First-time camper? Try kid-friendly Second Beach

OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK — Balancing a 4-gallon water jug on my knee while trying to make peace with a 50-pound backpack, I was filling out the Park Service backcountry-use permit at the trailhead with a government-issue eraserless pencil stub. My 5-year-old daughter and her friend were scampering around my feet searching for smooth, round rocks, "to ward off wood nymphs." We were about to embark on a hike short in steps and long in natural brilliance, a beach trek that has become an annual family tradition.

Well-suited as an introductory backpack hike for younger children, the trail to Second Beach near La Push winds just .7 mile through a bearded wood of trees with definite personalities — a place where I wouldn't be overly surprised to meet with strange and magical beings. Last year along this same path, a fat green inchworm entertained us for almost half an hour. Sitting down on the trail to get to know animals of another phylum is one of the shouldn't-be-passed-up luxuries of backpacking (with children or not). It's what you are there to do. All of life's ordinary distractions are far away, leaving you with pure, unscheduled time.

We worked our way through the quiet forest, making a contest of who would be the first to hear the ocean surf through the trees. We stopped frequently to appreciate mushrooms, spiders and the perfect smallness of fern spore. I showed the kids how to rest their backs by sharing the weight of their packs with a fallen log.

Those wood nymphs must have worked some kind of spell because I didn't hear one "I'm tired," "thirsty," "hurt," "starving" or "sick of this" the entire way to the beach.

At the bottom of the trail an impressive wall of logs presents the hardest aspect of this hike for those with packs. The girls took it on as a fun challenge and scrambled over it like mountain goats. With my additional pack weight and years to maneuver, I got to the other side in time to see them scaling a root ball the height of our rooftop at home. As we waited for the other adults to catch up, the girls balance-beamed along this fallen hemlock's horizontal trunk — a tree as ancient as long-forgotten stories of the Makah.

Our group together once more, we headed south. We chose to head away from the clustered campsites at the end of trail to scout out a more private fire ring. Long-dormant muscles awakened as we shouldered our packs across the sand and into the wind. Soon we found the perfect site — well, three of them, which offered the opportunity for a quick lesson in consensus. It was easy to agree because everyone wanted to remove packs, hiking boots and socks to feel the sand between their toes.

This trip marked my daughter's initiation into one of my favorite childhood pastimes — wave jumping. Although the fog lifted neither high enough nor long enough for us to be truly warmed by the sun, we spent sufficient time half-emerged in saltwater each afternoon to become pleasantly numbed by the waves. Returning to the fire soaked and smiling, we roasted marshmallows to warm our insides as we toasted our outsides by the embers.

Unlike packing for other vacations, parents don't need to bring a lot of toys on this trip. The plastic distractions of a child's work-a-day life are quickly traded in for these vast offerings: fort building, seaweed headdress making, log balancing, anemone poking, firewood gathering, feather finding, teeter-tottering.

My daughter and her friend crafted a horse out of a drift log topped by a horse-head-shaped board brought to life with campfire charcoal. Each evening the fog lifted at sundown. Because we visited during the Perseid meteor showers, we were treated to a sky show unlike any other. There was no mistaking the Milky Way, which vividly scraped across the sky to plunge theatrically into the ocean.

Maybe one of the best things about camping on the beach is that it incites play. It could be the salt air, the starry nights, or sleeping in the sand, but adults act like kids. If you don't believe it, try this trick taught us by a friend who is a frequent river-rafting camper: Find a wide, sandy circle. Choose a two-foot-long beach stick and hold it in the air with both hands above your head. While looking up at the stick, twirl around 10 times fast, then toss the stick down and jump over it.

If you are still standing and not laughing after this, go see the wood nymphs.

Kathryn True is a freelance writer who lives on Vashon Island.

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A child's first backpack trip

Second Beach is in Olympic National Park just south of La Push on the Olympic Peninsula. For current trail information, call the Olympic National Park Wilderness Information Center at 360-565-3100 or see the Web site: www.nps.gov/olym.

Wildlife precaution

Bear canisters are required for food storage and are available for a suggested $3 donation through the park's Wilderness Center, 1 mile from Highway 101, behind the Olympic National Park Visitor Center at 3002 Mount Angeles Road in Port Angeles.

Parental tips

Short hike: Second Beach is a good choice for a child's first backpacking trip because of the hike's short length (less than a mile), the woods-ocean combination and the endless playground that is a wide stretch of sand. (Be sure to teach children about sneaker waves, drift logs and other beach hazards.) Another benefit to this short hike is that it's easy to head back to the car for forgotten items or extra food and water.

Logjam: The driftwood jungle at the end of the trail is the hardest part of the hike for those with backpacks. You may want to remove your pack and your child's pack, help your child to the other side and come back for the packs. Look for a makeshift pathway that usually proves the easiest, most direct route through.

At the beach: It's one of the most rewarding of hiking scenarios to descend the last section of the trail to the Pacific, which seems to roar with congratulations. There are scattered campsites in the trees near the trail's end, so you can set up your tent or continue south for on-the-sand options.

Fort-ify: Be it a blanket thrown over a card table in the living room or half the garden shed, kids love a fort. Parents can maximize the obvious fort potential of a tent. If this is your child's first time in a tent, set it up in your yard at home to get children used to it before you go.

Stay dry: Beach camping can be damp. Summertime, of course, is the driest time to plan a trip. But in any season, a large tarp over your "kitchen" area provides a dry place to huddle if it rains. Also, cover packs with a small tarp at night to shelter them from dew or rain.

Be one with the sand: On the beach, there is one overriding principle: Give in to sand. On our first beach trip with children, my husband and I dutifully picked up the tent to shake it empty after each of their play sessions. After finally accepting the simple sandiness of the situation, we were rewarded with more time to explore the beach. (But draw the line at grit in your food: Create a food-preparation area raised off the sand and with a sheltering log to windward.)

Keep an eye on tides: Take a tide chart. Low tides during waking hours allow for exploration of the enticing cove beaches just south of Second Beach. We once found a well-preserved but dead giant Pacific octopus there. Caution: Watch the time and tide so you can get back around the rocks before the water comes back in.