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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (July 7, 2017)
8A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2017 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com Attikin Babb Lucy Bodner Nick Both Rylee DeMander Olaf Englund Alex Eterno Jackson Januik Jeramy Poyer Sydney Villegas Alexis Wallace Coastal Elite Camp set for tipoff The Daily Astorian The ex-students will be the teach- ers in the upcoming Coastal Elite Basketball Camp, which takes place throughout July at the new sporting complex on the Clatsop Community College campus. With several former area athletes providing the instruction, the annual camp, in its second year, is commit- ted to raising the competitive level of youth basketball on the Oregon Coast. The camp offers the neces- sary coaching and tools needed to raise the skill level and confidence of each athlete. Sessions 1 and 2 will be the Girls Day Camps, for ages 8-17. Cost is $100 per session. Session 1 is 5 to 7 p.m. Mon- day-July 14; Session 2 is 5-7 p.m. July 15-19. The Boys Day Camps (Sessions 3 and 4) are also for ages 8-17, and cost $100 per session. Session 3 is 5-7 p.m. July 20-24, and Session 4 is 5-7 p.m. July 25-30 (no camp on the 27th). The final day of each camp ses- sion will consist of an All-Star com- petition similar to the NBA, with prizes handed out to the top perform- ers in each division. All camp partic- ipants will receive a camp T-shirt. To register online, go to: www. coastalelitecamp.com. Camp directors are Nick Both and Alex Eterno, with Tillamook High School graduate Jacob Begin serving as a special guest coach. A resident of the Oregon Coast for the past 20 years, Both has been coaching youth basketball for the past five years. Under his coach- ing, the Astoria girls’ tournament team qualified for state four years in a row. He has also coached the Astoria Middle School girls team for the last two years, going 11-1 their first year and undefeated their second. Eterno was a multiple-sport ath- lete at Astoria High School, where he is the girls’ junior varsity basket- ball coach. He just completed his second season coaching with the girls’ 13U tournament team, which has qualified for state the last two years. In addition, other coaches involved with the camp are some of the best high school players in the area over the last five years. The list includes Seaside’s Attikin Babb, Lucy Bodner, Jack- son Januik and Sydney Villegas; and Astoria’s Rylee DeMander, Olaf Englund, Jeramy Poyer and Alexis Wallace. Trail: A legacy of Oregon’s landmark 1967 Beach Bill “You get spoiled,” said Hoepfler, who came from Austria to hike the PCT and ended up on the OCT. But Hampsten is beginning to think the Pacific Crest Trail hikers are the ones who are spoiled. There are so many resources built around that trail: books, online forums, data, websites, communities. When hik- ers walk into a town trailing clouds of dust, clothes crisp with a week’s worth of sweat, they are a familiar, even expected, sight. By comparison, the Oregon Coast Trail, for all its proximity to civili- zation, is almost uncharted territory. People stopped Hochadel on Sunset Beach, curious, asking, “What are you doing? Why are you carrying that pack?” Continued from Page 1A gather at the edge of a road off U.S. Highway 101 to eat a late breakfast in the shade before continuing on to Falcon Cove in Oswald West State Park. Bri Hochadel sits cross-legged and looks around at the forest on either side of the road. Peter Carpen- ter ventures a couple of steps down the trail and then unfolds his sleep- ing pad to make a more comfortable seat on the ground next to Hochadel. Tanner Annichiarico, the only Ore- gonian in the group, remains stand- ing, loosening his heavy pack and stretching his arms. The four hikers started on the Pacific Crest Trail this spring. They hiked more than 500 miles before they hit snow. They heard it was even worse farther ahead. They didn’t want to split up, but they weren’t sure they wanted to push through the mountains. Should they just wait for the snow to melt? They hadn’t expected to finish the PCT anyway. At the leisurely rate they were going, hikers who started two weeks after them had already caught up and passed them by. They were the only hikers they encoun- tered who had packed games: Yaht- zee and Frisbees. They were put off by PCT hikers obsessed with mile- age, whose first question was, “How many miles did you make today?” Then Annichiarico and Carpenter stumbled on the Oregon Coast Trail while researching alternative routes online. The group canceled a grocery run and started figuring out how to get to Astoria. They began their hike at South Jetty in Fort Stevens State Park and plan to walk the approxi- mately 400-mile-long trail all the way to where it ends near Brookings at the California border. The trail has been heaven after weeks of California’s deserts, they say. It hugs the Oregon Coast and there are long stretches of flat beach, cliff sides thick with trees, green woods dense with mosses and ferns. But there are also challenges. Closing gaps The Oregon Coast Trail was offi- cially declared “hikeable” in 1988, a legacy of the state’s landmark 1967 Beach Bill that granted public access to all of Oregon’s beaches, writes Eugene author Bonnie Henderson in her guidebook to the trail. The trail is a work in progress. Unlike the world-famous PCT, which winds through remote back- country, the Oregon Coast Trail is what hikers call a “civilized” trail. In Clatsop County, sections of the trail are popular as day hikes at Fort Ste- vens, Ecola and Oswald West state parks. In a single day’s trek, a hiker might start on the beach, cross a highway, dive deep into quiet woods, climb in and out of ravines and end up in a town packed with tourists try- ing to escape the heat in Portland. The trail is not set up for back- packers, or thru-hikers. Legal camp- sites are few and far between. Dif- ferent sections of the trail are maintained at different levels. Gaps exist where hikers must trek along highways or down neighborhood roads, or hitch rides with friendly ‘No solid answers’ Photos by Katie Frankowicz/The Daily Astorian From left, Peter Carpenter, Bri Hochadel