Fishermen gather at Fort Stevens State Park. The first 16 miles of the Oregon Coast Trail follow a flat, wide beach past the Peter Iredale shipwreck until an inland turn at Gearhart. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

Larry Smith inspects a Coho salmon in his cooler. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

From left, longtime friends Larry Smith, B.K. Srinivasan and Al Onkka share a laugh while they wait for the fish to bite. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

An annual seaweed, bull kelp can reach heights of more than 100 feet each season, forming an underwater forest canopy. In recent years, two-thirds of Oregon’s kelp forests have disappeared. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

Over Tillamook Head, hikers follow the route of Lewis and Clark as they traveled to a Clatsop village in search of a beached whale in 1806. At Hiker’s Camp, within Ecola State Park (“ecola” means “whale”), cabins are offered on a first-come, first-served basis for Oregon Coast Trail hikers. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

The sun sets over Lion Rock at Arcadia Beach, near Arch Cape. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

Access to some sections of the trail depends on the tide and season. The name of Hug Point, near Arch Cape, comes from the close navigation of stagecoaches that used the beach as an early highway. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

A wooden boardwalk leads through the forest as the trail continues through Oswald West State Park. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

Mushrooms poke through moss on a tree along the Cape Falcon Trail. Fall is the peak season in Oregon for foraging wild fungi. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

Sitka spruce and hemlock meet jagged basalt rock at the tip of Cape Falcon, the site of Oregon’s northernmost of five marine reserves. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

A lone surfer splashes through the waves as sunlight pours onto Short Sand Beach, a popular cove at Oswald West State Park. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

From Short Sand Creek, hikers continue onto the Sitka Spruce Trail, then to a grassy meadow known as Elk Flats. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

At 1,680 feet, this summit is the highest point on the trail. A subject of Nehalem-Tillamook stories, people have hunted and gathered plants here for millennia. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

Rachael Davis fills up a water bottle at Barview Jetty County Campground, near Garibaldi. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

A picnic table of essentials ready to be packed up. Hikers can resupply in towns like Manzanita and Rockaway Beach. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)

Christopher Smiley disassembles a tent before leaving the campground at Barview, in preparation for a new day’s journey. (Lukas Prinos/The Astorian)