Day 3 - Cannon Beach to Arch Cape

Where We Are Tonight:  Manzanita               Miles Hiked Today: 7.2 ( 11.6 km)

Miles Hiked Overall:  31.0 (49.8 km)      

Day 3 we started from our camp site in Cannon Beach.  We got on the beach and walked past Haystack Rock, Arcadia SP and Hug Point.  We timed it just right (just luck on our part) so that when we got to Hug Point we had just enough time to hug the big rock that juts out (which long ago had a road blasted into it for cars to be able to drive on and get from beach to beach) and only get partially wet.  We had to take our shoes off at the end, however, and wade through the water to get back to sand.

Haystack Rock, Cannon Beach

Navigating around Hug Point

After this, we met one of our many admirers (ha!).  Many people stare at us like we're some crazy people (well, that part is correct) doing some crazy thing (well, that part is correct, too, I guess).  Quite a few people ask us what we're doing and some even know about the OCT and want to know more info.  We had our picture taken by a Cannon Beach blogger and once a young, very fit woman ran over to us and told us how awesome she thought it was that we were doing this hike.  We felt pretty cool until we found out she had just finished walking across the ENTIRE COUNTRY!

Instagram post from Cannon Beach Blogger - we are famous!

We finished day 3 in Arch Cape.  Our friend, Wendy, picked us up and took us to her house in Manzanita for the evening - so awesome!!

At Arch Cape, turns out that Bigfoot doesn't believe in humans

This concludes this part of the hike.  As stated before, we will be doing this hike in a number of sections - and nothing is set in stone at this point.  This is a very different hike from the Camino in a number of ways.  Right now we don't have the luxury to do the hike in one continuous trip - maybe because it's so close to home, we feel we can/have to take off time for a number of different obligations that we both have over the next couple of months.  We will hike for as long as we have time but also for as long as we feel good for each section - we'll just go with the flow and we'll reevaluate each day.  We set a too-ambitious schedule for ourselves and we need to cut back.  Hiking 20-mile days with a 30-pound pack is difficult - and we found, not so fun.  Also, hiking on sand is WAY HARD!!   People said this hike would be easy because it's flat - but think about the last time you hiked on sand for even a few minutes - very taxing!  So, we're not covering the miles like we thought we would in that regard and the hiking over the capes in between the beaches has been more obstacle-type training than hiking.  We will get together in the next couple of days and plan out our next section of the hike - so stay tuned!!