Girls Gone Wildwood

Manzanita Beach is known for being one of the longest beaches on the Oregon coast, at seven miles long. On a weekend visit to Manzanita, I decided to run part of the beach instead of my usual Cape Falcon route. Usually I head south, where the bulk of the beach lies. This time, however, I ran north towards Neahkahnie Mountain and into the headwind, thinking that I'd have a nice tailwind on my way back. Manzanita Beach at the base of Neahkahnie Mountain I ran as far as possible to the north, which felt quite tough against the wind, then turned around and headed south. That part of the run felt good. I was speedy, not out of breath, and it was easy to enjoy the gorgeous scenery. Then I had to turn around again to head back to my starting point. The wind was so strong that I felt like I was standing still. My clothes and gear flapped, threatening to fly off me. I laughed, because the run was as flat as could be, but here was something approximating elevation gain: a strong he...

We spent the weekend in Manzanita for my sister Courtney's bachelorette getaway, and of course we took the opportunity to run on the beach. The weather was not that favorable, it was a constant down pour most of the time. Susan had to make the comment, "I don't think we could possibly get anymore wet", then the wind picked up and the rain started coming down sideways. Luckily we were only a few 100 yards from the trail head, so we sprinted back to the car. We parked at Hug Point Beach and ran north 5 miles to almost the end of Cannon Beach and back. The tricky part about starting at Hug Point is you have to clamber up rocks to a barnacle path to reach the other side of the beach. Susan and I weren't very careful on our way back and slipped climbing up the rocks and scraped up our hands. If you are there during high tide it is nearly impossible to cross, so check the tide tables or park on the other side of Hug Point. Susan doing her happy dance before our ...