Coast Hike

Every year, I go to the coast for my birthday. It has been something of a tradition for years now. This year, there was a high surf warning. Basically, that means stay off the beach so you don't get killed by 15 foot waves throwing huge logs at you. I debated coming up with a different plan, but ultimately decided that there is a lot more to do on the Oregon Coast than just walking on the beach. My mom found a nice short hike at a park called Mike Miller, which is just south of Newport, near South Beach, the aquarium, and Rogue Brewery.

The trail may have only been about a mile long, but it was through a beautiful coastal forest. Lots of ups and downs, and lots of tree roots through the trails.

The park is through an old growth spruce forest. Spruce used to make up most of the forests in this part of Oregon, but when spruce forests were logged clear, they were replanted with faster-growing fir trees, causing fir forests to become the new normal.

Part of the trail was closed due to danger of falling trees, so we only did one trail loop. I would like to go back in the future and walk the rest of the trail, because the part we saw was gorgeous. The whole time I was walking through it, I kept thinking what a classic Oregon forest it is. It looks and even smells like Oregon.

Of course, even with the high surf warnings, we had to go take a peak at the ocean. We went to South Beach State Park and took one of the trails through the coastal pine forest along the land side of the dunes. It was low tide, so a good deal of the beach was exposed, and without anything for scale, the waves weren't all that impressive, so I didn't even really take any pictures of them. I did get one that I like (even if it is just a tad bit out of focus) of Koira headed toward the beach through the dunes, though.

And a final shot of me and Koira on the beach. I turned 29 that day, and it marked 8 years since I brought Koira home as a tiny, 8 week old pup. I am hoping for many more years to come.

Tragic news from one of my flyball teammates, who lost her young, active dog to a horrible accident yesterday, really reinforces my desire to spend time with my dog, do fun things together, and to make sure I have pictures of us together. You never know how much time you will have. But I know no matter what, I will want to look back on the great times we've had together.