Walks with Moss: Twin Harbors to the Surfer Area

Cool and foggy on the coast while everyone was baking inland

It was predicted to hit over 90 degrees on Sunday and my spouse had a full 8 hours of care giving scheduled, so I escaped to the ocean. I parked at Twin Harbors State Park with my Discover Pass. I finally bought one after all of these years. I have a parks pass but it does not work for boat launches or DNR land. Now that I have a Kayak, I actually have a reason to use a pass. Still, I would be better if the pass I had covered all state lands.

I arrived at about 11:30 and in no hurry, I wanted to be away from the heat at home all day long. I made one stop in Aberdeen for Gas at the AM/PM. I have to drive a little out of my way to get to AM/PM so normally I stop at the 7-11 in Central Park. Turning left out of that 7-11 to get back into Aberdeen is a hassle though, so from now on I’ll just to AM/PM on the way in. There is another 7-11 on the route to Westport but it is always gross. The entire store is just filthy, I don’t think they should be allowed to be a 7-11 franchise.

I was not sure if I wanted to hike all the way to Westport, I was feeling tired and 11 miles on the sand is exhausting. I instead walked to the surfing area and started to have lunch there, but it was a bit too crowded for my liking and then folks came and sat at my table without me without even acknowledging my existence and they had their underwear hanging out of their pants. I wanted a better lunch view than surfer boy underwear.

I headed back towards my car but stayed up on the paved trail. The fog was starting to move in and the weather was so nice and cool. Hardly anyone was on the paved trail. I headed off into the trees about 50 feet from of the paved trail to have my lunch. It is so nice and secluded in those trees, but there was some garbage in there too, so it did not feel like a secret spot.

I take my P-style to the beach and have many opportunities to use it just by turning my back to the people way in the distance if there are any. But on the way back there was a guy who kept staying the exact distance from me, too close. He was using me as a landmark. If I slowed down, he slowed down, if I sped up, he sped up. So I stopped and let him pass. But after I started hiking again he was still using me as a landmark, sigh.. So I stopped for a full ten minutes and then he was gone. I run into people like that on the trails all the time. They are afraid to be out of the sight of other humans so they stick close to me no matter how fast or slow I hike, they even take breaks after passing me and then end their breaks when they can see me catching up to them again. I don’t know if this is a conscious behavior or not. It annoys the hell out of me when this happens though.

I finished my walk at about 7pm but it was still over 90 degrees at home so I hung out at the state park for another half an hour waiting out the heat before I went home. It was 57 degrees at Westport when it was still 93 degrees at home. It sure felt good to get out of the heat.

8 miles with no elevation gain