This past weekend, I went to Seaside with my family to hunt for a few of the more out-of-the-way geocaches on our collective to-do list. We started out just tracking down a few along the sides of Highway 26. It was going fairly well, but at about noon we realized that, by stopping at each and every hidden cache in the forest, we’d never make it to the beach. So we ignored our list and made a beeline for the coast.
When we got there, we saw a sea.
Not just the sea … but a sea of people. In all the years I’ve visited Seaside, I have never seen this many people on the beach or the promenade. This is just one view … if you turned in any direction, you saw just as many (or more) people standing, sitting, or otherwise soaking up the sunshine. I guess that’s what happens on the first day of real sunshine after almost a month of steady rain.
Even though we were surrounded by muggles, it was still fun to find the caches. Some were relatively easy (A large, cooler-size box sitting on top of a bush next to a bed & breakfast). Some were much more difficult (A small magnetic key holder painted to blend in with its surroundings behind a service station). All the same, it was a fun day, and I managed to add 12 new caches to my list of finds. I even traded for a couple of trackable items – one that’s been to Indiana, Wisconsin, and the Bahamas before making it to Oregon!
To end the day, we hiked the “Fort to Sea Trail” from Sunset Beach to Fort Clatsop. It’s a 6-mile hiking trail that crosses farmland, marshland, and eventually climbs the foothills of the coast range before dropping you off at the fort. Unfortunately, we started so late that we didn’t make it to the fort until after 6 (it closed at 5), so I’ll have to make another trip out there to get my tourist fill for Lewis & Clark memorabilia. But if you’ve never had the opportunity to take that hike, by all means take it! It’s a gorgeous trail that’s not very congested (we didn’t run in to too many people) and presents you with the chance to see a lot of wildlife. We saw several squirrels, birds, and frogs. We even tracked an elk for a few hundred feet before its trail dropped down the side of the gully to the marsh below.
Though I recommend you start at the fort, walk to the sea, and arrange to have someone come pick you up. The hike up the hill is much more strenuous …
