Legs and Borders

It took an entire day and night to get from Florence to San Francisco. I got quite quickly to Eugene from Florence by bus but then had to wait until 5:30pm for a connecting overnight train to San Francisco. I've spend few hours walking by the river, parks along the way and a brilliant, massive bookshop called Smith Family Bookstore which contained way more paper than Powell's Books in Portland and had some very obscure themed sections like: 'Health: Allergies, Astma, COPD', 'Labor Studies', 'Addiction and Recovery', 'Childrens Sleep' or 'Marriage'. Amtrak arrived on time and I took my seat upstairs next to an Australian girl called Nichole who was visiting her friend in Eugene and an American guy Frank who was going to see his family in Sacramento. We ended up chatting and looking for interesting details outside the window as the train was going inland. It even crossed the PCT at one point at Shelter Cove Resort where I was resupplying a ...

[Wakonda Beach to Exploding Whale Memorial Park] Today was my second day of last days for the inevitably ending trip to US, it was the last day of hiking and it couldn't be more.. anticlimactic. It was one of the most dull days I had on trail ever, no grand finale just rocks and dust (or wind and sand). I hiked the few last miles in the morning and got to Yachats just in time for a shuttle to Florence - I paid 3$ for it and 50 minutes later I reached my final destination. As the bus was approaching the stop I noticed Forrest, the very guy who convinced me to hike OCT, standing there waiting for his transport. It turned out that him and Flash also had enough of beach and road walking and decided to end the hike in Florence, just like me! We talked for a while before Forests bus arrived and he admitted that starting this trail after PCT has been a doomed idea, he even rescheduled his flight back to Germany for the next week (originally he was supposed to fly back in the middle of Sep...

[Beverly Beach State Park to Wakonda Beach] Today wasn't a particularly amazing day. I start to think that it must have something to do with the Newport area, perhaps people hiking here in the past did not leave the best impression. I only spend about half an hour trying to catch a hitchhike as I knew it would be a waste of time and it was. The stream of cars didn't have any interest of stopping or even acknowledging my existence, so I gave up the concept altogether. Road and beach walking was the name of the game, I reached Newport fairly quickly had breakfast ice-cream and two McDouble's and carried on walking. Going through the massive Yaqina Bay Bridge was the highlight of the day, I really liked it's art deco design and the scale of it. It was hot and sunny all day and I forgot to top up my water before leaving the campsite but luckily there was few little water streams by the beach in the Seal Rock area. Half way through the day it finally occurred to me that I ne...

[Three Rocks to Beverly Beach State Park] "I don't take seriously anyone who talks about the environmental issues in this country anymore" Rad, the biker. Today kind of sucked but at least it had a good beginning. I went down from the Three Rocks and followed the road back to Highway 101 where I got a fairly quick hitchhike to Lincoln City. Once here I went straight to Safeway', did a small resupply and an obligatory Ben&Jerry's ice-cream, it was 'Topped Dirt Cake' today. I sat down on the bench outside the market and started to eat my breakfast. Then a guy walking to his car asked me if I hiked a lot so far, so I told him about my PCT adventure and current Oregon Trail travel he seemed impressed and handed me a bunch of banknotes adding up to 23 dollars, it was the second time it happened to me on trail, very generous gesture and actually helps me quite a bit since I can't currently withdraw any cash because I don't have a working bank card. I...

[Netarts to Three Rocks] Today followed a natural pattern of 'after an amazing day there comes an average one' it had a great ending though. First thing in the morning I hiked out along the coastal road from Netarts and followed it right up to the Cape Lookout where I went down to the beach and met my first OTC thru hikers, they were less than excited to see me, especially after I told them about my PCT adventure, we exchanged couple of useful informations (they've been using OCT guidebook to navigate, which I didn't know about) and I carried on walking along the beach. After a mile or two I reached Sand Lake Recreational Area where all the sand vehicle enthusiasts were having a field day, there were all kinds of off-road machines here, some of them looking like they got here straight from the new Mad Max movie set. I ended up getting lost between sand dunes trying to dodge the riders, it was quite a puzzle to get out of the area and walking in deep sand was making it e...