Lost Coast
King Range National Conservation Area
August 8-11, 2007
Mattole to Shelter Cove
During August 9-11, 2007, Ray and our son Peter backpacked the famous "Lost Coast" in northern California.
The trip begain near Shelter Cove at the southern end of the trail where we spent the night camped at a Forest Service campground before beginning the hike.
The next morning we left our car at the southern trailhead and were shuttled about 40 miles through the mountains to the northern end of the trail.
From there we hiked south 25 miles over three days along the coast back to our car. We carried everything we needed for three days on our backs except fresh water which was in good supply all along the trail.
The photos on the next three pages convey the nature of this unique hike far better than words ... the varying landscape, the ocean, the abundant wildlife, and some of the very few people we encountered.
Suffice it to say it was rugged, with constantly changing terrain, and not nearly as easy as one might imagine for a basically "flat" hike.
Our two nights on the trail were spent in areas where streams have cut through the mountains allowing us to camp back from the coast itself which is subject to high tides and occasional rouge waves.
One unusual thing we needed to carry was a tide chart since about 1/3 of the hike was across beach areas that were inaccessable during high tide!
Here is a google earth view of our trip:
Day 1: Mattole to Spanish Creek
Day 2: Spanish Creek to Miller Flat
Day 3: Miller Flat to Shelter Cove