Trekks and Travels: Neahkahnie Mountain and Oswald West State Park 21 Feb 2014

It was supposed to be sunny at the coast after a week of rain, so I headed out early this Friday morning. Beautiful morning, on and off drizzle, but clearing by the time I got to Oswald West State Park. I parked in the East Lot because it has a restroom. Headed out across the hwy on the Short Sand beach trail and connected to the Sitka Spruce trail then the Elk Flats trail to Devil's Cauldron and on to Neahkahnie Mountain trail across the Hwy. This makes the out and back hike about 7.2 miles. The mountain alone has 1200 ft gain and there is some gain and loss on the Elk Flats trail too. Trail was a little muddy but not horrible. The trails are very very "rooty" however, so it is not exactly an easy hike. In the park proper the trails are well groomed, flat and gravel.
I was ultimately unsure about the summit. I arrived at what I thought was the summit at the time I thought I should be there, but there was no trail up and I couldn't figure it out. So I scrambled up to the top of some rocks and had my lunch there with a view of the south. The sun had come out and it was lovely. Headed back down the way I had come up, except for some trail switches once I got to the Oswald groomed section. Didn't see anyone on the mountain and only a few people in the park.