Elevation Gain: Approximately 300 ft.
Time: Wednesday 1:30 pm - Saturday 11:20 am
Weather: The whole spectrum: full on downpour to sunny and warm, and overcast, cool, and a light rain.
Another year as come and gone (well almost, this school year the 8th grade beach hike was earlier than it has been in the past 4 years). I have led this hike every year since 2008. It is a wonderful hike along the coast of Washington. It stretches from Rialto beach just north of La Push to Lake Ozette 3 miles inland from Sand Point. Depending on tides, the trip can go north to south or vise versa. This year was from the North to the South. I took a journal, but did not have a lot of free time to spend writing. Here are my recollections after being home for nearly 24 hours.
Wednesday: We started in a heavy rain at the Ozette trailhead. It wasn't too bad, just rain. The boardwalk was slippery, but I managed to keep my footing. Not all the 8 eighth graders could say the same. We reached the beach around 3:05 pm. We took a snack break, reaching the north side of Sand Point. We were camping south of Sand Point and we continued walking around 3:10 pm. As we came around the headland, the wind and rain was intense and in our face. There were huge breaks in the waves, and it was cold. We crossed a stream south of the a trailhead marker, and I saw a site that had room for our tents. My co-leader and I got the kids to set up tents immediately and got them inside out of the elements. We fixed dinner that night to keep them warmer longer.
Thursday: Woke up early to beat the tides to no rain, and the promise of better weather looking out west. Sure enough the weather was amazing, sunshine and partly cloudy skies. We were hiking by 8 am. Early on in the day, a student found a basketball sized Japanese glass float, a beautiful treasure brought across the pacific and protected from damage by shear luck. I started hiking with it in my arms. I found a way to pack it in my bag, but only if my co-leader carried my food. We took a long time (nearly 8 hours) to get 8 miles down the coast to our camp. While the weather was still good, it did start lightly raining on and off again as we got camp set up. The rest of the night the weather kept going back and forth.
Friday: The weather was overcast, but mostly dry. While it rained some, it was nothing camping in Washington hasn't prepared me for. The kind of rain that just hiking keeps you dry or the kind putting on rain gear will only make it stop. Early in the day we were crossing a tough stretch and I was the first through it. I was setting my pack down when the pack sung around into a nearby rock. The glass float was destroyed inside my pack. While I was broken hearted, I didn't have time to do anything but deal with it in a few minutes. It was a tough loss. I will have to look for one again in the future. Again a long day of hiking, we took 7 and a half hours to hike a little over 7 miles. After dinner, we stood around and told jokes and laughed. It was a lot of fun.
Saturday: A light constant drizzle, while we ate pancakes after sleeping in. We only had a mile to go today. We shared our orchids and onions for the trip. There are always two groups traveling the coast a few miles apart. While our day was so easy, the trailing group had to hike a tough 4 plus miles. They came walking by springing us into action. We were out in 20 minutes and reached the bus at 11:20 am.
Orchid: Finding my first Japanese glass float.
Onion: Breaking my first Japanese glass float.
Picture:
Google Map
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