The trail from Honey Bear Campground to Gold Beach was incredibly varied – some beach time, some time on Old Highway 101 (which is small and enjoyable; not at all like today’s Highway 101), some time on singletrack, and a meander through town.

Something I will miss about Oregon beaches is the way the sand breathes when it is warm outside and the sand is wet. Waves of fog rolled across our path. We also loved seeing all the professional and recreational boaters as we neared Gold Beach.

In Gold Beach we took a zero day. We dried everything out, as the field at Honey Bear had been very wet, and I got a grilled cheese. What a stellar day off.

In the morning we awoke knowing it would be a long and tough day. We heard horror stories about Cape Sebastian and that was going to be our day. Actually, only part of our day — due to a complete lack of legal places to camp, we didn’t know where we would end up, but it would be far, far away.

To be honest, both Julie and I enjoyed Cape Sebastian. We were lucky to have Julie on the Gaia app, which helped, and we had some words of wisdom from those who came before. The overgrown trail didn’t bother me as much as an unmarked intersection or two (so easily fixable!). And of course, we saw The Mole Hole, which makes no sense and I like it that way. The only part of Sebastian I objected to was a butt-slide down rock. The rope wasn’t super helpful, and it was steeper than it looks.

We walked many miles, avoided the Pistol River as suggested in the guidebook by bopping onto Highway 101 for awhile, and soon reached the Samuel Boardman Corridor, a totally gorgeous long stretch of trail where legally, you can’t camp anywhere.

So we spent some significant down time at one of the few places not plastered with No Camping signs. It’s a secret.