So … sometimes you plan an absolute ‘perfect’ Olympic North Coast trail backpacking adventure, that you are sure will be sunshine, paradise and rainbows the whole way! And it actually is!
And sometimes … it’s really not! 
That would be our story! Enjoy!
NOT what we expected!
We had no idea when we started, just how hard this journey would be. Picturing flat, sandy, occasionally rough beaches, we were excited to begin! But the initial “Wow, greatest trip ever” quickly gave way to the “Uh, this is beyond painful and I SO didn’t sign up for THIS!!” 
The section of Washington “beach” between Rialto and Ozette is the most remote on the Pacific coast. Nestled behind natural resources land and a large remote lake … there are No roads, No facilities and No ‘bail-out-early-I’m-super-done-with-this’ escape routes. We were on our own!
It didn’t take long to realize that “coastline” backpacking, was NOT the same as “beach” backpacking … Definitely different and beyond HARD.
You could say it was our own fault … We came looking for adventure and that’s definitely what we got!
Olympic Coast Backpacking …
In the dark
We started out later than we wanted from Rialto beach and guess who … in all her detailed planning with tide charts, low-tide-crossing-only spots and syncing everything up … FORGOT to account for SUNSET … !!??!
I kept thinking the tides gave us plenty of time to make it to camp. Then my friend reminded me it would be dark by 7:15p … uh … oops.
Light is rather important when you’re trying to crawl, scramble, jump, climb and generally maneuver your way over the rough terrain that is just feet above the pounding surf!
Unfortunately, we lost the race against the setting sun and had to pick our way in the dark with tiny headlamps that could barely show our next step. Even the moon was unavailable thru the fog.
A light in the distance
If you ask me, the hardest part of any unknown in the dark is not the next step, but it’s all the steps beyond that … the ones you can’t yet see and don’t know how to take.
Thankfully, somewhere in the struggle along that dark coastline, a light from a small green tent showed up in the distance. It was from Chilean camp cove (our destination) — every time I started to freak out, I could look up, see the light and remind myself I was getting there!
It’s interesting … our headlamps gave us what we needed to take our next step, the one we could see and knew how to take; however, it was that light in the distance that gave us what we needed to take all the steps that we couldn’t yet see and didn’t know how to take.
It gave us the courage to Just Keep Going.
I’m not sure the point in my life when I let myself be open to the possibility of God, not for anyone else … just me. But that was the start and now God is exactly that in my life — the light in the darkness … giving me the courage to take all the steps that I can’t see, from where I am now to where I want to be.
As well as the courage to Just Keep Going.
Camping on the beach!
We made it to camp and set up in the dark. We enjoyed barefoot therapy (walking on the cool, soft sand) and eating a ton of food so ‘the rest of it would actually fit’ in our bear canisters!
It’s been a long-time dream of mine to camp on a beach! And it was awesome … except that darn ocean was SO LOUD!!
I was awake half the night convinced a tidal wave would swallow my tent whole! I finally peeked out to check, at about 1AM (almost high tide) and although the surf was close, it was obvious we were fine. I went back to sleep confident I would survive ’til morning!
Olympic Coast Backpacking …
Lost on the coast!
It would be great if things got easier from here, but that just wouldn’t be par for adventure, right!? Each day really was more difficult than the last, but also more amazing!
We struggled for HOURS climbing rocks and rounding incredibly long headlands. At one point I was convinced we were lost … an impressive feat given the massive, *obviousness* of the ‘ocean landmark’ always to our left! 
I was sure we had missed something, ended up on one of those headlands marked “Danger! NEVER Round” and we were all gonna die.
But a little help from GPS compared to our topo showed we were not nearly as far as I thought. Our travel was REALLY slow and I needed to calm down, breathe and Just Keep Going.
Not my favorite!
Bears!
We encountered a black bear on a barely 30 ft wide stretch of beach and I freaked! But we talked super loud about really annoying subjects and he bailed! 
He trotted down the beach ahead of us for awhile and eventually disappeared into the trees. We hugged the shoreline and moved as quickly (and loudly!) as we could ’til we figured we were past.
