Some Lost Coast pics from my recent trip

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About three weeks ago (early Feb) I hiked the Lost Coast with some buddies and a few fellow employees at REI. We have an annual February trip, which we chose the month of February because we like the possibility of epic weather conditions. This year the weather was too kind, but no complaints here.

We started at the mouth of the Mattole River and headed south to Shelter Cove, which is about 25 miles of wild beach hiking. It's an incredible journey that takes you high up on bluffs and miles of hiking in sand and darting around rocks trying to beat the tides.

In this shot we're hiking the open bluffs of the northern section just past Punta Gorda. And no, none of my photos are ever in order, sorry!”

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My friend Jake does his best Bigfoot impression. At least he's got the gait down pretty good.”

“So I guess it can't be called the Lost Coast anymore, since you found it...”

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Sorry for the size of the pics, I'm posting these from Photobucket and it doesn't let me post different sizes. This is a southern section of coast as we approach Shipman Creek, where we camped for the night. I must add that with soft lighting conditions (this was early evening) and bright green hills, Velvia 50 slide film really saturates a landscape.”

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We got to Shipman Creek as the sun was setting, so before I set up camp I snapped a few shots. Even though the ocean was fairly calm, for some reason this one rock was responsible for making some huge splashes.”

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This is where Shipman Creek enters the mighty Pacific. I took this after the sun had set so I was able to crank a looong exposure. And I'm absolutely starving right now so I'm gonna go to lunch. Bye.”

“Great pics as usual Buck. I really must make an effort to get out to the west coast for some hiking.”

“Great photos Buck.”

“What do you call a loooong exposure? 2 sec?”

“Them pitchers are dang good...”

“Those pictures are great. You seem to live a rough life...but someone's got to do it.”

“Thanks for the compliments! dayhiker®, as for long exposure, I think I used a 6 second exposure on that creek shot.



My friend Tim crossing Shipman Creek in the evening. Shipman Creek is one of my favorite creeks on the Lost Coast because it's big, the beach area is big, there's lot of driftwood, and there's a big area on the beach for a driftwood fire and for sleeping on the sand. It's just a big time to be there.






There's a couple places along the Lost Coast where you come across some old cabins. This one is near Four Mile Creek, which is about THREE miles in from the trailhead at the mouth of the Mattole River. Yep, they exaggerated things back in those days.





There are a lot of waterfalls along the coast here, especially in the winter months. This is a really cool double waterfall so I had my buddies go stand in the foreground like freaking tourists and give cheesy smiles for the camera. Clickity click click click.






This is a tighter shot of the same waterfall. I think a large skunk ape may inhabit the upper reaches of this fall, but I haven't looked to confirm nor deny my hunches.”

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The first night we camped at the mouth of Cooskie Creek. I scrambled high up a cliff above our camp to watch the sunset. You can barely see the spec of our campfire in the lower right third of the photo. It was pretty dark so the scan isn't very good and you can also barely see Cooskie Creek fanning into the ocean. I took a few swigs of whiskey and smoked cheap cigars around the fire that night. I ended up sleeping under the stars on the beach right next to the fire, with the soothing sound of the waves not far from my ears.







I awoke early, before anyone else, and saw this scene from my sleeping bag. The moon was nearly full and the cool dawn colors over the ocean were very sweet. It was so warm in my sleeping bag, and it was quite chilly outside, but I got up and grabbed my camera and snapped a few shots. With the tangled driftwood and the nearby tent from my REI buddies and the full moon and the colorful sky, it just had a surreal feel to it.






Dawn at Cooskie Creek. A few yards from my sleeping bag to the south was this scene. This is Cooskie Creek as it tumbles onto the beach just a few yards from the ocean. We had really nice weather so the creek crossing here wasn't too bad, but if it had just dumped a couple inches of rain in a few hours, as it often does in February, this crossing would have been treacherous. I have yet to see salmon and steelhead and searun cutts swim up these creeks to spawn, but it'd sure be a cool site! Black bears come right down to the beach, as do deer and lots of other critters. I like this place.”

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Our first night we camped at Cooskie Creek. I scrambled high up a cliff above our camp to watch the sunset. You can barely see the spec of our campfire in the lower right third of the photo. It was pretty dark so the scan isn't very good and you can also barely see Cooskie Creek fanning into the ocean. I took a few swigs of whiskey and smoked cheap cigars around the fire that night. I ended up sleeping under the stars on the beach right next to the fire, with the soothing sound of the waves not far from my ears.”

