Lost Coast Solo Trip Report

“Friday the 16th (the night before I leave)

I am so stoked! I spent all evening weighing and packing my pack. I think I have everything that I need and i hope I have enough food. i have never been on a multi-nighter before so I don't know how hungry I will get. The weather should be perfect and clear the whole time so i decided to bring my down bag and leave my rain fly at home but bring my tent, just cause I like privacy sometimes. My pack weight (including 2 litters of water and my food) is 30 lbs. since I decided to take the tent.

This trip will be a lot of firsts.
My first solo. My first multi-night trip. My first time I will be using a camp stove. I am nurvous but toatally stoked!

Saturday the 17th.

(morning) I am stopped in Arbuckle to fill my gas tank. This old dodge ram is such a gas guzzler! I hate it.

I left home around 5:45 this morning and stopped for a bear claw and a coffee on my way out of town. The lady was so cool! She gave me a FREE (WOHOO!) donut hole with it. There ate a few thin clouds drapping the sky but the sun is out :).

I checked the weather this morning and there is supposed to be a gale warning for today and tomorrow at the lost coast. That has me worried but at least it will be at my back. I can see the coast mountains from here and I can't wait to get over them!

(A little latter at a pee-pee stop)

The wildflowers along the way Rock :). Here is a list of those I have seen so far:

Hillsides covered in white lupins, chicory, redbud, deerbrush, california poppy, owls clover, purple vetch, goldfeilds, blue richard, ceanothus- blue, lt. blue and white kinds, scarlet monkeyflower, live forever, wild iris, orange wallflower, some white daisys, sierra pea, coastal paintbrush.

Some critters I have seen so far:
meadow lark, kildeer, mourning doves, downy woodpecker, turkey vulture.

Later (around 11 am)-

stopped at Ukiah for a campfire permit at the BLM office. It turned out to be closed on the weekend but there was a friendly ranger (who just happens to be a friend of my dad of all things) pointed me to the CDF station where I could get one. The fire people were just about ready to leave for a control burn (on a windy day like this?) I scored my permit but I think i annoyed the fire fighter guy, and headed back to the road.

Camp (around 8pm) I have no idea where.

I had wanted to stop at cooksie creek but there are so many creeks not listed on my map that I have no idea which one it is or if i have passed it or gotten to it yet. ( I hate this map!) I had to stop because the tide had come up around these rocks and I couldnt saftly get passed it. I am camping on a tiny ledge above a creek- the only place safe from the tide I could find. It is too small for my tent to be pitched so I just rolled out my bag on my tarp (btw I forgot to pack rope so making shelter from my tarp is out of the question.

But let me go back to the beggining of the trail today- I started at the Mattole Recreation area around 2:30 pm and got a starting photo by the nice ranger there. Then i set off south through the sand dunes. Gale worning was right! I had to use my bandana as a dust mask so I could breath and I couldnt stop of I'd be pushed over by the wind. It was as if the wind didnt want me there and was hurrying me along to get me out of there. I was painfully pelted by sand and small pebbles as I walked. Sea Lions watched me from the waves and I came to this spot with a gazzilion gulls parked on the rocks. I waved my hiking sticks in the air and they all went flying. Cool :) I did it again just for kicks. I saw absolutly no other people and It was very lonely not to beable to share this with someone. The old light house was cool and I managed to get across a deep stream on this thin board somone put across it without falling in (very proud of that since I am afraid of hights and am very clumsy!)

I havent drunken enough water I don't think. I have only drunken part of a liter and am not hungry at all. In fact i didnt have anything to eat for dinner.

My camping spot sucks and it is cold out but my sleeping bag is very warm ( I am glad i brought my warm down bag now.)

