I stayed at my motel trying to finish getting caught up on my blog, but was not quite able to get the day before finished when I had to leave at 11:00 am. I headed slightly back South, thinking perhaps I’d check out Ecola State Park and spend the night there, not realizing until I got there that it had no camping and was a fee park. I decided to check out Cape Falcon instead and went a little ways down the trail which was very beautiful, but with bushes whacking us on either side, all I could think about was ticks and other insects/arachnids and when our muddy path was entirely obscured by downed trees and bushes, I decided to turn back. A little ways down the road I found a more popular Cape Falcon trail area that likely would have been quite nice, but I decided to head on, this place looked a little too crowded. I was only 7 miles from Manzanita by this point and decided to head there, having loved the little town and enjoyed the beach, not really knowing why I spent so little time there. The town is just lovely with little stores along the main street with stores with signs saying “nostalgic candy” and “Eco-friendly, fair trade” (with pretty chimes and wooden toys in the window) and so many dogs! We spent several hours walking along the beach, at one point coming across a very deep dip in the sand that I encouraged Luna to swim in, she did very reluctantly around 5 times, swimming across it to me, getting rewarded and told what a wonderful dog she is, then repeating, but by the 5th time she was done and trotted farther away than she normally would, turning around and waiting for me to finish up there, she was so done! Laughing, I started running through the waves and this, as I expected, she could not resist, she came bolting back happily to run with me. She chased a sea gull a couple times, but does not find sea gulls as fun to chase as the tiny shorebirds, particularly if there are an overwhelming amount of sea gulls, then it seems it is a bit too intimidating. I lay in the soft, warm sand and Luna began digging right beside my head right after I lay down, sending sand flying in to my ear and all over my face, it did not help with the whole relaxing on the beach thing I had going on. After finishing up in Manzanita, we headed back North, it was around 3:00 pm when I parked in a McDonald’s parking lot (I have not seen a McDonalds for a long time, so I’m glad there was one there to use the wifi!) to consult my phone on whether there were any state campgrounds between me and Astoria, I found Fort Stevens State Park and headed there. I got a site and spent the rest of the evening there. I read for a little while, then fell asleep, trying to fight off the migraine that had kept me up all night and had not entirely gone away by morning. I woke up at 5:00 to Luna growling at a passing dog, in the middle of some dream about looking down on a red rock slot canyon filled with water. I fed Luna and heated up my supper, having to chase off a raven that had taken off with my packaged, just-add-water dinner, when I left the package on the table while the water boiled, fortunately it seemed it was a little heavy for the bird and with the distraction of me coming at him, he couldn’t hold it and dropped it not far off, I kept a close eye on my dinner after that.
Cape Falcon
Manzanita Beach, iPhone photo of Luna soaked from her swim.
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