========== Cape Perpetua ===========
Cape Perpetua is quintessential Oregon coast camping. Essentially just across the street from The People's Coast, beaches, and popular attractions like Devil's Churn, you still get to enjoy the unique forests of sitka spruce and alder that make the Pacific Northwest so special.
The campground at Cape Perpetua shows this off to its best advantage. This campground runs back from Highway 101 to the start of the Spruce Trail that winds further up the headlands. The campground itself is quite level and next to a charming stream, with spacious sites punctuated regularly by clean, well-kept bathrooms.
I appreciated several qualities that set Cape Perpetua apart.
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The campground hosts were excellent. You could see they are very attentive to the bathrooms, trash, etc, but were never intrusive, just available. You do need exact cash to pay for your site, but if you're a few bucks short like we were after attempting to stay at another campground further south, they'll direct you to a convenient ATM at the general store in Yachats.
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I love the beach and beach camping, but I'm also a little paranoid about the big Cascadia earthquake we're overdue for. If you're also leery of sleeping in the tsunami zone when you aren't super familiar with evacuation directions for the area, you can rest easy knowing that this campground is outside the tsunami evacuation zone.
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We had no problem fitting three two-man car camping tents in our site, plus a minivan, with room for camp chairs around the fire pit and all our things over the picnic table. The tent sites have "floors" of soft grass and clover, and many are shaded, or recessed into little alcoves that are very private with low "walls" of ferns and moss. The other sites looked similarly roomy, and even if they're close together you don't feel on top of your neighbors.
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It's just a few minutes to Yachats proper, where you can enjoy the brewery, ice cream shop, cute boutiques, the general store, etc.
========== Gregory Jade 63 Liter Backpack ===========
As a Dyrt Ranger, I get to review products from time to time. On my trip to Cape Perpetua, I brought my new Gregory Jade 63 Liter Backpack in Mayan Teal along for a test drive. Packing at home, I was already impressed with the attention to detail paid by the design team. Little touches, like the zipper pulls having slight corners that make it easy for your fingers to grip, the shape of the back padding and robust hip belt made with the female body in mind, and the color-coded alligator clips that make it clear how every strap is meant to pair all add up to a great user experience.
The 63 liter pack is robust, with more than enough room for a two-man car camping tent, sleeping bag, ground pad, Primus camp stove kit, first aid kit, water bottle, and odds and ends. It was ideal for this car camping trip, but could easily serve on a backpacking trip, too. Despite the roomy interior, though, it never felt too big or disproportionate for my 5'6, 170 pound frame. On the contrary, it was far more comfortable and intuitive to pack than my old NorthFace pack.
Like many backpacking packs, the Gregory Jade 63 Liter has a bottom compartment that's partitioned off from the main, cavernous interior. That's topped with a "brain" that is accessed by zipper and snaps down with alligator clips. There's a big mesh pocket on the front and two side mesh pockets. Gregory smartly doesn't reinvent the wheel on a basic backpack structure that works, but the beauty is in how well it executes this familiar style. The mesh pockets are breathable, yet slightly opaque, and the fabric is plenty tough and stretchy. The zipper pulls are really easy to manipulate, as I noted above, big enough for your fingers to find them in the dark or even get a finger slotted in there to pull, but not so large they're obnoxious or catch on things.
The back panel is my very favorite. As a Southern girl used to very sweaty summer hikes, I appreciate the way the mesh and the curved back of the pack are separate, offering lots of airflow, without sacrificing support. The hip pads on the Gregory Jade 63 have a lot more structure than I've seen on other packs, and have the same breathable construction, so I know they'll reduce the kind of rubbing Cheryl Strayed wrote about in "Wild" on her hip bones and sacrum and that I've had to put up with in the past, too. You can tell this pack is meant for long treks because the hip belt is far more robust than on Gregory's day packs.
Overall, I'm very happy with my new pack and am confident it will hold up as well as the smaller Gregory Juno 30 liter I use for my daily commuter and weekend bag. A year later it still looks brand new, so I look forward to still sporting this beautiful backpacking pack years down the road and many (comfortable!) adventures later.