---continued next post---”

“Sunday the 18th

Last night I slept very poorly. I woke almost every hour. Once I woke to see the dipper shinning brightly over me as if to say "Drink in this glory!"
For breakfest I managed to eat a pieve of jerky after I had packed up. I wondered If it would be so lonely on the trail again today. I really miss having someone to confer with and help make descisions. I am not used to all this self descision making power and I dont know If I am doing everything right.
The tide was down this morning so walked easily around the point I was trapped behind last night.
As I walked along the beach I heard what sounded like a little girl screming- Scream! Scream! Scream!- It turned out to be a black sea-bird with a long orange bill. It had startled me.

I passed a really cool sheltered campsite just after the point I couldnt get past last night, grumbling to myself about bad timing. But as I hiked along I really started to enjoy myself.

I saw two people and two dogs hiking ahead of me in the distance and another solo hiker still camped out as I stopped near his camp on a log to change my wet socks from a wet stream crossing.(Spanish Creek) We nodded to each other. He was eatting peanut butter for breakfest and that made me very hungry watching him so I ate a power gel and drank some water. (I still havent purified anymore water and I was running low now and I know i am not drinking enough) I came to realize I am a lazy hiker who wont get new water or eat untill absolutely neccisary. I decided to stop that so i wont need to worry so much!

I gave up changing socks. ( I had only two pairs, both soggy now) It was useless. All the streams today were wet crossings so I just slogged on ahead with wet feet all day.

I played tag with the other backpackers all day today which made me feel safer so I relaxed much more :)

I also saw a lot of bear tracks today all over the beaches, fresh too, leading to big flat where I am camping. I got here about 1 pm and had some jerky and fruit leather for lunch after setting up camp. Surfers had all the really good shelters (they had flown in the bastards!) I jsut got a couple logs stacked on each other but it was good enough. I was too tired to complain at the time. Putting up a tent in the wind is a #&%!$!
I then cleaned up with baby wipes, cvhanged into new clothes and took a short nap. That really made me feel happy :) For dinner I actually cooked up my mountain house beef stew (althogh where they put the beef in it is a mystery to me.) All the hikers I saw today spent the night here, even some who came in later that I hadent seen before.
Even though I hiked in wet boots all day I have no blisters (YAY!) But I thought I would have permanent bra strap indentions in my shoulders (ouch!)

Looking at my map I did more miles today then I will in the next two days. Maybe I will finish the trail up tomorrow?


----Continue next post----”

“Monday the 19th

(morning) The meadow larks are singing! It's dawn and the moon is still up. Around 4 am I went out to pea and it was so light beacuse of the moon and looked awesome with the moonlight shining off the waves. I am in another world it seems like!
Many muscles are sore but I ain't complaing! I think I will make it easily to Gitchall creek today. Hell I can probelby do the whole thing left to Shelter cove- I can see it from here.
(Later) I am camped at the trail head (shelter cove) I don't know how I made it this far, and a day earlier then I had planned :) I don't want to go home yet though I will camp two nights here before going home.

Those last few miles along the blacksands beach were a #&%!$. It was very hear to keep going but i just kept putting one foot in front of the other. Let me tell you how pretty it was! It sometimes seemed like i was in hawaii with the black sands, bright blue water, big waves and cloudless sky :). I saw a lot of seals and sea lions on rocks. there were many cool 20 legged starfish in the tide pools. I saw lots of big sea urchins and even tiny little shrimps. There as a really big dead octopus washed up on the beach. Once again my feet were never dry today (in fact my first stream crossing was up to my butt today!) I have given up on ever having dry feet again.
When I got to the trail head a nice couple told me where i could walk up to a sightseers overlook to get some non warm iodine water and use the potty.I was never so glad to see a flush toilet in my life! (you have to do your duty out in the open under the high tide line along the lost coast) I earned a lot of respect from the turists up there. I had an audiance asking me all kinds of questions. After 3 days of not ssaying a word i was so chatty! a group of LOLs (little old ladys) looked at my pack and asked if I was trying to kill myself. "it looks very heavy"
"its not heavy" I assured them.
"shes young, they can do that kind of thing."
Other sightseers asked where I had hiked from. "from mattole, 3 days hiking from here" Most could hardly belive it. Some one stopped as they were driving away to ask if they need a permit to backpack the lost coast. I told him no and he left.
After that I went back down to the trail head where I got into a good conversation with a ranger. He asked if I had trouble with the tides and I told him of that one spot the first day, just south of punta gorda. The he asked if id seen any dead sealions with their heads cut off. Nope. Soon he had to go and I set up camp on the beach by a stream and finially got my wet boots off. I have a blister on the left side of my left heel (yes i took a picture of it) and had the alpineaire tuna and cheesy noodles meal (I wouldnt recomend that flavor, yuck!) I spent the eavning basking on the hot sand and watching cliff-swallows. Ah...life is so hard!

