Cape Flattery and Shi Shi

Prior to my week of camp starting, I ventured out to the most Northwestern part of the U.S., Cape Flattery with traveling companion, David. It's nearly a 4 hour drive but we were super lucky and had perfect weather - which is pretty abnormal for the area. Short little hikes take you right to the high bluffs that overlook the cape, which I expected to see all sorts of marine mammals, sea lions, sea otters, maybe some whales...but nada :(  I scanned the horizon and saw a few ships, then some cormorants, but then...a PUFFIN! These little birds aren't completely average and this lone guy was hanging out with the cormorants. This was enough to satisfy my nature sighting craving so we moved on. It was late in the day, 3pm, and we were near the trailhead for Shi Shi Beach, which is on my PNW bucket list. But...it was a 2 mile hike there and back...not sure if enough time. We had some snacks for the trip, but our stomachs were growling, and it was another 15min back to town, back, and this would probably put us at 4pm to start the trek, a bit late.

Cape Flattery, looking south

Cape Flattery, looking north

Looking south again, Shi Shi Beach was beyond those sea stacks.

The sun stays out late though...so we decided, snacks it is and Shi Shi here we come! Much of the trail was boardwalk through some dense shrubbery but the sun shone through. Within the first 1mile, we encountered several people that said things like, "I hope you have waterproof shoes," or "Just give up avoiding the mud, you'll have a much better time." At that point, we'd successfully dodged the mud on the trail, and I had on waterproof hiking books, David had on rubber XtraTuff shorties, no problem, we'd mastered it thus far. Then...we realized what they were talking about, the trail was really more like a creek of mud and there'd be wide expanses of mud which little trails had been made off to the side in the woods to avoid the main trail, but these were too becoming muddy. Probably with a 1/2 mile to go, we both gave up and just started walking straight through the mud. Then we descended 150ft bluff to get down.


With a fresh layer of mud, now covered with sand, we arrived at Shi Shi (pronounced SHY-SHY). The beach when we arrived was beautiful but for the effort to get there, no more beautiful than other beaches I'd visited on the coast. I dreaded the mud slog back, we rebooted with the new energy from snacks and this time, made it back 30min quicker minusing all the obstacles we'd tried so hard to avoid on the way there, this time, powering straight through. I was a bit miserable not knowing where I'd rinse off at the end before the nearly 4 hour drive back, but then remembered Hobuck beach that had seemed quite easy to access from the road. After the hike, I walked into the ocean, straight up and let the water wash over my mud caked calves, boots and socks. I'm still picking mud out of those boots.   http://youtu.be/OhPQYA9IOcU

Hello Shi Shi

Mud city

a bunch of backpackers heading south along Shi Shi