Getting There
From Astoria, take US-101 North across the Columbia River to Washington. Continue north toward Ilwaco & Long Beach, about 15.3 miles. On the outskirts of Ilwaco, US-101 becomes Spruce Street. Continue through the signal, past Serious Pizza & the Ilwaco Food Market, the take the left onto 2nd Avenue SW. Past the harbor (and sign for the Farmer's Market), the road becomes Robert Gray Drive. Follow that road for 2 miles and take a left at the junction onto N. Head Road. There's a dirty parking lot across the road from the Cape "D" Cafe. It's also where the Coastal Loop Trailhead is located.
Thursday night, I stayed at the Campground D, next to O'Neil Lake, so I only had about 1500 feet to get to the WTA work party on Friday morning.
For the North Head hikes/trail work, we drove up to the North Head Lighthouse parking lot.
The Hikes
May 3, 2024
North Head Trail
Distance: 2.55 miles
Elevation Gain: 336 feet
Maximum Elevation: 217 feet
We started at trailhead and worked our way down the trail about 1.2 miles, adding or clearing drains and doing some light brushing. The weather wasn't bad until the early afternoon when the rain started. The trees protected us for the most part but there was a point where trail work was going to difficult.
Our group was split up in to work groups with an ACL. We finally reached the last site on the list today and started back up the trail. We'd learned the North Head lighthouse was staffed so a few of us wandered over there. I was with two others and found a large group was ahead of us. We had a bit of a wait (~30min) but had nice conversation with the person selling admission tickets. She and her husband traveled around west coast; her husband was an amateur photographer and "docent" at the top of the lighthouse.
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| Drainage work |
The woman asked us to play a joke on him. His photo had been featured on "Sunday Morning" so she wanted us to treat him like a sudo-celebrity. When it was our turn, we ascended the spiral staircase to the top and Alyssa said the wrong first name but continued with the joke. The man knew instantly that his wife had put us up for the prank. We laughed.
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| Drainage work |
Despite the weather, the views were pretty good. We learned about the restoration process for the structure and how small the bulb is that replaced the Fresnel lens.
When we were done with our tour, we walked back to the parking lot and stopped at the gift shop. We knew the proceeds supported the conservation efforts. I bought a coffee mug & some stickers and Alyssa got a few items. When she was paying, she realized she didn't have a credit card but that they accepted Apple Pay. For whatever reason, the transaction wasn't going through. Alyssa said she was going to have to run to her car for the credit card. To make things easier, I offered to put the items on my card and she could pay me back. What I actually mumbled was that she could just buy me an iced tea (since I didn't drink beer). I knew I meant for us to square up later but it came out wrong. I didn't mean to seem like a "sugar daddy". It was awkward but I downplayed it.
Back at Fort Columbia, where we were staying for the next two nights, I made sure my Venmo was setup for a payment. When I saw Alyssa again, I showed my Venmo QR code and she paid me back. She mentioned that my "ice tea" statement stressed her out. Oops.
May 4, 2024
Coastal Loop Trail
Elevation Gain: 235 feet
Maximum Elevation: 154 feet
The rain helped show where the drains needed to be added or cleared out but the ground was pretty saturated and we began to do more damage than improve things.
By the time we reached the lookout at the halfway point, we were pretty soaked and energy was low. It was also chocolate break time, 10:30AM. James asked how everyone was feeling. Did we want to call it quits for the day, or keep going. I didn't want to be the one to cave and frankly hadn't thought it was so bad. It was wet but I was ready for whatever nature had in store. We didn't do much work on the second half of the loop, heading for the parking lot.
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| Drainage work |
James again asked if folks wanted to keep working or end for the day. All but two opted to keep going. They took off back to the Scarborough House at Fort Columbia, and the rest of us walked over to the campground to find shelter for lunch.
The original plan was picnic area and bathrooms by Waikiki Beach but en-route, James redirected us to the Park office and garage. They had a small break room with a table and microwave and a bathroom at the far side of the garage.
Westwind Trail
Elevation Gain: 211 feet
Maximum Elevation: 216 feet
We reached the L&C Interp. Center and greet a few guests that were checking out the views of the jetty and ocean. We took a group photo and hopped on the same trail back to the trailhead.
May 5, 2025
Day Three of the work party was part II of the North Head Trail. We split into two groups, one starting from the top and the other starting from the bottom, from Fort Canby Road.
The goal for the team starting from the top was to finish any remaining drainage, tread work, and brushing as well as fixing the broken boards on the boardwalks.
We didn't find out until we were there the work site that the Parks person had gotten the wrong size screws and we didn't have the correct drill (hex) bit.
The options were to get the right bit, different screws, or option three: just use the screws but bash them in like nails, not the best option but the other two choices would have take way too much time and effort.
The "top" group split into two groups so we continued to the 2nd work site. We had engineered boards but I knew there was a stash of wooden planks as well. This helped brace the boardwalk from underneath and found one that worked on the end to make it level again.
I used some of the short pieces to stabilize the end even further and also, cleared the drainage. Satisfied with the repair we continued down the trail until we met the crew that had started from the bottom.
We didn't have any more work to do this time. There were some really bad areas (muddy) but that was going to require much more extensive work, i.e. a raised boardwalk, due to the roots and not being allowed to damage them.
We finished the day and weekend around lunch time. Those with cars at the bottom took people back to the North Head parking lot; James gave me a ride. I was so happy to change into dry shoes and top.
