"Range anxiety"
3/26/16
Start Time: 7:45
Finish Time: 9:55
Miles: 5.3
Time: 2 hrs, 10 min
Avg MPH: 2.2
Elev Min: 1,600'
Elev Max: 3,283'
Elev Change: +1,683
Total Ascent/Descent: 2,180'
Temp Low: 32
Temp High: 40
Other hikers: ~10
Longest time without seeing a hiker: About an hour
Wildlife: None notable
Opening Shot:
Looking west from the summit to the other side of the "saddle"
I recommend this hike for its easy accessibility (for internal combustion engine cars!) and it's relative ease for a family. If you take your time it's not bad. There are some sections where coming down I had to be a tad careful not to slip-out, but that wouldn't have been catastrophic, just a surprise.
Today's adventure was two-fold. To go on my first hike of the season and to explore the possibilities with my Nissan LEAF electric car in an area I hadn't taken it yet. I left home at 4:30am with 100% charge and quickly made it to the Banks quick-charger and charged from 60% to 85%. (The charging process starts to slow after 80% to protect the battery). I naively thought that I could do my hike and make it back to Banks...nope.
As I navigated the three passes in the coastal range I realized that I'd be well short of power to get back, so I went the additional 10 miles to Seaside/Cannon Beach to their quick-charger and got there with 2% of my battery left. Whew! (I can throttle it a bit with speed and heat usage so I wasn't too concerned about making it there). I definitely had some "range anxiety" on that one which isn't normal for me to worry about. I charged to 90% and went back toward Portland the 10 miles to the Saddle Mountain exit. I got there with 67% left knowing that I still had to get over 2 of the 3 passes. I drove up the 1,000' of elevation gain to get to the trailhead with 51% of my battery left. Ugh...I hope I don't have to go back to Seaside again. Oh well...no need to think about that until I see what I can regenerate in power to the battery going downhill back to the highway...on with my hike!
I started at 7:45am with some Spring Break campers getting up for the morning in the 10-site campground. Brrr!
Nice trail (up all the way almost) with many views along the way...
...with morning clouds lingering in the valleys.
I contoured around the false summit and through the saddle. The summit is straight ahead.
This was a neat rock just sitting there. It was super windy here, probably 60 mph+ winds at 32 degrees. Good thing it was a workout going up the elevation! I felt like I was in the Tehachapi wind farms on the PCT in Southern California...only a lot colder!
I made the summit all alone...one of the benefits of my early morning starts. You can see the Pacific Ocean and Seaside right behind me.
This is a zoomed in view of the picture above to see the ocean better.
This is from the summit to the southwest down past Cannon Beach.
And finally to the west with the false summit and other side of the saddle straight ahead.
After spending a short, blustery 15 minutes on the summit I started down the trail into the saddle again.
The winds seemed to calm as I descended and the skies went to pure blue which were perfect for the dozen hikers heading up that I met.
My GPS track of the hike imported to Google Earth:
My GPS track on a topo map:
My altitude profile:
My GPS track can be looked at and downloaded for use on your own device at GPSFly.org
http://gpsfly.org/g/5650
After getting back to the car I drove down the 1,000' to the highway and gained 4% in my battery over that 7 miles to hit the highway with 55%. I decided to go for it as I could turn around at the top of the first pass and go back if it was really bad. Boy going up those long, steep grades at 55mph really blows through the battery fast. I was thankful for the saddle in between the passes. Then one more pass...the Coastal Range summit, before a nice, long battery-rejuvenating ride into the tiny town of Timber where there is a 220v level 2 charger at "Wines of Oregon". I charged from 18% to 25% here since this wasn't a quick-charger...just enough to give me some margin to get back to Banks. I thought I might be able to make it without stopping here but the long uphill ahead put a stop to that dream.
I rolled into the Banks quick-charger at Jim's Thriftway with 8% left. So if I hadn't stopped earlier that would have been 1%! Yikes!. I quick-charged up fast and headed on home with power to spare.
Who knew my biggest adrenaline rush of the day would be the drive to and from my hike!
-Mike (aka GoalTech)
www.GoalTechHikes.com
P.S. I wore my shiny new "Oregon Hikers" button/pin
