Day 1: 37.9 miles
I started off at 9am on 6/20 with a 15 mile beach walk and a headwind that never lightened. The rest of the day was a mix of road and beautiful trail surrounded by old redwoods and ferns. The Oregon coast is full of vacation homes, beach offroading and kite flying culture. My boyfriend, Eric, met me 3 times during the day and again at the end of the day to give me food and water and help me keep up on foot care with all the sand. This system worked well throughout the whole week with him running a few miles out to meet me in each section. Finishing in the light and getting to sleep early was a great way to end day one and the shorter day prevented my body from being too wrecked that I’d have trouble sleeping. I slept in our van (as we did every night) for 6.5 hours.
Day 2: 50.4 miles
I’m out the door at 4 am and into a carwash of overgrown trails that give me some good elevation to start off the day. Eric finds me a microwaved chicken pot pie that I eat while walking along Hwy 101, looking forward to being back on the beach. I planned to not take any ferry crossings on the OCT so I road walked around Tillamook Bay, passing a billboard reading “The 2 foot long jerky in Tillamook just 8 miles ahead”. Does it get better than that? I hit a wall 4 miles from the end of the day, thinking about how impossible this hike seemed, which was devastating for this being my first full day of the trail. I made it to the van before dark and had a painful sleep as my body was not used to the walking pains. Slept 6 hours
Day 3: 51.4 miles
I love the mornings, even the road walking is good because there’s no traffic at 4 am. There was a mix of trail, road, and some lovely beach to walk through. The trail descending to the beach killed my legs today and it felt slow moving. The ATVs and UTVs driving around the sand dunes entertained me. I got lucky with Sand Creek being at low tide, which meant shorts deep water. The sand dunes looked like the Sahara and in honor of the deserty environment I got a slushie for the following road section. Music sounded terrible in my headphones and I could feel myself falling into the classic afternoon hole of not wanting to walk. Eric gave me a small pizza that I ate in 7 minutes while walking the side of the 101 and it gave me new life. In the evening I followed a windy beach and ended the day climbing a few dreadful flights of stairs to get to the van parked on a roadside. Slept 5 hours.
Day 4: 49.5 miles
It’s an overcast and dreary day from 4 am on with a consistent mist/drizzle in the air. The sand is soft and washed out and I hit such a low at mile 7 that I call Eric for warm food. He brings me a burrito, since 670 calories of gas station nutrients can turn anyone's day around. Mentally the 101 is hard to walk on because of cars. I walk on the right side because there are usually less blind spots and a slightly bigger shoulder but I constantly am thinking about getting hit. I walk down to the beach at one point but it’s still all water so I sulk back up to the road. My mood turns around and I stay present and motivated through the 30s and the 40s. There were seals dotting the ocean and my friends Tyler and Molly drove down from Washington to join for a couple days. Molly hiked the last few miles with me and it was lovely. This was the first day I took caffeine and vitamin I. Sleep is still painful and I’m having dreams of waking up in pain but apparently I’m sleeping more than I think. Slept 5 hours.
Day 5: 51 miles
It’s starting to get tiring hearing my 3:45 am alarm but I get out the door and after the first few miles Tyler meets up with me to do the trail section which makes it fly by and takes my mind off any pains. At the next crew spot Molly joined for the following section of road and sand. Both became a slog after a while but it helps to have great company to suffer with. Eric joined for the third section of road and soft sand. I do the final section of the day alone but don’t make it far before hitting a very deep river around 50 feet across that I briefly contemplated swimming but decided that wouldn't be the smartest choice this late in the day. I hike the sands back to the van and walk a long road to the 101 where I hike into the night, stopping for the day at 10 pm with a pineapple pizza from dominos. Falling asleep is becoming just as hard of a task as walking. Slept 4.25 hours.
Day 6: 49.7 miles
We couldn’t park right at the end spot last night so drove 5 minutes back down the road. One of the hardest parts of this route is finding places to use the bathroom, but sometimes you just walk by a Safeway at the perfect moment. Molly walked some miles with me and then Eric did another big chunk through some slow going sand dunes. We said goodbye to Tyler and Molly who made these past couple days so great. A guy asked me how many miles I hiked today and when I told him he was so impressed that he offered me a shot of Four Loco which I politely declined. He then told me all about how Reese Witherspoon hiked a trail called the ‘Pacific Coast Trail’ that went right through this town. Later, on a misty rural road walk, a pickup truck slammed on its brakes and reversed to ask me if I needed a ride anywhere and if I was okay. All good encounters but in the back of my mind I do think about how I’m alone walking streets and would prefer no one looks at me or acknowledges me so I don’t get paranoid. I get to the van and take Tylenol PM and for the first time in days fall asleep pain free. Slept 4.75 hours.
Day 7: 49.6 miles
Accidentally overslept but thankfully my internal fkt clock woke me up and I was out onto the roads by 4:25 AM. There was a beautiful dirt road and I was thriving. I couldn’t take the beach because of some impassable water crossings during high tide which I am bummed about. My feet and toes hurt so badly it's kind of insane and I often took breaks to take my shoes off to attempt to get some relief. Eric hitched out to me to join for some miles and the woman who picked him up left us trail magic in the form of local dried fruits on top of our car when we got back to it. I called friends and family the rest of the day and talked for hours which helped relieve the shin and foot pain that was making the end feel impossible. Slept 3.5 hours.
Day 8: 63.2 miles
I’m out the door at 4 am and decided pretty early to do a no sleep push to see how early I could finish this trail. This decision was largely due to the fact that I was able to get decent sleep so far and that I was walking so slowly and taking so many foot-hurting breaks that I knew sleep wouldn’t have a benefit on me getting to the California border. A couple stopped the car to tell me this is the 3rd day they’ve seen me and wanted to know what I was doing. The interaction pushed me forward. I meet Eric 21 miles from the end around 9 pm and we take a long break for me to drink and energy drink and prep my feet for the last venture. Despite us having done so many night hikes together in the past and being so close to the end it was a difficult night, with me requesting many sitting breaks for my foot pain. The last few trail sections felt steep and brutal. We finally made it back on the road for the remainder of the hike and I noticed I had a rash on my leg. I looked a little while later and the rash was all over my legs and ears. With 8 miles out my throat started to feel different and I worried that I would need to go to a hospital as I was still hours out from the finish. Eric went ahead to a gas station to pick up Benadryl which I took immediately. After this we walked as fast as we could, my body felt no more pain, it only wanted to finish this hike. After half an hour the Benadryl kicked in and I was hit with a new wave of tiredness. It felt so hard to stay focused and my eyes kept closing so eventually I told myself to run to stay awake. I was two miles out running as fast as I could, the only running I did this whole trip. We hit the beach and run in the last 0.4 miles, finishing the OCT at 6:02 am after a 26 hour push. I feel so so lucky to have had this worldwind of an experience.
This trail was incredible for me and allowed me to push myself to hit consistent big miles, a task I didn’t quite know if I was capable of, and I was proud at the end of every day when I didn’t quit early. This trail was interesting because it really was tide driven and a lot of the times the tides told you to go walk next to fast moving semis on the 101. Doing this supported by Eric made this experience 10x better than if I were to attempt it alone and definitely added motivation each day. Here’s to never walking on the 101 again! :)