10A • July 14, 2017 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
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COLIN MURPHEY/EO MEDIA GROUP
Tanya Gephart starts her trip on the Tillamook Head Trail portion of the Oregon Coast
Trail. Many hikers are moving off the Pacifi c Coast Trail due to inclement weather.
KATIE FRANKOWICZ/EO MEDIA GROUP
Ryley Delgado and the group of three people he’s hiking with walk along U.S. Highway 101
to reach the next section of the Oregon Coast Trail.
Hikers discover a path less traveled, and it leads through Cannon Beach
From left , Peter Carpenter, Bri
Hochadel and Ryley Delgado, all
from the East Coast, stop for a
break outside of Arch Cape while
hiking the Oregon Coast Trail.
Like dozens of other backpackers
this spring, the group abandoned
the Pacifi c Crest Trail and started
walking the Oregon Coast Trail.
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
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to all of Oregon’s beaches, writes Eu-
gene author Bonnie Henderson in her
guidebook to the trail. The trail is a
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N
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
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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 hik-
er 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 trying
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 . Differ-
ent 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 boaters to get
across waterways.
Oswald West State Park, for ex-
ample, is made up of numerous par-
cels 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.
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R CU
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were the only hikers they encountered
who had packed games: Yahtzee and
Frisbees. They were put off by PCT
hikers obsessed with mileage, whose
fi rst question was, “How many miles
did you make today?”
Then Annichiarico and Carpenter
stumbled on the Oregon Coast Trail
Closing gaps
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As he stretches next to a sign
pointing back toward Arch Cape, Ry-
KATIE FRANKOWICZ/EO MEDIA GROUP
th
‘PCT refugees’
while researching alternative routes
online. The group canceled a grocery
run and started fi guring 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 C oast and
there are long stretches of fl at beach,
cliff sides thick with trees, green
woods dense with mosses and ferns.
But there are also challenges.
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t the end of June, a woman
picked up three young back-
packers walking along the
highway near Gearhart.
They had been hiking the Pacifi c
Crest Trail — a 2,650-mile-long path
that twists up the West Coast from the
Mexico border to Canada — but heavy
snowfall in the Sierra Nevada moun-
tain range stopped them 700 miles in.
Rather than stop hiking, they de-
cided to hop over to the lesser -known
Oregon Coast Trail. And they aren’t
alone.
“Everyone is coming here,” they
told their driver.
This spring, dozens of hikers
snowed out of California’s moun-
tains or, as the snow melts, faced
with dangerous river crossings, have
abandoned the Pacifi c Crest Trail and
jumped over to the Oregon Coast Trail.
But the trail isn’t ready for them.
ley Delgado has just been voted his
group’s sweatiest hiker. Again. He
shrugs. The hikers 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 Os-
wald West State Park. Bri Hochadel
sits cross-legged and looks around at
the forest on either side of the road.
Peter Carpenter ventures a couple of
steps down the trail and then unfolds
his sleeping pad to make a more com-
fortable seat on the ground next to
Hochadel. Tanner Annichiarico, the
only Oregonian in the group, remains
standing, loosening his heavy pack
and stretching his arms.
The four hikers started on the Pa-
cifi c 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 fi nish 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
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EO Media Group
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