Backpacking on the Lost Coast of California

November 14, 2014

Backpacking on the Lost Coast of California

After the loneliest road in America, I make it across Northern California, a trip I've made several times, and arrive in McKinleyville, CA - redwood country, where our friends Sue, Jenny and Julie Wright live. After spending one night at Sue's house, I head south about an hour to Ferndale, CA where I drive to the coast on a windy hour long road to the north end of the Lost Coast and the trailhead at the Mattole River Campground. Most people hike this from north to south but only hike it one way to the southern end 24 miles south - then do a shuttle back to their starting point. I hike most of the way south (17.5 of the 24 miles) and then retrace my steps back to my starting point with a 5 or 6 mile side hike inland (straight up). I'm out 5 nights; pleasant temps in the low 60's during the days, a fair amount of marine fog ( had two nights of sunsets), which lends an otherworldly feeling to the landscape, and was by myself 99 percent of the time. I was never camped by anyone else (although in peak summer season, the campsites at creek mouths often have 10 plus groups at them, according to a couple I met on the last day hiking out)... so fall is a great time to go... it is also usually the time of the best weather on the California coast. It was a much harder hike than I thought it would be though. I was prepared for the harder hiking on soft sand along the beach, but there is a significant amount (about a third of the trip) of rock hopping along the coast. The remaining third is easy hiking on a coastal trail. There are also two significant sections of coast (each 4-5 miles in length) that can only be traversed during low tide, and a lot of the rock hopping is on these sections. Crossing only during low tide, as I found out, means about two hours either side of lowest tide, generally. And this is not a concern about getting your feet wet, nor to be taken lightly, as this is a concern about dying, since during high tide, the ocean waves crash into major portions of these sections. The coastal range (King range) rises dramatically from the ocean for most of this stretch of coast (thus the name lost coast as the terrain is just too steep to build highway 1 along this stretch of coast). The only other time I've backpacked along the ocean was way back in 1977, along the Olympic National Park coast in Washington. Although parts of the trip were tough, it was a magical time on the coast.