Day 11 - North of Yachats to Cape Perpetua

Where I Am Tonight:  Yachats            Miles Hiked Today: 9.3 (15.0 km)

Miles Hiked Overall:  94.0 (152.3 km)    


Today started out on the beach, went through Yachats, and then up over Cape Perpetua on a trail for a total of 9.3 miles.  The trail was in thick forest (so I didn't even feel the rain!) and was very vertical.   This section of the OCT has one of the most interesting and saddest stories attached to it.  

The section of the trail from just south of Yachats up to the top of Cape Perpetua is officially known as Amanda's Trail.  About half way up the trail there is a statue of Amanda, and a sign describing her story, from a dark period in Oregon's history.

This section of the OCT runs through the former Coast Indian Reservation, established via treaty in 1855 with the Coastal Tribes of Oregon. The reservation ran from Cape Lookout south to Siltcoos (an ~100 mile section of the central coast), and was supposed to be a place where local tribes could live in peace. But as hostilities between the native population and settlers grew, volunteer militias known as the "exterminators" began to round up the tribes of southwest Oregon and confined them to the new reservation on the Pacific.

Over the next decade, natives routinely ran away from the reservation, fleeing abuse and starvation at the hands of U.S. Indian Agents. The job then fell to the U.S. military to round up the run-aways and march them back in.  One of these roundups in the spring of 1864 included a Coos woman named Amanda.  She was old and blind, living with a white settler near Coos Bay, 50 miles outside of the Coast Reservation. She was taken by the army troops, leaving her daughter behind, and began the long march up the rugged coastline to Yachats, escorted by the army troops.  One of the troops, Corporal Royal Bensell, documented the march.  His notes included the following note on Amanda when they reached the sharp basalt shoreline near Cape Perpetua, stating that she "tore her feet horribly over these ragged rock, leaving blood sufficient to track her by."

After 10 days of walking, the band reached Yachats. The army troops turned over the natives over to the Indian Agents.  Amanda's fate from there is a mystery, but the fate of the Coast Indian Reservation is well documented.  By 1875, the entire reservation was dismantled for white settlement, and the remaining tribal population removed to Siletz and Grand Ronde Reservations.

It was humbling to walk where these Native Americans walked.

Statue of Amanda, with gifts people have left.

At the top of the climb, I got a great view of Cape Perpetua.  At the end of the hike, I went down to the rocks (no sand here) and watched the ocean.  It is still pretty stormy today.   The ocean looks very angry!

A side note here:  We are so blessed beyond measure that we live in such a beautiful place!  I will never get tired of seeing these gorgeous forests or this magnificent ocean.