and Ryley Delgado, all from the East Coast, stop for a break out- side of Arch Cape while hiking the Oregon Coast Trail. Like dozens of other backpackers this spring, the group abandoned the Pacific Crest Trail and started walking the Oregon Coast Trail. boaters to get across waterways. There are really only two authori- tative books on the trail, one by Hen- derson and another by Portland res- ident Connie Soper. Both focus on day hikes, but also offer tips and information specifically for thru-hik- ers. Soper has advocated for the trail to be finished, the gaps closed. A bill in front of the state Legis- lature, House Bill 3149, would do just that. It would require the state’s Parks and Recreation Department to work with other state agencies, local governments and organizations and stakeholders to develop an action plan for the Oregon Coast Trail. The plan would detail what is needed to fill gaps in the trail system, and take into account “the concerns of the public and other interested parties.” Meanwhile, a number of people in coastal communities are address- ing one piece on their own. Backyard buddies Jeanne Henderson has never seen anything like the numbers of hikers passing by her house now. Henderson, who is Bonnie Hen- derson’s sister-in-law, lives in Surf Pines between Warrenton and Gear- hart. On this stretch of the Oregon Coast Trail, hikers are either on the roads or walking the beach. They are hard to miss. When Henderson sees them on the road, she pulls over and offers them a ride to Seaside. They always get in her car, and they all have her sister-in-law’s book. They tell her the same story: They started on the PCT, hit snow, recon- sidered their options, heard about the Oregon Coast Trail, decided to try it. Many of them plan to go back to the PCT when they’re done in Oregon. Henderson’s friend Pat Woll- ner has often hosted cyclists passing through the area. During the sum- mer, her house is full most week- ends. Henderson didn’t quite under- They tell her they’ve reached Newport. In recent weeks, she has enlisted friends up and down the coast, urg- ing them to let hikers she meets camp in their backyards. One friend was wary at first, but quickly fell in the love with the group Henderson sent her way. When they left, she told Henderson, “I miss my back- yard buddies. Send me some more.” Signs and beer Ryley Delgado and the group of people he’s hiking with walk along U.S. Highway 101 to reach the next section of the Oregon Coast Trail. ‘There are people who are journeying forth for the first time and just assuming something will be there … and something isn’t there.’ Ben Cox Nehalem Bay State Park manager stood the appeal before. Now, having met so many thru-hikers, Henderson said, “It’s killing me not to pick them all up.” She worries about a young Nor- wegian woman hiking alone — “I’ll be fine,” the woman assured her. She exchanges texts with Annichiarico, Carpenter, Delgado and Hochadel. Nicole Hampsten, a teacher from California and an experienced back- packer, didn’t start on the Pacific Crest Trail this spring, but is consid- ering jumping on it once she finishes the Oregon Coast Trail. She said the OCT is very different from other long-distance hikes and not linear. While planning how far she’ll try to hike each day, Hampsten longs for maps with mileage marked on them — something most available maps lack — and clear signage. Hiker Andy Gosiak said signage was spotty the entire trail. “There were about five signs the whole trail,” Gosiak joked. “There were probably 10,” one of his hiking companions Andreas Hoepfler countered. Catching the smile still on Gosiak’s face, he added, “No. I’m serious right now.” Still, there are perks. “We’ve got beer!” said Hochadel, swinging her pack to show where the beers were tucked into its side pock- ets as the group hiked out of Arch Cape. “In glass bottles!” Carpenter added. On the Oregon trail, thru-hikers don’t need to carry much food or water. They can easily resupply at one of the nearby towns. They can indulge themselves, packing things they normally wouldn’t carry on a longer slog like the Pacific Crest Trail. This spring, several thru-hikers contacted the Parks and Recreation Department for guidance. Nehalem Bay State Park Manager Ben Cox and his staff could only tell them: Be aware of the tides, here are the campgrounds available, check in with state parks along the way for information. Before the Parks Department and individual parks can begin to accom- modate thru-hikers, they must first address issues on the trail system itself. There are reroutes planned for some sections. There are infrastruc- ture needs. This year, Cox applied for a Recreational Trail Program grant to work on the Oswald West section of the Oregon Coast Trail. Though some thru-hikers might be camping on park land illegally, they are not the people that worry Cox or his rangers. The average fam- ily picnicking at Indian Beach leaves far more litter. The hikers also know what they’re doing, Cox said. They know how to pitch and break camp and navigate a trail. They are respectful. The problem is that many of these hikers are encountering the Oregon Coast Trail for the first time. “There are people who are jour- neying forth for the first time and just assuming something will be there,” he said, “ … and something isn’t there.” As the Parks Department looks at thru-hikers’ needs, it has to tread carefully. The answer is not as sim- ple as requiring a permit, as the PCT does, or creating hiker campsites. Oswald West State Park, for example, is made up of numerous parcels of land. Some parcels come with deed restrictions attached that allow or forbid certain activities and limit the department’s options. The dilemma of where they are going to sleep each night weighs on Annichiarico and the others. “The worst thing we could do is give rangers a reason to kick every- one out,” he said. They talk with locals when they enter a town to get an idea of what’s allowed in that area. They’ve been offered backyards, and even beds. But sometimes, they’ve had to take their chances and sleep near the trail in areas where it is probably illegal. “We’re looking at this,” Cox said. “We really are. We’re looking at things. We have no solid answers.”
