It was supposed to be St. Helens, but for the third year in a row, bad luck happened instead. This time it wasn't weather related, Keeley got appendicitis and a week after stomach surgery we weren't going to climb any volcanoes.
After 3 months of dog babysitting I needed a mental health day to myself out in the woods. I eventually found it on the coast.
THE GOAL:
Huckleberry Mtn or Bald Mtn from Ramona trailhead. I'd make the call when I got close.
THE PLAN:
Explore a new trail I haven't seen yet.
THE TRIP:
My original plans immediately went up in smoke when I exited onto 84 and couldn't even see Larch Mtn through the haze. If I wasn't going to get a view, I wasn't hiking Huckleberry or Bald mountains. I turned around and headed for the clarity of the coast instead.
I went for King's Mountain first, to try the brother of bullshit mountain. The small parking lot was completely full to my surprise so that was also off the table. I drove to Tillamook and headed north to my 4th idea: the long awaited Neahkahnie Mountain.
Neahkahnie Mountain has been on my list as long as I've had one. Tucked away south of Cannon Beach and located right on the south side of Short Sands Beach, providing a nice backdrop when you look at the cove from Cape Falcon.
There are two ways to the viewpoint at the summit, the south route and the north route. I was aiming for the shorter and easier north route, but google is very very bad at actually locating it and almost sent me up a gated logging road.
I ended up parking at a pull off lot on 101 that had a "Oregon Coastal Trail" sign on it. This ended up being the south trailhead. Well, a little bit longer, and a little bit harder, I'm okay with that. Since this wasn't my original goal, I wasn't even sure how far it would be to the top.
The trail up the mountain starts right across the highway. For the first fourth of a mile it switchbacks up through open mountain meadow with great views to the coastal cliffs. After that it plunges into the woods until the summit. The trail is steep but not too bad and most of the climbing is in mile 1. After it hits mile 2 the trail swaps from climbing the north flank to the south flank and has a few more long straight sections.
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| Neahkhanie Mountain from the coast |
After hitting 2 miles I figured I was in for one more before hitting the viewpoint summit. I ran into a mother and daughter who asked me if I came from the summit. That was alarming. I shouldn't have been, because these two must have been blinder than bats, the viewpoint summit was less than a 10th of a mile past them and was cluttered with people, making it amazingly hard to miss. Yet miss it they did.
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| Climbing up the meadows in the first half mile |
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| Cape Falcon in the distance |
I climbed the rocky knob of the summit and was surrounded by at least 30 people. Sure, it was Labor Day Sunday during peak hours, but this was pretty crowded anyway and wasn't fun.
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| Summit of Neahkahnie |
I took a few picks and went down to the trail, only to spot a side trail opposite the summit. It turns out there was a second summit to the east, and there was only 1 group of people on it. Not only that, but the view was even better! Outside being more exposed and dangerous, the east summit is better in every way.
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| Tiny people over a thousand feet below |
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| The busy, inferior summit |
The trailhead also has a link to the Elk Flats trail, also part of the Oregon Coast Trail. It heads north, with a quick side hop to the Devil's Cauldron overlook .3 miles off the main track. It's a good overlook but not great, you never get quite the view into the cauldron (fancy cliff chute) you want.
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| Devil's Cauldron |
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| Devil's Cauldron from other side |
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| The wild blue nothing |
I went down the flats trail hoping for a side trail for a view of Short Sand Beach. I tried exploring a small game trail through the thick coastal brambles out to another rocky outcropping but got no view. After continuing along the Elk Flats trail I realized I was only a short hill above the beach anyway, so I just wandered down to the sand and sat there. Then I climbed the hill back up, weary and worn, and walked back to the car.
THE RESULTS
8.07 miles. 2300 Feet of elevation gain. Half of that was the mountain hike, half was the extra exploring.
The mountain itself is an easy hike, even from the "harder" trailhead I started from. If you are spending the day in this area, it's worth a couple hours of your time. The Elk Flats connection to Short Sands Beach was also easy and offers a few things to see. There was another side trail I could have checked out but was too tired for which might also offer a cliff view. Not a bad afternoon at all.
