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Walking the Tideline: Loss and Renewal on the Oregon Coast Trail
In
Walking the Tideline
, Caroline Kurtz solo hikes the rugged, beautiful Oregon Coast—an expedition of isolation, adventure, joy, and grief inside the emotional wilderness of finding one's identity after the death of a loved one.
In her third memoir, Portland-based author Caroline Kurtz travels the coast of Oregon on foot in her late sixties, tracing the boundary of sand and salt water, rock and forests, carrying her shelter and food as she navigates the edges of solace and resolution after the death of her husband. During her journey, Kurtz grieves as she reflects on her long, and at times rocky, marriage to Mark, whom she had known and loved since she was a teenager in boarding school in Ethiopia. As she navigates the adventures encountered along the trail—leaky tents, hitching rides, chance encounters, and beautiful landscapes—she intertwines the historical events of coastal Oregon with her spiritual experience, giving space for the shattering of an old identity and the planting of a new self, nourished and enlightened by the depths of a profoundly complex and considered life.
Kurtz spent her early years in Oregon before her parents moved her and her siblings to remote Ethiopia, where she spent her childhood and teen years, before returning to America for college, where she reunited with and married Mark. The two lived variously in Portland, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and retired to Portland, where Caroline now lives.
In her third memoir, Portland-based author Caroline Kurtz travels the coast of Oregon on foot in her late sixties, tracing the boundary of sand and salt water, rock and forests, carrying her shelter and food as she navigates the edges of solace and resolution after the death of her husband. During her journey, Kurtz grieves as she reflects on her long, and at times rocky, marriage to Mark, whom she had known and loved since she was a teenager in boarding school in Ethiopia. As she navigates the adventures encountered along the trail—leaky tents, hitching rides, chance encounters, and beautiful landscapes—she intertwines the historical events of coastal Oregon with her spiritual experience, giving space for the shattering of an old identity and the planting of a new self, nourished and enlightened by the depths of a profoundly complex and considered life.
Kurtz spent her early years in Oregon before her parents moved her and her siblings to remote Ethiopia, where she spent her childhood and teen years, before returning to America for college, where she reunited with and married Mark. The two lived variously in Portland, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and retired to Portland, where Caroline now lives.
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180 pages, Paperback
Published July 8, 2025
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December 15, 2025
I grew up in Northern California and Southern Oregon. One of our favorite family vacation spots was on the central Oregon coast. We usually stayed at a hotel on the beach in Yachats, a small village that lies between Florence and Newport. My father ended up living in Waldport, just north of Yachats, in the years before his death. Since Florence was close to Eugene, during my college years in Eugene, visits to the area were common. So, even though it has been a long time since I spent much time on the Oregon Coast, I have fond memories of the area. So, when I received a copy from the publisher of the memoir of Caroline Kurtz that focuses on her pilgrimage on the Oregon Coast Trail, I had to read it.
People have gone on pilgrimages for generations, usually for spiritual reasons. One of the most common pilgrimage journeys is the Camino de Santiago, which leads to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which is said to contain the remains of St. James. When Caroline Kurtz decided to make a pilgrimage after the death of her husband Mark, she thought about taking that pilgrimage. Instead, she decided to follow the Oregon Coast Trail, which begins at Fort Stevens State Park, outside Astoria, Oregon, and then follows the coast to the southern Oregon border. "Walking the Tideline" invites us to join Kurtz as she attempts to deal with her sense of loss a year after the death of her husband of more than twenty years. The subtitle catches this reality, in that it speaks of "Loss and Renewal on the Oregon Coast Trail."
If you know the Oregon Coast, then you will be drawn into her story. If you are dealing with grief at the loss of a loved one, you may resonate with her struggles to make sense of life without her husband, whom she first came to know during her school years at a boarding school in Ethiopia, where her parents were Presbyterian Missionaries. They married after they reconnected after college, and like many missionary kids, they ended back in Ethiopia, a subject of other memoirs and books, which I've not read. Reminiscences of her years spent in Ethiopia emerge throughout the book, as she looks back on her life with Mark.
If you know the Oregon Coast, you will know that it is rather rugged, with Highway 101 straddling a narrow strip of land between mountains and cliffs on one side, and the beach or cliffs on the other side. The weather can also be challenging, with rain common. So, you can only imagine how these factors might impact someone's attempt to hike along this trail. But, she chose to take this journey, hoping to walk from Astoria in the north to Florence along the central coast. She takes the journey alone, a woman of sixty-five years. She purchased a backpack, borrowed a pup tent, purchased food and a portable stove, among other things, and set out from Astoria on a journey that at times was rather harrowing. We encounter people who were helpful and gracious to her, while also experiencing with her difficult times as she navigated bad weather and difficult terrain, whether on beaches or steep climbs, along with times when she had to walk along a busy highway.
