PNC Days 0-2 – Back at it!

And we’re off on the Pacific Northwest Circuit! This route will bring us approximately 2,700 miles from the Pacific Ocean, to the Rocky Mountains, to the source of the Columbia River, and then we’ll hop in our homemade canoe and head back out to the Pacific. These first three days sent us walking south along the Olympic Coast, and it was amazing! We walked through Makah, Quileute, Hoh, & Quinault ancestral lands.

Day 0 – The approach trail

We’re back at it! Tonight we are camped at Cape Alava on the Northwestern Coast of the Olympic Peninsula. This is the Western terminus of the Pacific Northwest Trail (PNT), and therefore the start of our Pacific Northwest Circuit (PNC). We got a late start leaving Seattle, but thanks to lots of help from my brother and sister, Peter and Abby, we finally hit the road around 2. After a ferry ride and a five hour drive, we made it! We packed up our stuff and hit the trail. It felt amazing to be back on a long-distance trip. Tonight we only hiked the three mile approach trail, so we won’t officially start the PNC until tomorrow. We had dinner on the beach — creamy spaghetti. Yum! -T

Day 1 – PNT Mile 16.6 – Beach Walking

We officially started the PNT today! We spent the day walking the beach along the ocean, which was a blast. We got an early start this morning because low tide was a little after 6 am. There were tons of crabs scurrying around! We took a long lunch break to wait out high tide. Some of the beaches are not passable when the tide is too high. We got a bit impatient at one point waiting out the tide, decided to get our feet wet, and had fun walking through the water. Today’s walking was flat and ranged from easy packed sand to slow slippery boulder fields. It rained off and on all day. We saw a dead whale on the beach. We also saw starfish, Bald Eagles, a deer, and sea lions. -R

Day 2 – PNT Mile 31.3 – Variety on the coast

The ocean is fun! Today was another full day of walking along the coast. We had a lot of variety today — the early morning was rocky, then we were walking on a sandy beach, and before we knew it we were at an impassable river we needed to cross via boat ride. Cool! Fortunately the river came at the first town along the trail, so we called the marina on the other side and they sent over a driver in a skiff to give us a lift across. It was an adventure. In the afternoon the variety continued with some overland trails, which are trails that go inland around sections of coast that are cliffs so they are impossible to walk on. We also met a former AT hiker today who’s trail name was “Entertainment”. He was very friendly, and it was very obvious he missed being on the trail! Who can blame him? This should be our last night on the coast. We celebrated by camping at a beautiful spot on the beach. The weather during sunset was perfect. For dinner we had chili with noodles. Yum! -T

Tide Chart