Netarts Bay and Neahkahnie Mountain Trail Run

Over New Years I went on a couple trail runs along the northern Oregon Coast. Running the coastal trails and beaches is always an exhilarating experience. One of my runs, which happens to be a new favorite, took me up and over Cape Falcon via the Oregon Coast Trail, down to Short Sands Beach, up Neahkahnie Mountain, and finished in Manzanita. If you can arrange a shuttle or are willing to hitchhike, doing a point to point run like this is the way to go.

The silhouetted outline of a fir tree set against the glowing Pacific as seen from the summit of Neahkahnie Mountain. To the left of the tree a small fishing boat makes its way to the south, Oregon Coast

Olympus E-PM1, Olympus m.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R, F22, 1/200 sec, ISO 200, 42mm

My other run was an out and back. I started in Oceanside and ran the beach south to Netarts Bay. I then ran the road which parallels the bay for several miles. I timed the run to coincide with sunset. A good point to point run I'd like to do would continue south to Cape Lookout and finish up in Pacific City. When I hiked the coast from north to south several years ago I was able to catch a boat ride across Netarts Bay to the end of the spit. This eliminated having to walk the road. I then timed my crossing of the Sand Lake outlet on the south side of Cape Lookout for the minus tide. This would be the ideal way to run this section if you're lucky enough to score a boat ride across the bay. What a great section of coastline this is!

Rippled sand patterns and reflective pools bathed in evening light, Netarts Bay, Northern Oregon Coast

Olympus E-PM1, Olympus m.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R, F11, 1/50 sec, ISO 400, 42mm

While running a along Netarts Bay I stopped to photograph this meandering stream as it lazily made its way through the exposed sand. Under most circumstances a tripod (which I seldom bring with me on runs) would have been required to photograph the landscape at this hour. Due to the nature of this scene I only needed to expose for the highlights. This allowed me to shoot hand held at a relatively low ISO, thereby maintaining an acceptable level of image quality.

Olympus E-PM1, Olympus m.14-42mm F3.5-5.6 II R, F8, 1/50 sec, ISO 500, 37mm