Another Trip to the Coast

As the end of summer is quickly approaching, we decided to squeeze in another trip to the coast (yes, two weekends in a row). This time, we chose a little closer destination: Sandbeach near Tillamook....just under 1.5 hour drive from home. Along for the trip were me, Em, Kristina, our friend Javier, and of course, Zoe (Matt was in New York for the weekend for work). We headed out Saturday morning and happened to hit the Tillamook Farmer's Market as we rolled into town. This was a great stop to fuel up on kettle corn and candied pecans before heading to Cape Lookout. Once at the Cape, we parked the truck and took a 1.5 mile hike down to a secluded beach. The trailhead had this sign posted:

OK, we were lucky to not encounter any bears during our hike. The trail spilled out onto a beach enclosed by high cliffs:

There were only a handful of other people out at this beach. We watched a few surfers (yes, they had to carry their boards down the 1.5 mile technical hike as well!) then had a packed lunch on the beach. After lunch, we laid in the sand and let the sound of crashing waves and the warmth of the sun lull us into a deep slumber. After our nap, we decided we had better make our way back up the trail before daylight expired.

The Beach Less Traveled:
miles of remote beach with only a few souls to share it with....THIS is living!!

We headed to our campsite at the dunes near Sandlake. We setup our tents and managed to squeeze in another walk on the beach before dusk.

large pebbles and sand constitute the beach near Sandlake

Kristina's dinner had us so full that we didn't even have room for smores. She made a yellow pound cake which we wrapped in foil with fresh Oregon blueberries. We placed it on the fire until the blueberries got so hot that they popped, leaving the pound cake to soak up their flavorful juice like a sponge. Yum. Thanks Kristina for the gourmet cooking!

On Sunday, we arose to a traditional breakfast (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, coffee) cooked by yours truly. After packing up our tents and gear, we headed back home. After we got home, we decided to go pick some blackberries at the park near our house. Between the four of us, we harvested 7 quarts and only suffered minor scratches from the thorns. We probably picked much more than 7 quarts, but it seemed Javier's container kept emptying into his mouth faster than it was filling. :)

a portion of our blackberry harvest...we'll eat some and make the rest into jam