Blue Heron "In Flight" - Nehalem Bay, Oregon

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The trip started from the public Boat dock as so many trips have started before. The surprising thing was there were no people using the dock even on a busy Labor Day weekend. I launched from the up stream public boat dock in Nehalem. At the head of the walkway to the dock, there is a small area to unload then park on a side street.

I did have to make a few adjustments to my payload and more than one trip back to the truck to drop off things like extra one-gallon jug of water, chessboard, pillow, large flashlight and an extra can of fuel for the stove. I finally got it all crammed inside the yak and hit the water.

Getting out of town on Friday took longer then I thought and I did not hit the water until early afternoon. My late start meant I ended up bucking the incoming tide. Luckily I know a short cut an old fisherman that lived next door too me had shared on one of our many fishing trips. The short cut marked by a hole in the old jetty at Dean Point just before the town of Wheeler then go left at the first channel or you will end up in the middle of the massive mud flats that make up most of the bay. The round trip was 14 miles long starting in downtown Nehalem and ending at my favorite hidden camping spot about ½ mile from the mouth of the Nehalem River.

Photo of me in the late 1970’s proudly docking my skiff in front of my converted gillnet dock built in the 1930’s that I called home for the summers, I was just seventeen years old when I started the conversion.

What remains of the old crib log we used to tie the docks too and wait for the tide to go out grounding the float logs under the dock so we could make needed repairs.

Blue Heron searching for food.

Grassy tundra with extensive mud flats fill the majority of the bay and is home to a wide variety of animals like Roosevelt Elk, Black Bear, Golden Foxes and a wide verity of water fowl.

In the distance is a massive tree stump it looks to be in deep water

As you get up closer, it is in less then a foot of water. Note the birds in background standing literally on the surface of the water.

As I pass the last of the tundra grass on my starboard side, I use the big sand dune on the Peninsula as a landmark to keep me from drifting on to the mud flats.

First stop the beach just south of the Nehalem Bay State Park boat launch. There are restrooms, water and a payphone for those who need it but my cell phone worked great the whole trip.

At high tide, their is not a lot of beach so pick a spot you can drag your yak to high ground if needed.

Overnight camping is not permitted on the bay except in the parks drive in campground located about a mile from the water. This little hide-a-way was hard to see from the beach and is one of my favorite places to camp. A water trail is being planned by the Tillamook Estuaries Partnership I sure hope they include places for overnight camping.

Holly Crap Batman how big would a bird half to be to leave a track this size. I saw many Eagles but this one had to be a big one.

Mysteries things are heard and seen around the Nehalem Bay some say it is the sprit of an evil indian charmin, others say it is an old witch casting her spell on any one who will listen.

There are long stretches of beach to explore at low tide.

The rest of the weekend it rained off and on and the twenty or more boats crabbing left a smell of mixed gas and oil in the air so I packed up a day early and plan on coming back this winter when I will be guaranteed solitude.