Tillamook Head Overnight

After our recent outing, we realized that with the drive and facilities, this hike would make a perfect overnight. So let's do it! Prepare yourself for the awesome details to follow.

We'll congregate around 9 am Sunday, May 30. This is Memorial Day weekend. We'll celebrate our memorial day in the woods, what could be better? After a short 3 hour drive (really, it goes by way quicker than it sounds) we'll arrive in the lovely town of Cannon Beach. At this point we'll drop a car off at Seaside and then prepare to depart on the trail.

After a nice 1.5 mile hike through old growth coastal forests we'll arrive at a free camp area with 3 cabins. Each cabin features 4 bunks (no mattresses). These are first come first serve, but if we arrive early enough we should have no problem securing them. Of course, we can't guarantee that so it could be a good idea to bring some tents just in case. We'll camp overnight, before continuing on the trail Monday arriving at the Seaside end of the trail.

Simple!

Logistics might be trickier... The total hike will be 5.5 miles. Day 1 will be a short 1.5 mile uphill hike. Pretty moderate, I'd say it's an easier hike than Pisgah or Spencer Butte. Day 2 will be 4 miles of mostly flat or downhill.

Things you will need to bring along:

• Sleeping pad and bag. The bunks are just wooden boards, you'll need something to soften it up a bit.

• Water. There is no water source. Whatever water you'll need, you'll have to bring along. This is not a strenuous hike, nor is it likely to be very hot, but to be safe I'd recommend a 4 liters of water.

• Food. We'll have a fire going at the campsite, so you can be safe and bring hot dogs or something. Or, a nice little dehydrated meal. You'll need to have lunch before we depart (bring sandwiches, or grab something in town), dinner that night, breakfast in the morning, and either a snack or lunch for sunday. We'll likely be finishing hiking around noonish on Sunday so you could probably get by with just a midday snack before we head out to eat. I'll be bringing a stove which can be used to boil water, albiet one person at a time and somewhat slowly, if you want to bring a dehydrated meal. If you want to keep it simple, some sandwiches and bars will probably do the job.

• Some sort of backpack big enough to carry your stuff.

Water is going to be the biggest obstacle. We'll only be out there about 24 hours but there is absolutely no water available. We may get creative and try and carry some spare jugs or a water cooler up with us, but then we'd have to either run it down to the cars or carry it along... On the plus side there is a bathroom at the camp site (note: meets minimal definition of a bathroom).

This should require a minimal amount of gear for an overnight and is a pretty easy hike so it would be a great one to get your feet wet. If you don't have any gear to do it (sleeping pad, camelback or water resivoir, etc) let me know and we'll see what we can find. If you don't want to go but you have gear you're willing to lend out, let me know too. And if you're not interested in doing the overnight, you're welcome to either join us for the short hike on Sunday or the long hike on Monday.

After our hike we'll likely make our way back into cannon beach, grab some lunch and frolic on the beach where The Goonies was filmed. We should make it back into Eugene somewhere around 6pm.