Spring is coming!
The weather has been so miserable over the last
few months it's been hard to hike, or hard to
enjoy hiking when hiking was done. However, we've
been getting hints now and then that winter is on
the way out and "real" hiking can start soon.
Case in point was yesterday. Although the weather
forecast that I read called for overcast and
showers, we had blue skies and sun once the fog
burned off. We had brisk wind gusts so it really
wasn't particularly warm but we worshipped and
adored the O Wonderful Sun anyway.
10 Friends, including 4 new members, started this
hike alongside Cummins Creek near Cape Perpetua.
The Cummins Creek Trail is a misnomer because
apart from one brief view at the start, the trail
heads up the ridge, well away and above the creek
which remained unseen and unheard from the rest of
the day. The trail is a converted logging road
which means it's not at all overgrown and the
grade is relatively level for the first several
miles. Green is the color of the day as we
wandered through the lush coastal forest with
trees draped by bright green moss while emerald
ferns graced the understory.
After a couple of miles the ridge between Cummins
and Gwynn Creek came into view above us. Because
I had hiked this trail before I was well aware of
the climb looming ahead to attain the ridgecrest.
In the interests of club morale, I decided not to
share that information.
The trail left the old road bed and became a
bonafide trail that climbed straight up with no
switchbacks, climbing up 500 - 600 feet in about
half a mile. Gary referred to this stretch of
trail as "The Big Climb" and that pretty much
summed it up. However, at the climb lay a meadow
with a marvelous view of the Cummins Creek
drainage and we lollygagged and enjoyed the sun
while we ate lunch.
After lunch, Jane, Beverly, and myself bid adieu
to the rest of the club as they headed down the
Cummins Creek Loop while we continued on to the
Cook's Ridge Trail. We took a short side trip to
the ridgecrest summit overlooking Cummins Creek.
More climbing then ensued which mercifully ended
when we came across our unmarked trail to the left
heading down to the Cape Perpetua's vistor
center.
Oops. The trail was well defined for about a
tenth of a mile but quickly degenerated down to
game trails disappearing in the meadows. So back
we go up to the trail on the ridge and
unfortunately, yet more climbing ensued. But
success! We hit a signed and well-defined trail
and now it was a steady downhill (for the most
part) descent down to the vistor center.
There were no views here, just miles and miles of
the most beautiful green forest. The sun started
to sink and the afternoon sun filtering down into
the woods meant lots of stops to take pictures;
Jane and Beverly were so patient. We saw a couple
of women just off trail, sitting crosslegged in
the lotus position, eyes closed, and humming in
deep meditation. Not wanting to spoil their fun
we tiptoed past but this incident did remind me of
our proximity to Eugene.
There was a large swath of downfall, apparently
caused by the December windstorms but thankfully
the USFS had cleared the trail, I wouldn't have
wanted to try to scramble past it. We arrived at
the visitors center whereby both Jane and Beverly
made it be known that they were not interested in
hiking up to the summit of Cape Perpetua. While I
would have, I was glad deep down inside that they
did not want to go.
So from the visitor center it was a short walk on
the Oregon Coast Trail with wonderful views of the
coastline below, south to Heceta Head, and of the
sinking afternoon sun. With our little side trips
to the Cummins Creek viewpoint, the lunchtime
meadow, and the game trail I came up with 9.9
miles. Another great hiking adventure and for
more pictures of this trip see:
