Wales Coast Path – a six week coastal hike

Thanks, again, Amy for a fabulous trip report.  I want to be you when I grow up.

“The Welsh claim that they are the only country in the world with a path along its entire coast, although there is a walkable roughly 4 mile route that hugs the coast of the tiny country of Monaco.”

Oregon isn’t a country (although it’s 12 times the size of Wales and 126,000 times the size of Monaco) and all their coastline is public.  Although I’d suggest a pack raft if you aim to do all 363 miles.

David,

Actually, we have completed the Oregon Coast Trail a number of years ago. See http://doingmiles.com/2008-07-oregon-coast/

We knew nothing about packrafts at the time, but agree with you that using one would likely significantly improve the experience of doing that route by eliminating significant pieces of road walking. I have mapped a strawman packraft version of the OCT and believe that by using a raft wherever I thought might be reasonable, about 85 miles of pavement could be by-passed. People with actual experience using packrafts may disagree with what I imagined might be possible.

In Wales, there were a couple of places where having a packraft could have eliminated inland pieces of the route, but those portions were interesting enough and offered enough variety that we would recommend staying on the walking path and not bother carrying a raft.

James (and Amy)

“People with actual experience using packrafts may disagree with what I imagined might be possible.”

Or they might be more ambitious.  Consider Hig and Erin’s 4,000-mile trip from WA to the Aleutian Islands, entirely on foot, skis, and pack raft, written up in her book,  “A Long Trek Home”.

Amy, your reports are amazing.  I’m going to hit you up one day in the future to discuss a Europe hike with my wife….one day when the kids are all out of the house and we’re free to travel.