{"id":2237,"date":"2018-01-22T17:55:23","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T17:55:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/old.cherylhill.net\/blog\/?p=2237"},"modified":"2020-01-12T17:13:53","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T17:13:53","slug":"cape-falcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylhill.net\/blog\/2018\/01\/22\/cape-falcon\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Falcon"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg and I spent the holiday weekend at the coast and after hiking Neahkahnie Mountain<\/a> on Saturday we decided to hike out to Cape Falcon on Sunday.<\/p>\n

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From the trailhead we ducked under Highway 101 beside Short Sand Creek:<\/p>\n

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Then we followed a nice wide gravel path down towards the beach.<\/p>\n

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There are some incredible nurse logs\/stumps here:<\/p>\n

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After half a mile we reached Short Sand Beach at Smuggler’s Cove. At this early hour (9:45am) there was hardly anyone around, mostly just a few surfers.<\/p>\n

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There’s a cool waterfall at the far end of the beach:<\/p>\n

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We continued on the trail, which winds its way up and around and out to Cape Falcon. Shortly after leaving the beach we started encountering mud. SO. MUCH. MUD.<\/p>\n

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There were mud-free stretches…<\/p>\n

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But otherwise we spent a lot of time navigating stuff like this:<\/p>\n

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We reached the end of Cape Falcon and sat down to enjoy the view. It wasn’t very windy and it was actually surprisingly warm, ranging between 65 and 70! I was only in short sleeves at one point! Although we’d had totally clear skies at Short Sand Beach earlier, the clouds had rolled in fast. We had a few brief moments of sunshine when I took this photo of Neahkahnie Mountain:<\/p>\n

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But after that it was cloudy:<\/p>\n

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I believe this is Rock Mountain. Ugh, what an eyesore. \ud83d\ude41<\/p>\n

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My brand new boots were christened by the mud:<\/p>\n

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At one point a bald eagle went soaring by. I only got one poorly-lit shot as it sailed by, but that’s ok. It was a VERY cool moment. \ud83d\ude00<\/p>\n

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We also saw a coast guard helicopter go by. I don’t know if it was related to the rescue at Hug Point north of us; the timing didn’t seem right. The news reported<\/a> that the guy called for help at 11:50 and we saw the helicopter cruising south at 12:15.<\/p>\n

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After enjoying the view for awhile we headed back. The trail passes high above Short Sand Beach, but there is a boot path that heads down there. We followed the boot path to find a geocache, then decided to keep descending down to the beach, rather than scramble back up to the trail and navigate Mud Alley. Here is a view from the boot path looking out over the beach:<\/p>\n

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And then, well, it wasn’t fun. We had a heck of a time navigating the final 30 feet down to the beach. I didn’t take any pictures, but here is a photo from earlier in the day at high tide. We were off to the right of that waterfall, and the dirt hillside gives way to a sloping rock wall down to the sand:<\/p>\n

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The rock wall was steep and wet and we had a hard time finding a safe place to descend. We ended up sliding down on our butts. I DO NOT recommend this route. We walked to the far end of the beach where the trail was<\/p>\n

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Then we sat on a log and enjoyed people-watching, dog-watching, and wave-watching. It’s a nice little beach down there, protected from the wind.<\/p>\n

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Back at our hotel in Manzanita that afternoon it was so incredibly cloudy at sunset that I didn’t bother going down to the beach at sunset. I couldn’t see any color and it seemed like it was going to be a bust. Imagine my surprise when I looked out the window 20 minutes later and saw a smear of pink on the horizon. I grabbed my camera and ran out to the beach and post-sunset display was going on. Neato!<\/p>\n

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Considering that just a few days later the coast was experiencing stormy weather and huge waves, I feel lucky that we had such awesome gorgeous weather while we were there.<\/p>\n

Video:<\/p>\n