John Guilford's Hikes

Date: 1995-08-23

Location: Dungeness Spit

People: (including myself): Pam, Myla, E.B., Kileah

Start:		12:10		0 miles
Start of spit:	12:25		1/2
Lunch:		1:45
End Lunch:	2:15
Turn around:	2:45		3 miles (?)
Out:		4:30

The first half mile is along a hard packed, wide trail through trees (Madronas along with Rugosa roses, among othres).  The trail then descends down to the beach where the spit begins.  There is supposed to be 5.5 miles of spit - the longest in the U.S. 

The day started off cloudy, but a blue patch developed and finally reached us, leaving us with a few sprinkles followed by sunny weather the rest of the day.  We hiked out to the end of Graveyard spit (the spit the runs southward from about 3/4 the way out along Dungeness spit), which is closed to provide sanctuary to the wildlife.  I'd estimate that we had another 3/4 of a mile to go before the lighthouse.  The spit beyond the lighthouse was also closed. 

The walk in wasn't too bad with some packed sand above the water line making relatively good footing.  Myla and I tended to walk faster than the other three (particularly Myla) whereas Kileah and E.B. tended to spend more time looking at things and going slower.  While it might have been feasible for Myla and I to reach the lighthouse and get back at a decent time, we ended up sticking more or less together and leaving the lighthouse for another day. 

The return trip had the tide a bit higher (high tide?) which made us walk on someone looser ground higher on the spit.  This made the return walk less easy.  On the return trip, Kileah's feet were hurting her, as were E.B.'s legs, though that didn't appear to slow them down.  About half way back we moved to the inland side of the spit to get out of the wind (which was at our backs on the way out, but in our faces on the way back in) where it was getting a bit chilly.