“Okay, what's goin' on? I keep losing posts here. Hmmm... (scratching head...)”

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After breakfast I headed back up the steep ridge for another lofty view of the ocean. Our camp is behind the tree at bottom center, and you can barely see some tents between the branches. Watching waves is mesmerizing. Later that morning as we were backpacking along the beach we saw a body-surfing deer. No lie... I've never see anything like it in my life. A deer kept running out into the surf and jumping into big crashing waves and riding them back. I was too amazed to think about getting out my camera, it was just really cool!”

“Shipman's one of my favorite spots too. I spent a weekend there back when Hale Bopp was visible from the camp. Watch out for the poison oak at the camp up the creek on the left.”

“Your a true artist with a camera!”

“I still haven\'t figured out how to post anything here..I have some nice pictures of the Ice Caves at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on Lake Superior..not as nice as yours but definitely cold, if not cool..grin..”

“Hi mataharihiker! To post photos, allz you need to do is go to your online photo album and past the photo URL into this:



The photo URL needs to go between the parenthesis as it says. I'd love to see you pics!”

“Oops, instead of showing the html code, it tried to look for a photo and hence the red-x, sorry!

Here it is again:

< img src="URL of picture here" >

But leave no space between

I had to leave the spaces or it wouldn't show up.”

“I'm really screwing things up, sorry!

Anyway, here's a couple more Lost Coast scans...



Jake and Leslie take a break on a large dinosaur femur bone while the rest of the REI crew catches up.





Hangin' around the campfire at our Cooskie Creek campsite.





This is Cooskie Creek as it enters the ocean just a few steps from our campfire.”

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Evening view of our Cooskie Creek campsite. No Bigfoots were injured during the making of this photo.






Looking up toward the wild and remote headwaters of Cooskie Creek. I like the name "Cooskie". It's fun to say. Cooskie Cooskie Cooskie. WeeeEEEEeeee!





View of the sunset from a high ridge above our campsite.





The next morning I climbed up the ridge again, and this is looking down at our camp on the right on the otherside of Cooskie Creek. It was a steep jaunt up this ridge. Looking at our camp from up here, you can see how a tidal wave could have completely wiped us out. That's what makes it fun.”

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Dancing kelp at low tide during the sunset.






This was a really long exposure (15-20 seconds or so) on the ocean, which smoothed out the waves and the surging tide and gave it an odd, misty look.





This is another really long exposure at low tide.





There goes the sun... viewed as it sets over Shipman Creek. Well, it didn't actually set over Shipman Creek, unless the sun is much smaller than I thought.







Okay, some of these are really starting to look the same. But they're all different, I assure you, I just had too much film on my hands.”

“to display an image with different dimensions:

<IMG SRC="the URL of the image" WIDTH="999" HEIGHT="999">

(though you may put in either the height or width only, and maintain the aspect ratio of the original)”

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It doesn't take long after hiking on the Lost Coast that you realize there are 142 different types of beach, ranging from fine sand to huge boulders to everything in between. Just like the Eskimos have a bazillion different words for 'snow', I bet the Native Americans who lived here had a katrillion different words for 'beach'. Here Jake and Leslie hike along a rocky section of beach near a large overhanging cliff.






Pampas grass growing on a remote section of hillside along the Lost Coast.





Brad was supposed to time running around the point to when the wave was RECEDING, not approaching. Doh.






Leslie never got wet once during the whole trip. There's a couple reasons for this:

1. She's very very good at timing the waves around points.

2. She's very very good at creek crossings. It's all about working smarter, not harder.






There's plenty of time to recoup and lick your salty wounds on the leisurely stretches. This is near where we overtook a North Korean spy sub that was about to launch nuclear weapons on Seattle and San Francisco and we averted a world war. Perhaps you read about it in the paper. Or perhaps not.






Lost Coast contemplations.”

“Thanks, bonecrusher! I usually link from Photo.net which allows me to post a smaller size and link to full size, but Photobucket is just one size only. It sounds like I can adjust size in the html link too?”

“To set up a link to photographs:
<a href="INSERT URL OF PHOTOGRAPHS "target="_blank">INSERT LINK NAME</a>

For testing, use HTML test thread.”

“Amazing pics!!!!! its just like I am thre again....it never stops ammazing me how wonderful the lost coast is.”