picture

[Bear] WHAT is that? You brought ANOTHER human? You nasty creatures breed like rabbits.

[Lisa] I'm not getting any closer; I just want a better picture

[Bear] FINE! If I walk across the beach will you take my picture and then go the heck away?

[Lisa & Bear] jockey for position, pictures are taken, big bad ass bear faces are made, territory is made clear and humans leave.

Then I showed Tom the cougar tracks I saw on the way out there...

We kept a VERY clean camp and kept the bear canisters well away from the tent.

We saw one other backpacker who stayed a couple sites North of us.

It's always nice to have someone else around as “bait”; As long as your camp is cleaner than theirs, you won't get raided. (both of us have spent a lot of time in bear country and are pretty darn anal about precautions, so we really weren't worried)

Sunset was lovely, we had just enough wood for a nice fire to grill on and life was good.

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All except the rotting kelp on the beach. (it was lovely in camp, just the beach was gross)

OMG, that was disgusting. I've never seen it like that out there; rotting, stinking kelp as far as the eye could see, and clouds of sand fleas to go with it.

We had an uneventful night and no nocturnal visitors at all (not even the mutant, glowing green eyed, German Shepard size raccoons that terrorize the Washington Coast)

We of course, woke up to the “Bald Eagle Alarm Clock” (my preferred method of waking up)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2979690873_556d9eb0f9.jpg

The next morning, we headed South towards Sand Point trying not to let the sand fleas fly into our mouths or noses.

Soon, we arrived at Wedding Rocks, checked out the petroglyphs and had lunch.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2980424400_30d9f2bf34.jpg

The tide had gone down just enough that we could scramble all the way around the point on the rocks without using the headland trial, but when we went back for our packs, we took the headland trail over rather than rock hop.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2979603985_55b4fbb58d.jpg

Once we got past Wedding Rocks, the kelp situation greatly improved.

By about noon, It was getting quite warm (this was Sunday) and we zipped the legs off of our convertible pants and I lost my long sleeve shirt and was down to a tank top. At the end of October, I was too warm. That was pretty awesome!

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When we rounded Sand Point, we did have to deal with a local traffic jam.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2980566062_2d05dfe791.jpg

Then we had to navigate a good sized driftwood pile (aka a “deadfall of death”) and found ourselves on one of the most beautiful sandy beaches in the state of Washington. It was well worth slogging through the rotting kelp to find this beach.

It was a great joy to take off our boots and walk barefoot in the sand. I had grand intentions to frolic in the surf, or at least quickly rinse off.

Uh, yeah… My toes got so cold, they ached and then turned numb. My feet can handle 50 degree water, so I’m guessing the ocean was roughly 45 degrees (F) (that would be 7.22 Celsius for my non-US friends)

We decided to camp on the sand instead of up in the trees, because it's soft, gets sun earlier in the morning, and it’s nice to look out the tent door and see the waves (oh, and to not have to climb over massive driftwood piles to get in and out of camp)

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2979862967_de7deb21cc.jpg

At low tide, about 4:45 PM, we headed back out to the point for some rock hopping and tide pooling.

That is where I met the “angry little crab” (well, he wasn’t angry until after I picked him up and put him on the rock, and he did pinch the heck out of me…)

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We started to get cold just before the sun went down, and headed back to camp. The sunset was beautiful and it was nice to sleep right on the beach.

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We did get raided by the aforementioned mutant raccoons in the wee hours of the morning, but since camp was battened down well, all they were able to do was knock the bear canisters together.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2979945315_c793b6c9c7.jpg

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed back around the point and back to Ozette via the Sand Point Trail. (oh yeah, wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts) There were more bear tracks on the North side of the point which looked like a mama and cub.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/[…]/2979957721_86d5c8c868.jpg

It was a great trip, and a rare treat to have weather like that in late October.

~L