I did stop to photograph a rather impressive bright, red log though … priorities!
‘Falling’ our way up the Olympic Coast
We slipped, fell and banged ourselves up SO MANY times backpacking that section of the Olympic coast … even breaking a trekking pole in the process! 
Finally (Finally!!) the crazy, rocky headland travel gave way to some absolute awesome beach travel! We enjoyed hard-packed wet sand beach walking and plenty of fresh stream water sources to fill our completely empty reserves!
I have NEVER drank so much liquid on a pack trip in my life!! We were super grateful for the water and the reprieve! 
Hanging on for dear life
We got to the headland marked “Danger! Never Round” and easily found the alternative overland trail to go with it.
What a trip! … Super steep climb up the rope to a *barely 2 ft wide top* and then right back down the other side! I seriously considered contacting the Olympic National Park service and lobbying for a tunnel! (Bring your own shovel?!) 
I was worried about finding a safe (read ‘dry’!) spot to wait out the mid-day high tide. But shouldn’t have … there were many spots!
Just to be sure though, we stopped on the top of an overland trail. With no real alternative, we parked ourselves right in the middle of the trail and had a ‘hit-the-spot’ warm lunch while the clouds threatened to rain on us.
We tried for a nap, but it was hard to relax knowing we had a 70-ish-foot muddy cliff to scale down with only a prickly, inadequate, ‘who’s-feaking-idea-was-this-anyway’ rope to hang on to. (It was mine, by the way! )
So we packed up and headed down.
Our reward for surviving the descent was ditching the hiking boots and barefoot backpacking thru the surf on the beach afterwards. It was golden! A bucket list item that I didn’t even know was on my bucket list until I did it!! 
The soft wet sand was like a major massage for sore feet … and the cold surf was like an ice bath! Mid-hike therapy for the feet and the soul! We had pushed thru so much pain to this point 
… this was like pure heaven in the midst of hell.
Treasures!
We encountered many interesting beach finds while backpacking up the Olympic coast. Some we could fit in our pockets … others, not so much!
Olympic Coast Backpacking …
A new darkness
At this point, we thought we’d experienced everything the Olympic North Coast could throw at us! But then we got to Kayostla Beach.
People on-line had described it as “difficult” … but that’s like describing this whole trip as “just a beach” hike! If you aren’t convinced by now that that’s an understatement, I’ll post more pictures! 
We had forgotten to set an alarm (didn’t realize it was Saturday!!) and slept thru more than half of our low tide hiking window. This meant rushing as fast as possible to get past a low tide spot with no overland trail. If we missed it, we’d be stuck waiting for hours just 2 miles into our day!
Swimming was not an option! 
We SLOGGED up that beach for MILES … the travel was MISERABLE! Rocks, trees, roots, boulders, cliffs, smelly-wet-dead-stuff-that-is-really-gross-when-you-slip-and-land-in-it … Yeah, all of the above, and it went on FOREVER.
My friend and I have done many crazy adventures together and I’ve never heard her *SO DONE* as I have just a few miles up that beach slog. We were ALL *DONE*.
Where do you find the light when the darkness is on the inside? A small green tent in the distance isn’t gonna help with that kind of dark … 
A new facet to light
Ever notice how God knows when we’re losing our battle with the dark? When we’re wasted, beat up, sick of fighting with literally NO END IN SIGHT and can’t “Just Keep Going” ANYMORE(!!) … that’s when He sends Angels to help.
I’ve been the undeniable recipient of both *seen* and *unseen* help MANY times … I’m just a little slow realizing it though!
Kieran was one we met at this most painful part of the trip. He was like a breath of fresh air with his multi-colored scarves, musical instruments strapped to the back of his pack, an open smile and his completely chill *everything*!
When we asked about his “watch”, he shared how he had changed to “Dino Time” during all the 2020 isolation quarantine because time had literally “ceased to exist for him”! This was his first beach trip trying to keep time by his new “watch”. He said it was quite the experience!
