Do you want to know my biggest challenge while thru-hiking the Oregon Coast Trail (or OCT)?

It wasn’t the road walks along busy Highway 101. Nor was it the long stretches of solitude without a trail family. It wasn’t even trying to time the ocean’s tides as they ebbed and flowed in an effort to block my path.

Nope. The hardest aspect of the OCT was trying to plan my thru-hike in a void of information. I spent countless hours working to nail down solid facts about the trail’s route, the water crossings, the length of the road walks, trail closures, detours, etc.

But now, other hikers won’t have to endure that pain. Bonnie Henderson’s new guidebook, Hiking the Oregon Coast Trail: 400 Miles from the Columbia River to California, is the resource every prospective OCT thru-hiker needs.

Background

Until recently, most hikers had to hunt and search for information about the OCT in blogs, magazine articles, and a myriad of online trail journals. And then you had to cobble all these random bits of data together to create a thru-hiking plan. It was a lot of work for a trail that’s not even really in the backcountry.

But then something awesome happened…

In October 2021, Mountaineer Books released a new guidebook touted as the first and only comprehensive guide to the OCT. And they turned to Bonnie Henderson (who previously published one of the most popular day hiking guides for the Oregon Coast) to write the book.

Even though this guidebook was published too late for my own OCT thru-hike, it piqued my curiosity. Was this really a complete guide to the OCT? Did it answer all those burning questions I’d had when planning for this trail? Or was it just a cleverly marketed update to the existing day hiking books already out there?

The new guidebook

Let me cut straight to the chase here. Bonnie Henderson’s new guidebook is exactly what I wish I’d had available to me when I was planning and thru-hiking the Oregon Coast Trail.

As I thumbed through the pages, I saw nugget after nugget of useful information.

It had detailed color maps covering every mile of the trail — even the more obscure segments or road walks that most day hikers will never visit. The guidebook addressed potable water sources, camping restrictions, dogs on the OCT, high tide detours, and more.

Heck, there was even a proposed packing list to help those of us with less experience with hiking in coastal conditions!

This was the guide I’d been dreaming about for 400 miles! The further I delved into this guidebook, the more impressed I was with it.

The author included suggested itineraries for thru-hikers who intended to backpack and camp the entire way, and different itineraries for those who planned to hike inn-to-inn. All told, it was a splendid resource with every question you could think of addressed in a single spot.

So, if you are considering a thru-hike of the OCT, but you’re currently on the fence about whether to buy a guidebook or not, rest assured. This book is truly invaluable, and let me give you a detailed list all the reasons why!

Oraganization

As with any good resource, the most critical element to success is the ability to find what you need, when you need it. So let’s begin with how this guidebook is organized.

The first 50 pages of the book include a general primer on the trail. The introductory chapter provides the reader with an overview of the OCT and tons advice about how to successfully hike the route. The book delves into information about the seasons and weather, and the wildlife on the coast, detailed info about camping restrictions, and what gear/footwear/clothing is best suited to this type of hike.

With the introduction complete, the guidebook transitions to the specifics of the trail itself. Given the diversity of the Oregon Coast, the author broke the trail into five geographic sections:

• Section 1: Columbia River to Garibaldi (63.8 miles)
• Section 2: Garibaldi to Siletz Bay at Lincoln City (73.1 miles)
• Section 3: Siletz Bay to Florence (87.8 miles)
• Section 4: Florence to Port Orford (108.8 miles)
• Section 5: Port Orford to the California Border (74.3 miles)

Each section gets its own detailed chapter, which is further sub-divided into smaller legs spanning 4 to 20-miles. These legs come with potential hiking itineraries, camping and lodging options in towns, and resupply suggestions.

Most important of all, each leg has exceptionally detailed maps that exceed anything else you’ll find in print or on the internet for this trail. The maps show where the beach access points are located, along with potable water sources, tunnels and footbridges, boat ramps, hiker-biker camps, primitive campsites, and so on.

The final section of the guidebook provides prospective hikers with contact information for camping, hotels, boat shuttles, and even overnight parking where you can leave your car (a far bigger challenge on the Oregon Coast than one would expect).

Overall, the format of this book reminded me of John Brierly’s popular guidebook for hiking the Camino de Santiago. It takes the guesswork out of just about everything for novice thru-hikers, while providing a flexible framework for more independent or experienced adventurers.

WHAT I LOVED

• Overall size and quality. This perfectly-sized paperback book offers a wealth of data in a fairly tiny package. Its 255 pages make it just 1/2″ thick. The book’s overall dimensions are a compact 7.5 x 5.5 inches in size (or about the same size as a quart-size baggie), and the guidebook uses the thicker pages that Mountaineers Books is known for. This means you get a nicer photo/map quality, with durability that will undoubtedly withstand a lot of use.

• Summaries. Each of the five OCT sections come with a short visual overview of what lies ahead in the upcoming 70-110 miles stretch of the trail. These summaries includes the distance of that individual section (with and without boat shuttles), which headlands lie ahead, maximum distance between campgrounds and towns, water availability, boat shuttles, and a general elevation profile. Overall, this is a nice way to begin each chapter before delving into greater detail about the shorter legs within that section.

