On most days we saw small dolphins from time to time. Usually one of us would see it and the other turn too late, like watching shooting stars. On this day I heard and saw a whale that Dick Ryon missed! It was a minke or some other mid sized black whale with smooth skin and a hooked looking dorsal fin.
We paddled five miles past sandy beaches and then did some rock gardening around Cape Meares. Here we found another large cave that gave us a shortcut through a point. Between Cape Meares and the next point was a cove that for some reason had very large waves in it! I stayed dangerously close to shore while Dick cut across to our next destination: “Three Arch Rocks”. The arches in these rocks are so large we had seen them from over 20 miles away on previous days. I was looking forward to them.
Because we took different paths, Dick went close to one of a ring of buoys around these rocks. I figured they said “Small Craft Advisory, Rocks, Stay Away”. But Dick reported some later that they said “Area Closed, Wildlife Reserve, Stay Away”. I learned this after avoiding the Stellar’s seals hauled out on a rock and after already disturbing the murres hanging out on ledges inside the first arch. It was not nesting season so I didn’t feel too guilty about disturbing them this time of year. I scared off the flighty birds so when Dick followed me through the cave the remaining birds just sat there and stared at him going by. Sounds spooky. Since we had already violated the reserve, we continued to thread all three of the arches in all three of the rocks. Then we paddled rapidly away to eat our lunch in a guilt-free zone farther south.
From Three Arch Rocks we headed straight south past a long sandy beach to the middle of Cape Lookout. This is a huge thin steep knife-edge of basalt sticking two miles out to sea. I aimed us at a cove in the side of the cape figuring on doing some rock gardening. In the center of this cove was something unexpected: a sandy beach in a cave that a kayak could have landed in at low tide. The waves almost canceled out in front of this beach and we were tempted to land. But we resisted and started our circumnavigation of the cape.
We came to a pair of caves that I named “The War God’s Nostrils”. Like the cove, there were choppy waves reflecting everywhere but they all canceled out in front of the cave. We were able to paddle in the left nostril and way back inside the cape. I was hopping that it connected to the right nostril but it disappeared into noisy darkness without doing so.
Around the tip of Cape Lookout was a huge open arch of a cave. The sides of this cave were made out of pillow basalt. We saw lots of this on the cape, making the vertical walls look like puzzles put together from many separate rocks. In some places we saw layers of columns of crystallized basalt that had cooled slowly. I saw some hikers on the trail at the top of the cliff but they did not react when I waved my paddle at them. As we rounded the tip of the cape the water calmed down dramatically and we slowly paddled past the vertical basalt cliffs dropping into the water. We saw several caves and one arch to paddle through. The cracks between the pillow basalt were murre heaven and we saw lots of them nesting here.
My satellite photos of this area showed several creeks spilling across the sand a few miles south of Cape Lookout. Since we needed water we headed for the second creek which looked larger. The landing was a little exciting. The waves appeared mild and lured us close to shore until the water was only four feet deep. Then a large set came in and dumped on us. Both of us successfully broached, braced and side-surfed to shore. However, Dick’s rudder was seriously damaged. He beat it back into shape but it now has a crack in it that may break off later.
Our choice of the creek was a fortunate one. This turned out to be the border between a Cub Scout Camp Clark and Boy Scout Camp Merryweather. So even though hundreds of scouts trooped by in the afternoon we were in sort of a no-mans land between the two properties and they left us alone. We talked to several scout adults who were not in a position to give us permission but were supportive of us staying there. I took a bath in the creek after 5 days of paddling without one, whether I needed it or not. I rinsed all the salt water off my gear so it would dry faster. We also filtered or purified water from the creek (upstream of the bathing area).