Gear Trip #2 Seaside to Cannon Beach Day Hike (20 miles RT)

Via Tillamook Head/Indian Creek Beach/Ecola Point on the Oregon Coast Trail

This was going to be an overnight trip but turned into a long day hike for schedule reasons. Joel couldn't make it after working late the night before. Jeremy and I started at the trail head in south Seaside just off Sunset Blvd at around 9:30am and finished at 7pm. We took two long breaks and a few short ones to eat snacks and take images.

I carried my new pack and 20 lbs to make sure it fit right and to check the hip belt comfort level. Also wanted to do an extended trip to verify the new Columbia Firelane Mid X hiking shoes would work well. Overall had no equipment or foot issues which is a huge relief.

You go up and over the headland pretty quickly the first two miles climbing to 1,200ft from sea level. The backside is a gentle slope at times through some amazing old growth and spectacular views along the cliff edge. It was very muddy at times from recent rains. We reached a State park managed hiker camp at 4.4 miles from where we connected with the Clatsop Loop trail. It goes down to Indian Creek headland and then down to the actual Indian Creek Beach (1.5 miles) where we had lunch. I cooked up some Top Ramen on my stove and fended off the seagulls going for my chips. We went up to the parking lot there and caught the Ecola Point trail to rejoin the Oregon Coast Trail (1.4 miles) at the next parking lot. This portion of the OCT connects up with Ecola Road which we then walked down into central Cannon Beach (about 2.5 miles.)

Actually one of the coolest parts of the trip was walking in downtown Cannon Beach with our backpacks to Bill's Pub & Brewery. We tried a couple different pint beers and ate a full plate of beer battered onion rings before heading back out to Seaside. It was almost 3pm and our goal was to make it back to the car by 7pm and then find a restaurant in Seaside for some good grub. We really hoofed it going back and didn't stop much. By the way, Bigfoot Steakhouse in south Seaside on Hwy 101 has very good food!

I recommend this hike for the spectacular headland views and the rare, pristine old growth forest. Bring your mudders. Overall a pretty awesome hike!

The new pack - Osprey Atmos 50

REI's return/exchange policy is bar none the best. I had to order the new pack on their website and wait until it came in today to do the actual exchange. Smaller and over two pounds lighter the Atmos 50 addresses all my complaints of the Aethos 60:

1. The Atmos has a smaller lighter top compartment with inside zip storage for easy access to small items (wallet, keys, cash.)

2. Storgage compartments on both sides of the hip belt for snacks and small items like sunscreen, repellant, pocket knife, lighter etc.

3. Two large outside storage pockets for easy access to rain gear and a pack cover.

4. Over two pounds lighter is a lot of weight savings just changing one item. That's huge.

Color: Graphite Gray - $199 at REI in Hillsboro, Oregon

I loaded all my gear in tonight and still had plenty of room for 7 to 10 days of food stuffs even with the reduction from 60 liters of storage down to 50 liters with the Atmos. Keeping in mind I want to be as comfortable as possible and balance out the need to keep things light for my back and legs. It's worth repeating that you should spare no expense on the best equipment and you'll never regret it. If you find out something doesn't work the way you anticipated then change it or suffer the consequences. Now it's time for gear trip #2 to make sure everything works as it should!

The Big Three Gear List (keeping it light!)

All new gear from the ground up for me. Last time I owned backpacking equipment was in 1976 as a sophomore in high school. Let's just say gear technology has come a long way since then. I should have everything by the end of this month so we can make a gear test trip when the snow clears a bit off the passes. Last September I hiked a 15 mile PCT section from Timberline to Lolo Pass. For our test trip we're going to hike the last 29 mile leg from Lolo Pass down to Cascade Locks so I can claim the whole Oregon section when we finish at Timberline in late July.

1.) Most important gear first, the pack: I chose the Osprey Aethos 60. This pack has really high marks from current owners in on-line reviews. It felt molded to my back right away with an especially comfortable hip belt system. It's a balance between light weight, capacity and durability. Osprey's longstanding reputation for well engineered packs is legendary. On this trip our longest carry without a resupply will be seven days in southern Oregon so my goal was to keep the pack as light as possible and still have a decent capacity. A personal fitting at REI was extremely helpful.

2.) Tent: Big Agnes Fly Creek UL 1, Jeremy used it on his 2010 PCT thru hike and raved about how light it is and how easy it is to set up and tear down. It kept him dry through several days of rain in Oregon and Washington. Extremely durable and well designed Big Agnes FLC1 is an ultra-light one person tent. It weights in at only 1lb, 13 ounces including poles. I also popped for the Big Agnes FLC tent foot print as well.

3.) Sleeping Bag: The North Face Cat's Meow (+20) synthetic bag. Although heavier than a down bag, synthetic is the way to go if you plan on getting wet, and after all we are hiking in the Pacific Northwest. This bag has several excellent reviews on-line by current owners especially with the most recent re-design of the exterior material. It's light weight at only 2lbs, 12 ounces. Included with the bag is a compression sack that really compacts the bag into a size that just fits into the bottom sleeping bag compartment of the Aethos 60.

4.) Everything else: The guys have me convinced that less is the best so I'll be carrying a minimal amount of everything else. It's a fine balance between comfort and carrying too much weight. Example: my mess kit is one cup, one titanium cook pot, and one aluminum spork. For each of us Jeremy designed and built an alcohol stove made from beer cans. It works amazingly well and the fuel is dirt cheap and light weight. I'll have one change of hiker clothes, two nylon base layers, polyester thermals, two pairs of nylon/polyester underwear, Omni-Tech rain gear from Columbia and three pairs of Wigwam hiking socks to rotate out for the entire month. I can't wait to get on the trail!