#I was super jealous because there were a ton of free snacks yesterday and I love a good freebie :(

[gatheryepens]

so I’m back home and I’ve got about 4 days until I go to uni

[ultimate-pathfinder]

Lost Coast Trail

In June 2017, I backpacked the Lost Coast Trail over 4 days and 3 nights. Our itinerary worked well and I have much advice to give, so read on...

Getting There

I didn’t read in any of my research just how bad the road from Shelter Cove to Mattole Beach was, and after surviving it, I highly recommend a large clearance vehicle (does not need 4 wheel drive) or that you take a shuttle such as the one offered by Lost Coast Adventures. Our original plan of driving my Prius to return my friend to her car post-trip did not work out but fortunately, we met Blu at Lost Coast Adventures on trail and were able to have my friend hitch a shuttle ride back to her truck. Also of note, on the drive to Mattole, you will see yaks! How freaking cool is that? On your right hand side, you’ll also pass a pickup truck strung up, which we found amusing.

Footwear and Mandatory Gear

The terrain is ROUGH on the bottom of your feet so you want shoes that will protect your feet and feel supportive. On trail, nearly everyone wore hiking boots with ankle support (except for the two guys hiking in sandals like crazy people). I was super jealous of my friend’s waterproof boots as this wet year, yielded numerous stream crossings and I needed to change shoes quite a bit on the later part of the trip. Gaiters were another must-have. My gaiters malfunctioned so I didn’t have them and little rocks and sand got into my shoes on day 3 causing me to have tons of hot spots on day 4.

I also highly recommend you bring hiking poles, even if you’re not a “pole person.” The trail has you walking on eroded surfaces, a few steep sections, and large boulder rocks and the poles were a requirement for me during these sections. The last MUST piece of gear is trash compactor bags and a rain coat. On the eve before we left town, I picked up a Frogg Toggs jacket from Walmart and was SO grateful to have this on trail during the rainy times. The trash compactor bags also helped me keep my gear dry.

Itinerary

We had originally planned to camp at Sea Lion Gulch, Spanish Creek, and  Big Flat Creek but decided we wanted fewer miles on our last day and this decision proved to be a good one....trust me!

The itinerary we ended up doing was the following:

Day 1

We left the bay area (Newark) at 6 a.m. on a Thursday and stopped to pick up a girl we met online through the “Ladies of the JMT” Facebook page at a Bart station on the way. We arrived at the Black Sands parking area around 11:15 a.m. and transferred our gear into one vehicle. We then drove out to Mattole on a very yucky road that I really don’t recommend you attempt with a low riding vehicle. On the drive, when your not busy looking for huge potholes, keep an eye out for yaks on the left and a hanging truck on your right. We arrived to Mattole and ate lunch and were on trail at 3:00. This first day, we did about 4.5 miles to Lion Gulch.

During this section, you’ll see the Punta Gorda lighthouse and hopefully many elephant seals and other wildlife. Beware that there are a lot of DEAD ANIMALS. I didn’t expect to see so many carcasses.....it was a shock to realize we saw more dead animals than live ones during the trip. Through the course of our trip, we saw dead sea lions, starfish, crabs, lobsters, clams fish, birds, and a whale (which stunk very badly). We also saw a weird “sea brain” that was squishy and odd.

Mystery “sea brain”

Punta Gorda Lighthouse

Punta Gorda Lighthouse (from the top)

I don’t recommend Sea Lion Gulch as a campground if you can avoid it. This campground is very small and there were 28 people the night we stayed here. At best, this campground holds 6-8 tents semi-comfortably. My tent was on a big slope. There are; however, sea lions on the rocks down below in the ocean (hence the campground’s name), and you can hear them from your tent.

Day 2

In the morning, we were on trail by 6:30 to pass the next 4 miles at low tide. We reached the end of this zone (Randall Creek) a little after 10 a.m. and the waves were already getting closer than we would have liked. In retrospect, I wish we had started the day before the lowest tide time to give us more worry-free time. Randall Creek makes a great lunch spot and the hike from Randall Creek to Oat Creek was my favorite time on trail. We stopped at Oat Creek and found a great napping spot with views of the beach and near the creek. While it was beautiful, we decided to continue on and ultimately camped at Big Creek. 

Big Creek meets the beach

Big Creek Camp

We pitched our tents and went to bed early. One of my trailmates received a inReach message from her husband saying that there was rain expected in the morning so we decided we’d sleep in, which in reality never really happens on trail for me, but we figured we’d at least try and wait out the rain.

Day 3

We started day three by breaking camp at 9:30ish and decided our nap spot would be after Big Flat Creek while we waited for the tide to get lower. We pitched our tents on the bluffs right along Miller Ridge before the impassible section and received some more light rain. By 3:00pm. we decided to try out the impassible section, and except for one quick section, had no difficulties. My feet started hurting during the 4 mile impassible section and by Buck Creek, I was pretty cranky. My two trailmates encouraged me to keep going for another 1.5 miles to Glitchell Creek and while I was super grumpy at the time, I’m glad we did.

Big Flat Creek

Big Flat Creek

Glitchell Creek

Day 4

On day 4, we began our day at 8:30 and were super excited to only have 4 miles to go as our feet were feeling yesterday’s miles. The two large rocks are the halfway mark and we stopped for a brief snack/leukotape-my-feet break. This day was fun because the people before us left messages in the sand. I misread my favorite message, thinking it said “Others wonder, you do” but it actually read “Otters watched you poop,” which was also likely true :)

“Otters watched you poop” --Anonymous

This trip was a lot of fun and I personally think it’s a great training hike for the John Muir Trail (due to the rocky terrain) and having to time your days (by tide on the LCT and by passes on the JMT). I highly recommend this trail!