At the end of August, it
was finally time for our long-planned trip out to backpack 3rd Beach, near La
Push, WA. It's something we had been meaning to do for years, and put it on the
calendar with the Chisums early this spring.
Friday afternoon we took off early, caught the Bainbridge
ferry, and made our way around the peninsula, to the Mora Campground, outside
Forks. We really wanted to do the hike as a one way (as opposed to out and
back) from Oil City to 3rd beach. Saturday morning, we drove to the
3rd beach trailhead, where we met up with some pretty sweet
transportation Val had arranged for us. By pretty sweet, I mean the cheapest
way to get a shuttle so we could do the hike as a one way was so hire the
Twi-Foot Tour Company to take us. That’s right, they do both Twilight and Big
Foot tours, so we spent an hour in a giant Twilight themed van, being regaled
by Nino with stories of both Twilight stars, and camping out with night vision
goggles hunting for big foot. Auspicious start.
We hadn’t really done any planning, our basic research
conducted the day before had revealed the fact that tides were a concern, and
we should make sure to get a tide chart at the ranger station and plan
accordingly. When we arrived at the ranger station that morning, we were
casually informed that the tide would be too high in about 75 minutes, and
would not be low enough again until 9pm. We had a 45 minute drive and mile+
hike ahead of us before reaching the tide zone so….we sprinted the first mile
of the hike. And then sprinted the second mile while scrambling over rocks and
outcroppings and around points, trying to outrace the tide. With a
near-stranding behind us, we slowed our pace and looked around.
Saturday was foggy and gloomy, but sort of classically Washington
coast. I had been expecting a nice casual beach stroll (see our beach backing
packing experience in South Africa) and instead got one of the muddiest trails
I’ve ever seen in my life, along with ropes and ladders. Whooop. Val & I
both took spills in the mud, we forded rivers, and made our way through the
rainforest.
spy Matt?
Ten miles later, we made it to Toleak Point, where we set up
camp in the dense fog. We picked our location because it was right next to a
group of guys building a gigantic teepee that we decided we would convince them
to burn if that was not already their purpose.
Luckily, the fog cleared soon after we arrived and revealed
a beautiful coastline with lots of sea stacks. We cooked dinner, the stars came
out, and the guys lit the teepee. Along with us, fellow campers from along the
beach were like moths to the flame and we made lots of friends enjoying the
giant bonfire into the night. Crazies Matt & Val were even lured into swimming in the ocean with
some of the others (luckily with the warm fire to return to).
The next day dawned perfectly blue and clear and we enjoyed
a lazy morning at Toleak Point and then made our way the 8 miles to Third Beach
and back to our car. It was a lovely, magical weekend that…could have been
improved by a lot less mud but was great nonetheless.
and now some of Vals:
and now some of Vals:
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