We hiked on, still in pain, but now joking with Kieran about his untouched stack of 40 tortillas still in the bottom of his pack. All of us, ALWAYS pack too much food! We encouraged him to setup a food stand at the next high tide waiting spot and promised to be first in line! 
I learned that day, thanks to a very real angel, that a light shining thru inner darkness is every bit as potent as one that shines on the outside! Our way continued to be difficult with many ‘unseen steps’ still to take but we had what we needed now to Just Keep Going.
The rainbow after the rain
Finally (Finally!!) … just as always happens in life … we turned a corner. Literally, we turned from backpacking ‘the-most-painful-Olympic-coast-beach-of-all-time’ … into the most beautiful one. The sun decided to come out which made everything warm and bright and *sparkly*!!
We were euphoric … and not the bucket list “Wow this is really cool!” kind … but more the “I just went from the darkest part of hell to the brightest part of heaven and made it!!” kind! It was like, having made it thru that, we knew we could make it thru anything! 
We spent the rest of the day hiking up the best beaches, playing in the surf, napping and making serious headway into the snacks I *thought* I had brought too many of!
While waiting out high tide, I got the rather “fun” experience of *meeting* a lightning fast sneaker wave. It hit the log I was resting on, so hard it came up AND over … taking us both out! The log was probably used to it … but me, not so much!
After 3 *crazy* days of backpacking the Olympic coast though, I wasn’t disappointed for the impromptu shower!!
The last of the big headlands on this trip was the awesomest thing yet! We crawled thru a sea tunnel and got to see ocean views that were absolutely breathtaking! Except for a few iffy spots, we traveled the rest of the way on hard-packed, wet sand beaches (our favorite!) while soaking in the beauty that surrounded us on all sides!
The experience was like that of the rainbow *after* the storm has run out of rain. It is beautiful, not in spite of the rain, but rather *because* of it.
Olympic Coast Backpacking …
The Finish
We got *Angel* pictures at the finish and vowed we would think twice before backpacking the Olympic North coast again!
Infinitely more humble than when we started, we walked away infinitely stronger too. A little wiser … and definitely grateful as well!
What a trip!!
Just Keep Going
As I think about this trip and all we went through: the good, the bad, the happy, the miserable, the beautiful, the utterly defeating, the incredibly awe-inspiring … I just think W>O>W!! The thing that made this journey so amazing was ALL OF IT!! There’s NO WAY it could have been nearly what it was WITHOUT each and every part!
The hard & painful times were bearable only because of the amazing times. But, even that amazingness wouldn’t have been as incredible, without all the hard & painful we had to go thru just to experience it!
Maybe after this, I can walk painful paths in life with a different perspective … understanding that *BOTH* the good and the bad are CRITICAL to the journey!
I can remember when things are dark, it’s SO IMPORTANT to continue pushing thru, always keeping an eye out for the light! Both inside & out, it will be there whenever I need it!
I can walk difficult roads as long as I have to, trusting that they will lead to beautiful and amazing things not yet experienced! And there are ALWAYS Bright, *Sparkly* and Wonderful things ahead, if I will Just Keep Going!
Maybe then I’ll look back, on the entirety of my life journey, and realize it was a trip of *EVERY* GOOD THING!
Adventure Planning
Backpacking the Olympic Coast
If you’re planning your own backpacking trip on the Olympic North Coast, YAY!
Here’s what you need to know:
START HERE! –> Planning your trip!
Making a Trip Itinerary
Get the right Topo Map
Olympic North Coast Camping & Campsites
Headlands, Overland Trails & Low Tide spots
How to Read a Low Tide Map
Finding Water on the Olympic Coast
Bears Canisters
What SHOES to wear for “Beach” backpacking the Olympic Coast
If you’re having a hard time in life right now …
I’m sorry, that sucks! Hang in there!
Maybe this will help –> Why Struggles
Looking for beach backpacking trips that are not quite so … intense?!
Good idea!
I recommend the following:
Easy (2 mile out & back) –> Rialto Beach & Hole in the Wall
Moderate (9 mile loop) –> Ozette Triangle
