July 7, 2012 Nestucca Spit

Jeff is getting ready to go where we've never gone before...

Nestucca Spit. Funny how long we've lived here and neither of us had been to the mouth of the Nestucca River. It's only a short hike but all we had time for this time.

 

What we didn't expect were the mosquitoes.  Jeff had his head net at the ready so he put his on almost immediately once we hit the trail and discovered our unwelcome travel companions. I unfortunately had my net stowed safe and secure in my pack and not about to stop and make myself mosquito bait as I fished for it. Needless to say, I hiked quite fast--just enough to keep Jeff out of breath and the black swarm just slightly behind me.

 Once we got to the sandy shore, the flying annoyances left us and I could focus on more interesting things.

 Looking back, toward Pacific City. Unfortunately, it was very foggy so you couldn't see much in the way of landmarks.

In all our hiking, we have never seen any significant wildlife. So I was thrilled to see all the seals. There were about 25 of them watching us until some ding-a-ling came along with his dog he let lose to chase them. They didn't scare too bad though and came back on shore about 100 feet downstream where I got even closer. I could hear them make their interesting little bodily noises and flap their feet. It was cool.

 There are some incredible houses down there. Only visible from the air and the bay. Who knows how they gain access to them. Jeff said he understood at least one of them was by water only.

 We rounded the corner and there was our first glimpse of Haystack Rock and the Cape but the fog once again made it difficult to see.

We had a couple of garbage bags with us so decided to help pick up some of the Japanese Tsumani debris. We drew the line at picking up what was left of this dead sea lion though and left the birds have it. The odor kept us from taking the time to second guess our decision.

It was a short hike, only a few miles but it was nice and we did something to help our community and environment by picking up the JTD. Which we might add, was pretty interesting, all the Japanese writing on the bottles was kind of cool. If you're bored, pick up a SOLVE garbage bag from any Oregon State Park campground on the coast and go to it!

Much love,
JeffnSue