This past memorial day I set out to hike the Lost Coast Trail In Humbolt County. My original plan of a high sierra loop in Yosemite was snowed out so I thought this would be a good alternative for a remote experience. It had the added benefit of being extremely hard to get too! This would allow for some new driving experiences along the remote sections of Highway 1 and the chance to explore all the facets of car sickness. The adventurous driving starts when you turn west at Garberville and enter the King’s Range of mountains. I was so impressed by their size and length. It had much of the feel of being in the Sierra Nevadas but with gorgeous views of the Pacific Ocean extending out beyond the Pine forest.
It takes over an hour to drive the twenty something miles to Shelter Cove where the trail head for the Lost Coast starts from a long black sand beach. We could leave our car here and take a shuttle service to the other end of the trail at Mattole Beach and be able to hike back south to our car over about 28 miles of beach, bluff, and tide pools. Even though the distance was relatively short I found the hiking to be challenging on the sand. It felt like half of all the energy used was lost with each step. With several sections of the trail impassable at high tide it took a bit of planning to cross when the tide was out and not dawdle in the tide pools where one could get stuck.
It was a bit crowded due to the holiday weekend and growing popularity of the trail but all the groups seemed to spread out and respect each others desire for the sense of wilderness. There was plenty of fresh water from creeks along the trail purify and many places to set camp on the beach where you could have stunning views and a chorus of Sea Lions singing you to sleep each night. It was a wonderful adventure and I would recommend everyone to take some time and go north into the wilder parts of our great state. You don’t have to do a multi-day hike either, just go, explore, feel the wind and the fog and rediscover that the Bay Area is hardly Northern California at all.
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