Friday June 30, 28.7mi/46.2kmSeven Devils State Recreation Site (290.0/23ft) to Boice Cope Park Campground (316.4/33ft) (OR) +0.5mi to campground, 1.8mi GPS correctionI woke up early from my questionable camping spot, and was hiking on the beach at 6am.Within a mile, I had reached Fivemile point, a rocky outcropping that is only passable at mid-tide or lower.
Many of the rocks were covered in millions of little barnacles.
Eventually I could see the clouds starting to clear, though it was still very windy.
After a couple of hours I exited the beach at one of the usual fluorescent yellow signs.
The trail went through a dense brushy section, and then a swampy section with a raised boardwalk.
I emerged at a state park campground, where I took advantage of the running water and refilled my water bottle. When I left the campground, I was on a roadwalk again. The first obstacle was a narrow bridge with no shoulders, the only one like this on the entire trail.
There is a button for hikers/cyclists to press, which makes some yellow lights flash and lowers the speed limit for the cars. Since drivers are legally required to give you 4 feet of passing space, I created a little traffic bottleneck. It was funny to watch! Pretty soon after that I was in the town of Bandon.
It had a cool little waterfront downtown area, where I stopped for an early lunch. Many of the buildings had big murals painted on the side.
After lunch, the rest of the day was a beachwalk. A cold, windy beach. I started out at the Jetty…
… And pretty soon I was in this cool rocky area.
I love when the rocks have these little tunnels or caves.
As I hiked through these narrow areas, I could feel the wind getting funnelled through.
All the little pebbles on the beach were showing how windy it was.
For a couple of hours it was a nice beach walk on hard & flat sand.
It was funny seeing an exit sign for an upcoming campsite. Usually 3 miles would take an hour to walk, but this beach had become slanted and full of loose sand, making it hard to walk. It took almost an hour and a half!
It was still cold and windy, but it appeared the clouds were starting to break up.
Yup, even behind me, I could see this gap in the clouds growing larger.
I got to the designated campsite, and I actually met two other OCT thru-hikers! Cool.
But when I tried to setup my tent, it was so windy it was an impossible task. Sadly, even though it was 7pm, I had to continue hiking another 4 miles to find a sheltered spot in the trees up ahead. Onward.
At least it was cool to watch the sunset over the rising tide.
I finally exited that windy and terrible beach at 9pm, and within a few minutes I was at a county campground.
Usually all of the campsites are reserved months in advance, but at most campgrounds hikers/bikers have a special group site that is available. At this county campground, it was nothing formal, just a grassy spot in the middle of the campground loop. I setup under the only tree, and made dinner and was in bed by 10pm.
It felt good to be warm again!