A Birthday Spent Hiking the Cape Lookout Trail

January 11, 2025—How does one celebrate his or her birthday? In my case, taking a five-mile hike out to Cape Lookout on the Oregon coast with a close friend of mine. It has been over 30 years since I last visited Cape Lookout. I used to go out there in April to spot gray whales passing by on their northward migration from their calving grounds off Baja California. One year when I was there, a gray whale cow passed so close to the cape I could easily make her out.

I quit hiking out to the headland because I stopped seeing the whales. The trails in April are typically very muddy, so getting muddy without being assured of seeing whales made future hikes out to the headland less appealing. After all these years, I longed to make a trip back out to the cape and hoped I would get lucky seeing at least one whale.

With the memory of that female whale in mind, I brought along my large telephoto lens with the hope of shooting an up-close image of a whale. However, that lens isn’t light, and with all my camera gear strapped to my back, I would be lugging an extra twenty pounds of weight.

My friend brought her dog along, and the three of us set out on the trail. The weather over the cape was sunny, but there were clouds in the distance. I hoped any rain those clouds might produce would hold off until our hike ended. There was a slight chill in the air when we set off on our hike.

We encountered a few hikers returning from their trip out to the headland and inquired about the trail conditions and whether they had seen any whales. Their responses weren’t very uplifting. They spotted no whales and the trail was muddy. We pushed on. Once we passed the viewpoint overlooking the cove, the trail did indeed turn very muddy and tricky. Over the years, hikers have worn down the trail, now pools of water collected between the tree roots.

In many places, tree roots were now a foot or higher above the trail. We had to step carefully either on or over many of the wet and slippery roots while trying to avoid the puddles of muddy water at the same time. The heavy weight on my back sometimes made my efforts balancing on the tree roots precarious. I had to try and remain upright. Any leaning forward or backward caused a shift in the pack that only caused me to lean further in that direction.

My companion loaned me one of her trekking poles to help me safely navigate climbing over the tree roots. With the aid of the trekking pole, I managed to remain upright and keep my balance on the tree roots. I decided it was maybe time for me to invest in a pair of trekking poles. I had eschewed trekking poles thinking they were for wimps, even though I use trekking poles when I snowshoe. I learned a valuable lesson about their usefulness on this hike.

At a couple of locations, the trail passed within inches of the edge of the cliff. One misstep and it would be a rough tumble down the hill ending and a very cold swim. Cape Lookout is part of Cape Lookout State Park, so it falls under the authority of the state. I was surprised the state hadn’t put any barriers in place to prevent hikers from accidentally falling from the trail, especially considering incidents where hikers had fallen to their deaths from trails in the Columbia River Gorge.

After hiking for two and a half miles and a little over an hour, we arrived at the headland. The view was beautiful. While there were some scattered clouds about, we were treated to blue sky overhead. We sat on the bench while having lunch and relaxing. I searched the water below for signs of whales, with no luck.

With the clouds starting to move in and a slight mist starting to fall, we decided the time had come for us to hike back. While much of the hike out to the headland was downhill, the opposite was now true as we found ourselves hiking uphill much of the way back to the parking lot. Hiking uphill made climbing over the roots less treacherous but more tiring. Clambering up and over those tree roots carrying all that weight on my back was tiring.

Rain started to fall as we hiked back. Whereas we had been able to see the shoreline south along the coast on the hike out to the headland, a mist now masked the shoreline before us. On the way back to the parking lot, we encountered many hikers heading out to the headland. They were in for a wet hike. I was grateful the rain had held off for us as long as it did and that we even had sunshine for half of the hike.

An hour and a half later, we arrived back at the parking lot tired but feeling fulfilled. Being out in nature, breathing the fresh air, and spending time surrounded by trees and ocean felt invigorating to my mental health. We would have muddy hiking boots and clothes to clean once we got home.