As Kurtz offers her account of her journey along the trail, she shares stories of life in Ethiopia both as a child and as an adult. She shares with us the ups and downs of life with Mark, and the deep loss and sense of loneliness that accompanied his death from cancer. While the book is not "overtly" religious, it is clear that faith plays an important part in her life. Thus, there is here a quiet spirituality that gets tested and yet sustains her in life and on this challenging journey along the Oregon Coast Trail. I will leave it to the reader to discover the full story of the journey, including how far she got along the trail. I will say this, she did make it to Yachats. She even mentions the trail that goes along the coast, just above the beach, that crosses in front of a particular hotel. That sounds like the hotel that I stayed at during my youth.
So, whether you are struggling with a sense of loss at the death of a loved one or are intrigued by a pilgrimage along the Oregon Coast, Caroline Kurtz offers a thoughtful memoir that draws one into her journey. You will also meet a few people, such as Ahnjayla, who was the hostess at a motel in Oceanside (I mention her because readers will want to keep a look out for her), who offered her gifts of grace that made her journey something that brought her a sense of renewal in the midst of loss.
People have gone on pilgrimages for generations, usually for spiritual reasons. One of the most common pilgrimage journeys is the Camino de Santiago, which leads to the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, which is said to contain the remains of St. James. When Caroline Kurtz decided to make a pilgrimage after the death of her husband Mark, she thought about taking that pilgrimage. Instead, she decided to follow the Oregon Coast Trail, which begins at Fort Stevens State Park, outside Astoria, Oregon, and then follows the coast to the southern Oregon border. "Walking the Tideline" invites us to join Kurtz as she attempts to deal with her sense of loss a year after the death of her husband of more than twenty years. The subtitle catches this reality, in that it speaks of "Loss and Renewal on the Oregon Coast Trail."
If you know the Oregon Coast, then you will be drawn into her story. If you are dealing with grief at the loss of a loved one, you may resonate with her struggles to make sense of life without her husband, whom she first came to know during her school years at a boarding school in Ethiopia, where her parents were Presbyterian Missionaries. They married after they reconnected after college, and like many missionary kids, they ended back in Ethiopia, a subject of other memoirs and books, which I've not read. Reminiscences of her years spent in Ethiopia emerge throughout the book, as she looks back on her life with Mark.
If you know the Oregon Coast, you will know that it is rather rugged, with Highway 101 straddling a narrow strip of land between mountains and cliffs on one side, and the beach or cliffs on the other side. The weather can also be challenging, with rain common. So, you can only imagine how these factors might impact someone's attempt to hike along this trail. But, she chose to take this journey, hoping to walk from Astoria in the north to Florence along the central coast. She takes the journey alone, a woman of sixty-five years. She purchased a backpack, borrowed a pup tent, purchased food and a portable stove, among other things, and set out from Astoria on a journey that at times was rather harrowing. We encounter people who were helpful and gracious to her, while also experiencing with her difficult times as she navigated bad weather and difficult terrain, whether on beaches or steep climbs, along with times when she had to walk along a busy highway.
As Kurtz offers her account of her journey along the trail, she shares stories of life in Ethiopia both as a child and as an adult. She shares with us the ups and downs of life with Mark, and the deep loss and sense of loneliness that accompanied his death from cancer. While the book is not "overtly" religious, it is clear that faith plays an important part in her life. Thus, there is here a quiet spirituality that gets tested and yet sustains her in life and on this challenging journey along the Oregon Coast Trail. I will leave it to the reader to discover the full story of the journey, including how far she got along the trail. I will say this, she did make it to Yachats. She even mentions the trail that goes along the coast, just above the beach, that crosses in front of a particular hotel. That sounds like the hotel that I stayed at during my youth.
So, whether you are struggling with a sense of loss at the death of a loved one or are intrigued by a pilgrimage along the Oregon Coast, Caroline Kurtz offers a thoughtful memoir that draws one into her journey. You will also meet a few people, such as Ahnjayla, who was the hostess at a motel in Oceanside (I mention her because readers will want to keep a look out for her), who offered her gifts of grace that made her journey something that brought her a sense of renewal in the midst of loss.
August 21, 2025
Walking the Tideline follows Caroline Kurtz as she solo hikes the Oregon Coast in her late sixties, carrying her shelter and food while navigating grief and self discovery after the death of her husband. Along rugged trails and through chance encounters, she reflects on a lifetime spanning Ethiopia, Kenya, and Oregon, blending personal loss, adventure, and the beauty of the natural world into a journey of renewal and identity.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews