Warning Dangerous Bar. July 3. Day 12. Part 2

Continued from:  Warning Dangerous Bar. July 3. Day 12.  part 1. 

 As soon as I climbed into the truck with George and began to enjoy our conversation I gave up all responsibility for where we were going. We must have been five miles south of Gleneden Beach when I realized I was expecting him to know where the beach was, while he of course expected me to know where I was going. George offered to turn around and drive back to the beach I wanted, and when we got there he took a selfie of the two of us (photo 7 is a collage of my photo of George driving and his selfie of the two of us. You can tell, can't you, just by looking at him, the ways his eyes smile, that he loves life and other people. I sure get lucky in the people I meet on the trail. 

 

Speaking of dangerous bars, I just got the gluten free chocolate truffle with caramel sauce (photo 8), and it's pretty clear to me that the way they make it gluten free is to make it entirely of chocolate.  Quick somebody find me a life jacket. 

 

 

It was 7am when George dropped me at Gleneden Beach. I decided to hike north on Salishan Spit and do the hike I would have done if I'd gotten a boat ride.

Photo 9 is a screen shot of my gps map so you can see what I am talking about. George dropped me off a little south of that green area, and from 7am til 10am I hiked to the tip of Salishan Beach and back.  

I was so glad I did. The guidebook had warned it was not a good beach for walking  - with a very sloped beach. But being the contrary creature I am, I found it great for walking.  On the way north I meandered and beach combed, on the way south again I walked higher up in a flat area with softer sand. It was firm enough to support a pleasurable pace, I found. The extraordinary thing was how few people were on the beach. I still had it almost all to myself. 

I was aware of the sound of the waves crashing, and the way as the tide rose they kept coming further and I had to keep my eye on them and sometimes run to get away if I wanted to keep my shoes dry. Sometimes it felt like a playful personal relationship with the ocean where it was trying to trick me into feeling safe and then, when I trusted it, sending a big wave. Gotcha. 

I saw my first seals hauling themselves out of the water. Not sure where that was. I didn't succeed in getting a picture. Speaking of not succeeding in getting a picture my cousin Alice wished I'd gotten a photo of the white rabbits with black ears yesterday. I did - but they were too far away to really see. But since I have no seals, here are some black-eared white rabbits (photo 10). I know they were far away and this cropped photo makes them too blurry to see but at least you get the General idea. White rabbits with black ears. 

 

Photos 11 and 12 give you a sense of this big beach I was walking on, all by myself. I was not at all bored (as I had been on that big empty beach the first day of this hike.) The shore was full of shells and pebbles and even one or two pieces of sea glass. The waves rose and broke, tiny sand crabs lept into the air in every direction, and I slipped into my ocean trance, a happy state totally mesmerized by movement of waves and curiosity about what I will find washed up on the shore. And the air. oceab air, is so good to breathe - fresh, cold, pure, brisk. I felt it could heal my lungs and my whole body of just about anything. (Pausing to send ocean air in imagination to cousin Bubba and sister Bonnie, both fighting lung cancer). 

  

At the end of Salishan Spit I could look across the water at where I had been a few hours earlier (photo 13). Same fisherman. No boats. I was very glad I did what I did. 

 

To be continued in: Warning Dangerous Bar. July 3. Day 12. Part 3.