We started out from Seattle on Friday afternoon and caught a typical long ferry line in Edmonds around 4 PM. We ended up folding down the seats and sleeping in the back of the car at a pullout along the shores of Lake Crescent so we could get an early start on the trail the next morning. We hit the trailhead at Third Beach early Saturday morning in a steady rain. The first stretch from the trailhead to the beach was an easy downhill on well-trodden trail. Once on Third Beach, you have to hop some driftwood logs and then cross a ~8 ft wide creek. The overland trail from Third Beach to Taylor Point was a muddy slog, but doable even with heavy packs. I'd recommend some kind of gloves for handling the climbing ropes. We tried to pass the beach between Taylor Point and Scott Creek, but the tide was too high at ~6 ft so we turned back to a campsite just above Taylor Point for the night.
The next morning we easily hiked to Scott Creek and around to Strawberry Point at a lower tide of ~4 ft. The camp sites at Scott were great and empty on an October Saturday. Be sure to have your tide chart ready, and don't underestimate the danger of a rising tide against a rocky coastline!
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