• Maps. The detailed color maps in this book are truly at the perfect scale. They feature an overview of the environment near the trail, along with all the items a thru-hiker would want to know ahead of time. For example, the maps delineate between paved roads, gravel roads, trail, and beach. Primary and alternate routes are in different colors. There are clear symbols for piped water points (spigots), toilets, developed campgrounds, primitive campsites, boat ramps, and side trails. The fonts and colors are distinct, making the maps easy to read – even for novice route finders.

• Hazard and Water Crossing Info. OCT hikers often need to knowing whether a river outlet or estuary is fordable long before they arrive in person. Not having this information can result in many wasted miles backtracking to find an alternative way around. Luckily, this guidebook addresses each of this obstacles or hazards – along with bypass routes when necessary. The author has done the all the logistical legwork needed to minimize your roadwalking and maximize your ability to stay on the coast for as many miles as humanly possible.

• Where to Sleep. The OCT isn’t the typical backcountry trail where thru-hikers can pitch their tent and camp virtually anywhere. There are a lot of confusing local ordinances that shape exactly where dispersed camping is allowed or prohibited. The author demystifies most of these restrictions by providing detailed information down the length of the route. On every leg of the trail (ranging from 4-20 miles), she provides the locations of the developed and primitive campsites, annotates their location on the maps, lists where beach camping restrictions generally begin and end on that leg, and color codes private and public lands. The book also addresses other lodging options in towns for those looking to shower, take a zero off-trail, or hike inn-to-inn. This element of the book takes the guesswork out of the biggest logistical challenge on the OCT — where to sleep each night.

• History & Items of interest. The guidebook includes many terrific snippets of local history, nearby sights, wildlife, and information that will allow OCTs hikers to better appreciate their surroundings. The author included just enough to pique the reader’s interest without devolving into pages and pages of information that obscure the overall usefulness of this book. In my own experience, I tend to read this type of information once, and then want to be able to flip past it. The editors limited each morsel of information to just a single paragraph or two, and then they cleverly shaded it with a different background color so it’s easy to distinguish when using the guide.

• Ability to adapt it to a section-hiker (or day hiker) guide. Although this guide is geared toward thru-hiking the OCT, the author put some real thought into hikers who might want to tackle the trail in shorter sections. She included access points where hikers can pre-arrange to leave their cars for a few days, along with multiple itineraries that don’t demand you consistently hike 15-20 miles every day. This thoughtful addition makes the book invaluable for section hikers and day hikers, as well as those who might want to have family or friends joint them for just a few days on their longer journey. Overall, this clever organization allows the book to appeal to a wider audience of hikers.

• E-book Option. Even though this guidebook is super compact, it weighs in at 12.8 ounces. If you’re a day hiker, that’s probably no big deal, but many long-distance hikers would balk at adding something that heavy to their pack. Luckily, the publisher also provided the option to purchase this guidebook in an e-book format through Amazon. As an added bonus, the Kindle version of the guidebook is only $12.99 – nearly half the cost of the paperback version!

The DOWNSIDES

It’s hard to criticize such a wonderful and comprehensive resource. As I said before, this book really exceeded all my expectations. However, if I had to make any suggestions for how to make the book even better, here’s what I might advocate for with the next edition.

• Map Supplement. The detailed maps in this book are an amazing resource. Even experienced thru-hikers would benefit from carrying them on their hike. Unfortunately, there’s quite a few hikers who simply won’t carry a full guidebook for a maps that only comprise 10% of the book. To avoid an ‘all or nothing approach,’ perhaps the publisher should consider offering a guidebook supplement that contains just the OCT maps. This would allow people to purchase the complete guidebook for their planning phase before their thru-hike, while only carrying the map supplement during the hike.

• Cost. This guidebook carries a lot of bang for the buck! However, there are some hikers would are going to balk at paying $24.95 for this slim resource. So while this book finally solves so many pain points on the OCT, in the age of digital navigation apps likes Far Out (formerly Guthook), many hikers are simply accustomed to paying less for their trail guides. And if that’s a sticking point for you too, I recommend purchasing the e-book version at $12.99.

Final thoughts

Overall, I’m thoroughly impressed with the author’s new guidebook, and its arrival is long overdue!.

I used Ms. Henderson’s prior OCT guidebook, Day Hiking the Oregon Coast, 2nd. Ed: Beaches, Headlands, and the Oregon Coast Trail, on my own thru-hike. But I regularly felt that guide was trying to straddle two very different worlds: day hiking the OCT versus thru-hiking it. It provided some useful hints and navigation tips for thru-hikers attempting the entire 400-mile route, but it felt choppy because its primary focus was really on shorter, day hikes on the Oregon Coast.

This new, improved guidebook approaches the trail from the thru-hiker’s perspective, and it hits a home run! The book’s comprehensive style is still very adaptable for section hikers and day hikers who want to avoid the less scenic parts of the trail, roadwalking, or more challenging water crossings.

If I were hiking this trail again (or just talking to prospective OCT thru-hikers about this trail), I’d consider this book as an essential planning guide. The OCT is unlike any other long distance trail, and the information contained in this guidebook is sure to set future hikers up for a more successful and more enjoyable thru-hike.

Want to know more about my own thru-hike on the OCT?

Check out these other resources:

• 30 Things You Should Know Before Hiking the Oregon Coast Trail
• My Oregon Coast Trail Thru-hike…By The Numbers
• My Oregon Coast Trail Packing List
• My Day-by-Day OCT Trail Journal