August 10, 2024 - Day 85

We got up this morning at the backpackers campground and headed to breakfast to figure out our plans for the next few days. Smoke and closures has caused us to reconsider heading north on the PCT for the upcoming section. If we were to continue on, we’d have to either hitch 100 miles north or road walk. We definitely didn’t want to road walk and hitching seemed like a good option.

In the meantime, we rode up to Crater Lake and did a touristy walk around the smoke filled park. The views were incredible and it’s worth a visit back to the park.

Then, we did some investigating. We’re already having to skip a big portion of the PCT in Oregon due to fire closures so we figured why not head to the coast? There’s the Oregon Coast Trail that runs along the beautiful beaches of the Pacific and we’ll get to avoid the smoke all together while still clocking in miles - no permit needed.

We loaded up and got a ride to Bend Oregon to rent a car and drive to Astoria right on the border of Washington and Oregon. The little research we did on the OCT said we should walk south as there’s a continuous tailwind rather than heading north into the wind so we’ll walk south until we get to a town to drive back to the PCT in about a week.

We arrived at the site of Lewis and Clark’s first glimpse of the Pacific and set up camp. It’s about 10PM now there’s a thick mist in the air. Already a big change. We’re excited for this new adventure/side quest.

Happy plans…