OK...this is my first attempt at a trip report so please bear with me.
Saturday April 7th me and buddy paddled out to Long Island for a little exploring. Long Island is located in the Willapa National Wildlife Refuge on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington state. I have been looking at exploring this island for a long time and finally had the opportunity to check it out. There are many miles of old logging roads and trails on the island to explore along with beaches and an ancient old growth Cedar grove. The island is home to deer and elk, black bears and bald eagles. It is also a great place to dig for clams. The bay itself is leased for oyster cultivation and the harvesting of oysters is prohibited. I believe the cost of an out of state shell fish license is $25.00 and you can harvest 40 steamer clams a day.
No dogs are allowed on the refuge because.... it's like a wildlife refuge. We canoed the quarter mile or so from the boat launch at refuge headquarters to the landing on Long Island in a little over 10 minutes. We had to do research on the tide tables because it is recommended to travel across to the island during a high tide.
To get there:
The refuge
is located 13 miles north of Ilwaco,
Washington, on Highway 101.
From Interstate 5, take the
Longview exit.
Take Highway 4 west to Highway 101. Proceed south on Highway 101 about 5 miles
to refuge headquarters. I don't know the GPS coordinates. I'm a map and compass guy.
Here is a link to the refuge for information and a map of the Island. http://www.fws.gov/willapa/WillapaNWR/longisland.html
I had a hard time taking pictures under the canopy. It was raining cats and dogs and the lighting was really poor in the forested sections of the island. Some of my pictures turned out so I'll share some of those with everybody.
Larry at the landing on Long island.
We took the center trail into the heart of the island and the rain forest. Our goal was the Ancient Cedar Trees. In here is where my camera failed miserably probably due to sheets of rain and my humid wet body and wet fogged up digital camera.
Nursery Stump. There were tons of these old stumps along the way providing nutrients to a new era of trees. The Old growth Cedar grove was a grand place with trees that measured up to 10 feet in diameter. There were burned out trees that you could live in. It was an amazing place. I just wished my camera would have cooperated.
We hiked up the center of the Island and took a trail to Smokey Hollow camp site. This camp site is along the beach. This is the view down the beach from the direction we came. We decided to hike along the beach and then cut back up to the main trail and go back to the canoe. Making the total hike around 6-7 miles. It's about a two mile hike down the beach to pinnacle point where we would bushwack to the main trail. Along the way we encountered silky muck from the bay, several raging stream crossings (thanks to the down pours) and periods of slick round cobble rock that really tested our meddle. We had to take it slow and easy because one wrong move or slip and we could strain a knee or ankle. By the time we got to Pinnacle Point we were hot and wet and tired and to our surprise there was a paddle in campground with 5 primative sites. There was a white bucket in a creek where we rested so I thought I'd investigate it and why it was left behind and lo and behold:
A BUCKET OF BEER!!!!.........Yes there is a God!!!!
So we took a break for a while and enjoyed the view of the bay.
The solitude was grand and we had the island to ourselves........or so we thought:
On the hike out we stumbled onto these along with some elk and deer tracks. (and someones dog tracks which isn't allowed n the refuge)
After seeing these on the trail our senses shifted gears and we were a little more alert and aware of our surroundings as we hiked out to the canoe. This was a BIG bear!
After the hike and paddle adventure was over we stopped in Ocean Park and picked up a dozen Willapa Bay Oysters and threw them on the BBQ. Quite the way to end the day.
| 
