Lost Coast, May 10-12, 2002

The Lost Coast is one of the rare regions of California's coastline that is not flanked by a road. Thirty miles north of Fort Bragg, Highway 1 abandons the beach and heads inland, leaving the Lost Coast relatively undisturbed. This weekend I went backpacking with Nate along the southern segment of the Lost Coast Trail. It's a beautiful time of year to be there: the wildflowers are spectacular (purple, orange, yellow, white, pink, and red) and the weather was great, except for a little fog. We saw far more animals than people (especially if you count insects); there were seals, bats, hawks, turkey vultures, deer, mice, snakes, and lots and lots of ticks. Through carelessness I managed to get three tick bites. (If you do this trail, it's probably best to wear long pants and tuck your shirt in.) There's also abundant poison oak.

The trail is never right on the beach, it's along the ridge of hills immediately next to it. Several ravines provide access to secluded beaches, but mostly the hike is through the redwood forest above the coast. The trail is mostly up-and-down into and out of ravines cut by small streams. The views of the ocean are incredible.

We arrived late on Friday and hiked into Anderson Gulch Camp. On Saturday we had a leisurely day and hiked to Wheeler Camp, stopping along the way at Little Jackass Beach for a few hours of reading and sleeping in the Sun. On Sunday we turned around and came out the way we went in. It was a round trip of 25 miles.