Went hiking at Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach last Saturday.

We parked at the lower parking lot and hiked the mile and a half to the Indian Beach (ooo, surfer boys) parking lot. So far so good, except my sweetie ate too much of his delicious sandwich and was sluggish for the next half hour. The next one and a quarter mile was a trail up to the Tillamook Head lookout point and hiker's camp ground. It was during this stage of the hike that the thunder and lightning started. It sprinkled lightly, but mostly it was fine. We went to the lookout point, and meandered around the camp site until we decided to head back. We got about an eighth of a mile before it started pouring in buckets. We were drenched.

Fortunately, the trail back down to Indian Beach was all downhill, so we quickly beat tracks down to the parking lot and found someone who was just getting ready to leave – a delightful couple from Clackamas – and asked if we could hitch a ride to the lower lot (which they did, our heroes of the day for sure!).

So here are the ways two hapless adventurers jinxed (jinxing actions italicized) their hike:

1) No rain gear despite the weather prediction for rain. In fact, my sweetie wore shorts. We both had baseball caps and light jackets. I said before the hike that "the worst that could happen is we come back looking like drowned rats".

2) Halfway through the hike, my sweetie said that the weather wasn't looking that great. I retorted with how the weather was "perfect for hiking".

3) When the thunder and lightning started, my sweetie asked me how we could best be safe. My reply was, "not be here", then kept walking down the trail.

4) When my sweetie mentioned that maybe we should turn around, I said that, "it won't be too bad as long as it doesn't rain too hard".

Are you starting to get the idea of which of us is the sensible one and which one of us is the lunatic?

We (whew!) finally get into the car, stripped off what we could of our wet clothes and still be decent (I fortunately had a pair of yoga pants in the back seat) and headed directly to Bill's for some beer and food. Upon arriving, we discovered it was a bit of a wait (which I anticipated on a Saturday night) and that they didn't have any of their Blackberry Ale (his flavor-ite beer).

Sigh. We ordered burgers and fries (well, onion rings for me) and drank our beer (mmmm, beer) and played Hangman. Btw, I would have the luck of spending my life with the man who chooses "hangman" as their word in a game of Hangman. Then went home and slept like the acutal dead.

Thing is, I would really like for us to take a day and hike from Ecola State Park to Seaside, which is the perfect amount of distance for a day hike (about 13.5 miles round trip) with fantastic views along the way. Hmmm. Maybe if Mother Nature would bless us with a few more weeks of nice weather (jinx jinx jinx) we could go.