ABOUT OREGON COAST TRAIL

National Coast Trail Association Recommendation, Oregon Coast Trail:
POSTPONE OR CANCEL Thru-Hikes and Overnight Backpacking Trips due to COVID-19 until further notice.

The Covid-19 virus situation has become a global pandemic and given the information to properly respond, the National Coast Trail Association is recommending to postpone or cancel any hiking that would involve overnight camping or travel from your place of residence. This most prudent measures to help prevent a rapid peak of infections to avoid overwhelming healthcare systems is essentially to stay where you live. Traveling from your place of residence, unless you are a local coastal resident, has the potential to spread the transmission of the virus to coastal communities from other areas of the state, the nation and the world. Since overnight backpacking usually involves either camping or lodging, those activities have the potential to bring people into contact with others, either on the trail or within coastal communities, and since "social distancing" could thus be compromised, such activities associated with hiking the Oregon Coast Trail would not be recommended. Also, there are sections of the Oregon Coast Trail that can be relatively remote, and if a hiker were to get sick, then this could become problematic both for the hiker, those who may help them, and the local healthcare system, too. Read this article for more insights. "Is going to the beach OK? What about hiking?"

These are some of the reasons, but most importantly as of March 23rd, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has closed all their parks, their trails and facilities until further notice. Since Oregon Coast Trail segments exist in the many Oregon State Parks along the Oregon Coast . . . that means in essence, that segments of the Oregon Coast Trail are now officially closed, too.