Day 1 - Columbia River to Surf Pines

 Where We Are Tonight: Seaside                  Miles Hiked Today: 13.6 (21.9 km)

Miles Hiked Overall:  13.6 (21.9 km)            Steps Taken Today: 37,000  

The northernmost point of the OCT is at the south jetty of the Columbia River, in Fort Stevens State Park.   That is where we began our adventure.   We left Portland late Tuesday afternoon and drove to Astoria, spending the night on Pam and Greg's boat which is docked in the marina.  Wednesday morning Greg drove us out to Fort Steven State Park, to parking lot C which four miles north of the campground, as this is the closest point to the south jetty.   We started with the intent of hiking to Seaside, 18.6 miles south.  However, after the reality of the difficulty of walking all day on sand set in we changed our plan and only hiked to Surf Pines, but are spending the night in Seaside as we had reservations at the hostel there.  This entire section of the OCT is all walking on the beach (sand, sand, more sand, even more sand, ...).

The "before" photo - smiling, nice and rested

At the south jetty

Hey - there is actually a sign for the trail!

And they are off!  Only ~400 miles to go!

As mentioned above, the plan was to walk to Seaside on day one, about 18.6 miles, with the first 16 miles being on the beach.   At Gearhart we planned to exit the beach and take roads to get around the Necanicum River.  After hiking forever on the beach, we decided we must be almost to Gearhart, so we headed inland up the dune.  We walked through a gated community and then realized that we still had a few miles to go and we were exhausted.  Luckily Greg was still in Astoria on the boat, so we called him and he came and picked us up in Surf Pines and took us to our hostel in Seaside.

By the wreck of the Peter Iredale in Ft. Stevens State Park

We can't say enough how different and difficult it is to walk on sand all day.   It was a beautiful day for walking but it was hot, and we walked into the sun all day.  Only a slight breeze, felt very muggy.  We will have to rethink our itinerary with this wake up call day.  We can't do anywhere near as many miles as planned per day for the sections that are on sand.  We are absolutely exhausted.  So exhausted, in fact, that instead of going out for pizza as originally discussed, we walked from our hostel to literally the first restaurant we could find.

In addition to a sunburned face, Karen has three blisters on day one.  😟  Fortunately after a burger and fries, and many diet Cokes she felt a bit better than when she arrived in Seaside.  Also, the lady at the front desk of the hostel gave her some frozen peas to put on her sunburn to help with the pain.

Exhausted hikers awaiting "rescue" in Surf Pines

Pam, in the hostel in Seaside