Anyway that is the trip report. I basically did nothing on the 20th and took the shuttle to my car on the 21st. I learned a lot and I think that i would go solo again when I have to :) I am no longer afraid and I learned I can depend on myself just fine:) As crazy mike would say "IT WAS SO PIMP!"”

“Free, awesome report! i'm so excied for you and i wish i could have done it too - but isn't it wonderful how it all turned out for you? hooray!”

“Great trip report, Free! Man, I surely do love that place. One of the most majestic I've seen on this planet.

What's this bit about sea lions with their heads cut off? People wanting the skulls?”

“I think it is fishing people killing them. Anyway thats what he seemed to imply.”

“I'm really proud of you, ya got grit.....you can share my camp fire anytime.”

“Yeha I'm still trying to get that grit out:S (its amazing where you find sand ><)”

“Free24 are you and Ice tea related? You have very similar spelling.
LOL just kidding.

Sounds like a great trip. I have been wanting to do some beach backpacking but there are not many places on the east coast to do it. That and I don't really like sand.”

“lol Lt, I guess that sand thing would be an issue. Great report Free :o)”

“does this mean I am no longer a newbie?”

“Great trip report, Free!! It sounds like my sister's report of hiking in that area - lots of wind and sand.

You can no longer claim to be a newbie.”

“You are a newbie until you post a picture on Phil's page.”

“I DO have a picture on phils page, just not under this name :)”

“I must be a newbie.”

“Great report, Free. Glad you had a good time and that you made it back okay!”

“Great Report. Congrats on your first solo. The first one is the hardest. Hope you'll try it again and learn to like it.

So, what name is your photo posted under?”

“I cant tell you that :) Its classified!”

“I'm selling this information to the highest bidder. My email address is listed in my profile. I accept checks, money orders and PayPal.

Thank you,”

“SHHHHHHHHH! Phaedrus! :(”

“Excuse me, miss, but if you're not bidding, please keep your arm down.

Shall we start the bidding at $40.00? I'd like to get a new pair of gaiters out of this.”

“Does it start with a V? I'd like to buy a vowel...”

“Nope! :)”

“To find the answer read Stickmon's Death Valley thread. The clue is in there.

Here's another. Humboldt State University

:)”

“Hey no clues! :S!”

“Muaha... Hhahahah... AAAAAaaahahahahahhahaha!”

“Free,you're so busted. I foundyour home page. :)”

“i have a homepage? :S Thats news to me!”

“You have pics in your profile which match the ones for SOMEONE ELSE on phil's page.

Hhehehehehehhe!

The beans are officially spilled for all enquiring minds!”

“well DUH it wasnt like I was really hiding it for anyone who wanted to look :)”

“Duh yourself, nickypoo. Don't make me loose the hounds on you!”

“>:D”

“Great trip report! We did this hike last July and the weather was awesome! Sounds like you really had to "weather" some of it out. I agree about the last few miles of the beach... That black sand is like walking on itty bitty ball bearings! Did you have any of the best Fish & Chips and cold beer at Shelter Cove? That made the whole trip worth it... Are you planning to do the bottom 1/2 of the trip?”