I give the beach a hard time. It's not the mountains. There's sand. It's not the mountains. There's nothing to do. It's not the mountains. You get the gist of it, right? It's not really fair, though. I have a great time when we go to the beach. I attribute that more to the company than the destination. But that might be the whole point.
So back to the beach we went. It's Lilly's favorite destination. A long, familiar drive to the Hoh River, but instead of following it to its source, we headed downstream to the mouth where it fed into the Pacific Ocean. After less than a mile in the forest, we emerged onto a rocky beach and were treated to the sight of a huge flock of dinosaurs!
Although they're now classified as brown pelicans, you can't take a look at one of them and not think they look prehistoric. There were a ton of them hanging out between the salt and freshwater doing their best to scare the bejeezus out of us.
Speaking of scaring us, while in the woods we saw a three inch fish lying on the trail. Then another. What the heck, right? It was explained later when we met some fisherman that had caught a fish. They mentioned it was a __________ (so much for my elephantine memory) and it gives live birth. The fish we saw on the trail were likely little babies that had popped out of the dead mother while being hauled back to the trailhead. Gross.
After the fisherman, we were completely alone. We saw no one else until we got to camp hours later. Along the way, we had to traverse a couple of headlands at low tide. Except we might have missed low tide by less than an hour. No big deal, right? WRONG! Instead of tromping across the sand all easy-peasy, we had to clamber through rocks. It was almost like we were in the mountains! Except, you know, for the pounding surf.
Back on the sand it promised an easy walk to camp, right? LOL. No.
Although I deride the beach as being a flat walk by water you can't drink, this route is definitely not that. No matter how low the tide, you can't bypass Hoh Head. You have to climb up 400 feet. Not a big deal on trail, but the first bit is on sand ladders.
What's a sand ladder? Since I'm lazy, I'll quote myself.
What's a sand ladder? Take two ropes and thread them through 2x4s about every three feet. Lay your ladder down the steep, crumbly slope of dirt and rock and VOILA! A "sand ladder".
The boy and I encountered a sand ladder a few weeks prior and a few miles upstream while hiking to see the Blue Glacier. Except that sand ladder was new and well maintained. These ladders were covered in mud, missing rungs, and steeper. In spite of that, I'm grateful the ladders were there or it would have been a much more challenging trip.
Past the ladders, we hiked through the coastal forest for a mile or two before descending to our permitted camp at Mosquito Creek. Don't worry about the name. It might have been buggy upstream, but on the beach there were zero mosquitos. We never even applied repellant. Amazing!
Our camp was above the high tide line (duh) amongst the driftwood. The hardest part about finding a site was picking from the many available. We were far enough from others that we felt alone, but close enough to get to the bathroom and fresh water. It was perfect.
Between the drive and the hike, we'd been on the go all day. We got the tent set up, had dinner as the sun set, and crashed early.
Morning was foggy, but not particularly cold. With coffee and cocoa in hand, we wandered the beach a bit. It was low tide and the pools were crawling with life.
Returning to camp, we had breakfast and set out north in an attempt to get to Toleak Point. I'd camped there with Clara several years earlier and I wanted to connect the lines on my heatmap because that's the kind of weirdo I am. We made it most of the way, but honestly it wasn't that exciting. We bailed and returned to camp.
There was still plenty of time left before we could justify dinner or sleep, but that's why we brought games. There are nice compact games like Yahtzee, pigs, and the Catan dice game, but then there are games that require a bit of space. Like Rivals of Catan. (It's sort of a reduced version of Settlers of Catan.)
Before we could play, we had to build a table. Where would we build a table except by the fire? Wait. What fire? I know, I know. Building fires is not acceptable in the mountains. Oh, wait. We're not in the mountains! Turns out driftwood burns REALLY well. It's also true that if you put kelp bulb in the fire it'll pop just like a firecracker. (It may also shoot hot embers everywhere so it's not really recommended.) We kept the fire going most of the afternoon and had a lovely dinner by firelight. (Always remember to THOROUGHLY drown any fire with water. Don't just bury it with sand.)
Consulting the tide tables, it was apparent we could either get up really early to make low tide or get home really late. We chose the former. That meant we woke in the dark and broke camp in the rain. It's surprising how quickly you can pack when you just want to get on the trail. Unfortunately, our departure was complicated by our poorly-considered camp site on the wrong side of Mosquito Creek. We had to walk across. Hello, wet feet.
We made better time than expected through the forest meaning we were at the sand ladders before sunrise. As much fun as they were earlier, they were twice the fun going down in the dark wetness. Still, there was no catastrophe so that was a win.
With all our hurrying, we were actually early for the low tide. We could have sauntered back to the trailhead, but instead kept up our pace. The arduous climb through the rocks from the first day was replaced by easy strolling along the beach. We made it back to the car early enough we even had time to stop at the fabled Winco to buy obscene amounts of candy corn and chocolate-covered gummy bears. I'm not a fan of either, but as you can see from the last picture, Lilly is.
This might have been our last beach trip. Lilly remarked earlier in the year that she wanted to return to the mountains in 2023. We'll see if that remains. Regardless, the Washington coast has been a good spot and I'm sure we could find other places to enjoy if that's her preference.
