Hikes: Off the Beaten Path

Hikes: Off the Beaten Path

“Adults follow paths. Children explore. Adults are content to walk the same way, hundreds of times, or thousands; perhaps it never occurs to adults to step off the paths, to creep beneath rhododendrons, to find the spaces between fences.” – Neil Gaiman

We were looking for adventure, something different, a place to ‘step off the path’. We started at Starbucks – okay, not exactly different or off the beaten path. With our drinks in hand, we walked from the store to the trailhead leading into Freund Marsh. Another couple with a dog had parked at the trailhead and entered right after us. Murphy pooped as we started out, so I bagged it up, took it back to the garbage can behind us, turned around – and that dog-walking couple was gone.

Impossible, I thought. I had turned my back for just twenty seconds. They didn’t go east or west on the gravel trail; where did they go? I saw a mowed opening in the brush leading to a huge grassy field. There they were, heading through the meadow to the beach beyond. Ah, a beach walk at the natural area! I had never been across that field or to that beach.

“Let’s follow them!” I said.

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​The mowed path parallels a wide drainage waterway. The other couple looped around the meadow back to the main trail where we had started, but we turned beachward. In a season when dreary clouds and dark, dank forests can make us feel shut in, it felt so liberating to be in this grassland under a full dome of sky and then to get to the seashore with expansive views in every direction. Kath leaned back and spread her arms wide.

Waves lapped the shoreline. A huge swath of winter driftwood covered much of the sand as the tide ebbed. Seagulls hunted for anything they could find, but mostly just stood there, taking off as we approached and then dropping back behind us as we passed.

We walked west along the trail above the beach as far as possible before “No Trespassing” signs marked the end of public property. We turned around and walked back along the beach itself.

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​Our daily cares were carried away by the gentle breeze on this sunny day. Gulls kept playing their hopscotch with us. Sandpipers (“peeps”) took up the game too, skittering along the water’s edge, their legs a blur. Then a black turnstone caught our eye as it danced with the waves, flew to a small rock just above the surf, and posed there in the late afternoon light. A flotilla of greater scaups swam together just beyond.

We walked back to the beach at Windjammer Park. A crow and a gull perched and posed on driftwood lookouts. Logs buried the entire beach here, forcing us to scramble across logs big and small to get to the paved trail just above the tides.

The splash park and playground lay silent this time of year, but the walking path teemed with walkers, scooters, baby strollers, bubble blowers, joggers, families, and friends. Here we were, just a block from downtown Oak Harbor, but feeling lightyears away from the city and from winter, dancing under open skies at the beach. It was far more fun than we expected. What could be better?

We crossed a street and there we were, full circle, back where we started. But now feeling refreshed and recharged.

Directions

Trail Conditions: one of the reasons we chose this hike was to avoid muddy trails and deep woods, to take a break from winter conditions. The graveled and paved walkways here are in great condition. The meadowland and beach were an unexpected surprise, and also great for hiking.

Directions: Located along the waterfront of Oak Harbor, you can start at the west end along Scenic Heights Road, or the entrance at Southwest Bayshore Drive, or the main entrance at South Bayshore Drive, or the eastern end near Harbor Station.

By Bus: Get off the bus at Harbor Station and cross the street to the east end of the park, or walk two blocks south from the Walmart bus stop.

By Bike: City streets are busy and mostly narrow for bikes but relatively flat in this part of town.

Mobility: The Freund Marsh trail is firm gravel. The Windjammer Park trails are paved, wide and basically flat. The meadow trail in Freund Marsh is mowed grass, fairly firm.

Republished with permission. Read the original article.