Day 56 -10/25 Hike to a hidden beach and exploration

We had a relaxing Sunday, slept in, quick run, trail and exploring, and a  haircut at the beach.

We didn’t have any major plans for today, so everyone slept in.  I woke up first, around 6:30am, and caught up on some reading and posts.  Then Bella woke up, then Bia and last Carol.  As the girls woke up I let them use their electronics, and after Carol woke up I turned on the TV.  It was a nice Sunday morning, we had all the windows open, the sun was shining and the sky was blue with no clouds.  It was a bit windy and a bit cold yet though.

I decided to go for a run at the beach around 10 or so, and told everyone to keep getting ready so we could eat lunch early and leave to do something.  My run was nice, the beach was mostly empty and there were no dogs running at me.  It felt a bit cold when I started but it warmed up quick and it was just nice.  The usual morning haze from this beach was not there today, so I could see clearly from one side to the other.  There was a surfer in the water, and a few people with kids playing with remote control cars.  The tide was low, so when I ran back to our side, I was able to continue into the cove that you can only access when the tide is low. 

Someone had told me there is a cave there, so I ran around the perimeter of the cove and sure enough, there was a small cave in there.  I went in, and took some pics, it is small, like maybe 20ft or so, but kind of cool nonetheless.  By time I got back from my run, the sun was nice and warm and there was little wind by the trailer.

Carol had been dying her hair while I was running, so she was still doing that and worked on that for at least another hour or hour and a half.  The girls had changed and were watching TV.

I started the grill so I could get some brats and steaks done for lunch.  I asked the girls to turn the TV off and come outside.  Bia then started cleaning up the crab parts that were spread by the street on our site.  The girls had collected a bunch of crab parts to make a crab cemetery for halloween decoration, and they had the parts in a plastic bag near the street, but the crows found the bag and got to the crab parts and spread it around trying to find some crab meat, so they could not use it anymore.  Bia just put it all in a new bag using the firewood tongues and took the bag to the garbage.  They said now they don’t think the crab cemetery is a good idea as the crows will pick on the decoration anyway.

We had lunch and I offered three options of what to do for the day: go to the beach by the dunes, just stay at the beach by us, or go to the parks near us that we didn’t finish exploring.  Bella picked to stay here, and everyone else picked to explore the parks we didn’t finish, so that’s what we did.  Bella learned the “majority rules” lesson today hahahahaha.  We all put our hiking shoes on and left.

As we drove in the parks, as we passed the trail I took the other day with my bike, where I went down the cliff using a rope that was there and tied to the trees, I told them it was there and if they wanted to check it out, and they said yes, so we stopped and got on the trail. 

Bella was going ahead of us, so I told her to make sure she explored the little side trails, as those hide the best views, and the ropes were in one of them.  We checked out a few of those side trails, and in no time we got to the one that goes down.  You can’t tell because for that one, the side trail is a little longer, and you have to walk all the way to the edge to see the rope and the path down.  When we got there, Bella asked me how I went down, and said right away she wanted to go down.  I had Bia and Carol get closer, so I could explain how it was.  Basically, you hold onto the rope, hold good as the ground is crumbling in some spots and you may fall, and just lower yourself down.  There are some tree branches and roots on the way that you need to go over or under, but that’s basically it on quite an incline.

Bella wanted to go first, so I was close to her as she went first.  She was fearless, and just kept moving lower and lower, with little effort.  Very quickly she was all the way down.  The rope actually ends maybe 10 ft from the ground, so there’s some controlled sliding you have to do to finish, and she just went ahead and did that, and was out at the beach, all happy.

I was behind Bella, so I moved down to the end of the rope to help Carol and Bia.

Carol came next, it is a little harder for adults to move around, especially the spot where you have to go over or under the roots.  It is not hard, but just takes some moving around, spins and turns.  Carol was very dusty from touching the ground, well, we were all getting very dirty, but that was another thing I mentioned to them, that to make it easy, they will get dirty.  Carol stopped right after the passed the roots and waited for Bia there.

Bia took a little longer, and was a lot more cautious and afraid of slipping.  We kept giving her reassurance that she was doing great, and even if she slipped, the worst that would happen was she’d get dirty.  When she got to the roots area, it was a little harder for her, she was trying not to sit down, and that made it harder.  At one point she said “I can’t do it”, but we got her to keep going.  Once she was out, Carol helped her move down towards me, and I helped her as far down as I could, then she slid down the rest.

Carol came next, and I helped the go as far as I could, and then I went down.  That was actually fun, cool, etc.  Doing some “dangerous” (perceived at least) activity as a family, to get to the reward of a secluded beach, with access to lots of tide pools.

So, when I came here last time, the tide was high, so I could not go anywhere, just had access to a bit of sand and the clear water. 

This time, the tide was very low, so we had lots of tide pools, lots of rocks to walk on and go towards the water and explore.  Bella as always was ahead of us, exploring and climbing rocks.  Bia was slower, but she was taking more time checking out each little tide pool.  Bia really enjoys this kind of thing, she is not afraid to put her hand in the pool to touch sea urchins and star fish, etc.

This area had a good amount of sandstone, so the way the water hits the stone forms interesting shapes, and carves paths and all kinds of holes and circles on the stones, and walls.  We had a great time exploring the area, and were down there for over an hour.  We walked on the rocks towards the furthest area where the ocean breaks onto the rocks, it was very cool.  We walked over many tide pools. 

We saw hermit crabs, sea urchins, crabs, fish, plants, star fish, mussels, barnacles, and a few other animals and plants.  It was a really cool time.

We decided to go back as we had scoped the entire area that was right in front of us, we had spent almost 1.5 hours there at this point.  Now came the second challenge, which was to go up the cliff using the rope, and most importantly, making your way up the 10ft or so that has no rope, to get to the rope.  So, Bella wanted to go first, as usual.  I told her what to do, and she just went and in no time was by the rope asking if she could go all the way up, and I said she could, and she went… no issues, just up up up.   I climbed up to the rope so I could help Carol and Bia, then I had Bia go next, then Carol.  It didn’t take us all much to get up there, though it did take Bia a bit longer to go under the roots part.  Carol and I went over that part as it was easier to go over on the way up.  Once we were all up and back to the regular trail I asked how it was, and they girls said it was awesome.  Bia even said this was the second best day for her hahahaha.  They really like an adventure, exploring and climbing rocks. (As long as they feel safe).  We were all dusty though as that climb lifts a lot of dust and we end up touching the ground and sides.  We decided to go back to our camper and just hang out by the beach there, and I’d get a haircut by the beach.

Once we were back, we just changed shoes, Carol got the haircut stuff and we went to the beach.  This campground has some tent spots right by the beach, so we went to the first one by the path, found a little spot in the sun that had minimal wind, moved the picnic table there and got to it.  Carol has been cutting my hair since the pandemic started, and I like it.  She does a good job, she already knows how, I don’t have to remind her, etc.  This was the coolest haircut I ever got hahahah…. Awesome view, sun in my face, beer in my hand, all was good.  Once we were done, we cleaned up the area and went back to the camper.  The girls had already gone back, and it was getting close to end of day, so I wanted to make sure we could all be ready for bed early enough.

Everyone showered and got ready, we ate dinner, and decided to watch the movie Prefontaine, which is about Steve Prefontaine, the runner, as he is from Coos Bay.  It was a nice movie, girls liked it, and it was cool to learn something else about the area.  

And that was it, after the movie we got the girls to bed and went to bed ourselves.

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