Coastal Backpacking Field Trip - Olympic Coast South: The Wildcatter Coast

Roads and trailhead parking for both the Oil City and Third Beach Trailheads were in good condition and presented no issues.

Leg 1 - Oil City Trailhead to Mosquito Creek: Trails in good condition. The ropes for ascending and descending Hoh Head were present, well marked, and in good condition. Mosquito Creek Camp was spacious and beautiful, with a new privy that was in excellent shape. The trail leading to Mosquito Creek camp has recently been rerouted, and the trails shown on both Caltopo and Gaia are no longer accurate. Instead of descending and entering camp directly from the south, the new trail stays high and passes the camp before looping back and descending into camp from the northeast. The main trail no longer runs through camp; instead, the camp is now reached via a fairly long side trail that is well marked by a sign. The privy has been located so that it is no longer in the middle of camp, but instead is located outside of camp at the intersection with the main trail.  Because we were arriving at high tide when Mosquito Creek can be full of saltwater from the ocean waves, we fetched water on our way into camp from an unnamed stream about 0.5 file south of camp (the last stream before camp when traveling north).

Leg 2 - Mosquito Creek to Toleak Point:  Trails and ropes were all in good condition and well marked. There is no fresh water at the Toleak Point campsite itself, but fresh water is available from Jackson Creek, about a 15 minute walk along the beach. The Toleak Point campsite was in good shape except for the privy, which has a broken seat and is close to being full.

Leg 3 - Toleak Point to Third Beach Trailhead: Trails and ropes were in good shape except for the ladders that connect Third Beach and the north side of Tailor Point. About half of the descent route is filled with brand new ladders which look great but were VERY slippery even though it was dry when we descended them. Each rung was so slippery that our feet slid sideways and popped off the end. The consensus of the group was that the new ladders were worse than just a plain dirt trail, and we ended up descending along the bare ground next to the ladders instead of the ladders themselves. There is a dead whale at the base of the final rope leading to the beach.  It seemed relatively recent and was not in bad shape yet. By contrast, on the southside of Tailor Point there are brand new wooden steps, lots and lots of them. They were excellent and very helpful. The boardwalk through the final section of forest was in good shape except for a few slippery spots.