Wednesday June 28, 18.4mi/29.6km

Sparrow Park Road (234.8/23ft) to Bluebill Campground (264.5/33ft) (OR) +0.3mi campground, +0.8mi lunch stop

I had a great sleep at one of the best campsites on this trail so far. No wind, no rain, no car headlights… just a nice flat spot under some spruce trees. The first hour of hiking was on an old dirt road.

The relaxing tranquility of that road was contrasted with the next eight miles of hiking on highway 101. But it was the only way to get over the Umpqua River, since the boat shuttle isn’t operating.

I walked through the little town of Reedsport, which appeared to be mostly a strip of development along the highway, with all the usual chain restaurants and businesses.

Finally I got to Winchester Bay and left the highway. It was a cute little tourist town with a bunch of waterfront restaurants and a marina.

Normally I would have stopped for some lunch or ice cream, but I needed to cross an upcoming river during low tide. So I continued on and hiked through the dunes.

And pretty soon I was back on the beach again!

I had about 2 hours of beach walking before crossing the Tenmile River, which can only be crossed at low tide. I had a good pace on the firm sand, and the lack of wind certainly helped too. Occasionally I would see these massive clusters of birds, which contained an odd combination of different species.

I got to the Tenmile River about 30 minutes after the lowest tide, and it was an easy knee-deep crossing.

I could imagine at high tide, with 6 more feet of water, that crossing would be impossible. And since it was low tide, I could also see all the water-formed ripples in the sand. Neat.

As usual, the seals liked to hang out near the rivermouth.

I had another 3 hours of walking on the beach before the end of the day, and as I hiked on the tide continued to get higher. I was forced to walk higher on the beach, until eventually I was almost up to the dunes.

This part of the beach is open to ATV drivers, so the usual nice firm sand was all torn up and loose. It was very slow hiking and after a couple miles of that misery, I detoured inland to an old road.

The sand was still a little soft but at least I could walk in the grass on the firmer ground, so it was slightly better. I was very happy to see the parking lot, which meant the end of this section.

I left the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, I think for the last time.

I hiked another 10 minutes on a small road to a nice developed campground.

There were like 25 campsites, but only four other groups were staying here, so it felt very remote. I setup on one of the more wooded sites, to be protected from the morning dew and wind.

I had planned on enjoying a relaxing dinner at the picnic table, but the hordes of mosquitoes had a different plan for me. So I retreated into my tent to finish dinner, and watched some TV episodes that I had downloaded onto my phone. Looking ahead at my maps, I realized that tomorrow there would be no beach walking, which I’m actually kinda thankful for after today’s experience with soft sand.