June 26, 2015. The Cascade Head Preserve is operated by the Nature Conservancy. There are several trails in the preserve and on this day we took the lower trail, which starts at sea level and goes to the upper trail head at 1,300 feet. It's about 6 miles total on the trail.
We've been here several times over the years, one time just to kayak in the Salmon River next to the preserve.
On this day, the inland valley weather was hot, with an expected high of 95 degrees. So we thought it would be a good day for a coast hike! And it was... sort of. The first couple of miles goest through a coastal forest with some elevation gain. It was sunny and no wind, probably about 60 degrees as we started out.
The next mile or so is out in open coastal headland meadow, and we started to notice an off-shore breeze coming down the hill. As we made our way up the trail the off shore wind and fog increased - an odd pattern indeed. The top was completely shrouded in blowing fog. Probably due to the confluence of the hot valley air and the cool ocean air at the Head.
A short distance from the top, we decided to head back down since the wind was howling and visibility was limited to about 50 feet! As we desended, the fog broke up sooner and by the time we got back to the lower trailhead around 4 P.M., only the very top was still foggy.
At this point we were ready for dinner and ale, so we piled into the car and headed for the Pelican Pub, just up the road at Pacific City.
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