This morning, I woke up at about 5:15 AM in my tent on the beachfront sand near the mouth of Horse Mountain Creek. By 6 AM, I was hiking on the trail toward Black Sands Beach. The morning walk was beautiful, passing by numerous beachside creeks until reaching Black Sands Beach at 7AM.
At 7 AM on a Saturday Morning, the Black Sands Beach Trailhead was still not very active with any arriving and departing cars, so I began walking on Beach Road toward Hidden Valley Trailhead, the start of the Southern portion of the Lost Coast Trail. After one mile of uphill walking, I reached the intersection of Beach Road and Shelter Cove Road. I turned left onto Shelter Cove Road, which had much more passing cars than Beach Road. After walking a half-mile on Shelter Cove Road, a passing pickup truck heeded my hand gesture and offered me a ride in the bed of his truck. At about 7:30 AM, he was driving with a ceramic coffee mug in his hand, dog in his passenger seat, and a surfboard in the bed of his truck. After driving for just a few minutes, he dropped me off at Shelter Cove General Store, just off of Shelter Cove Road.
After being on the trail for almost two days, I took full advantage of being dropped off at a grocery store. I ate two Tillamook flavored greek yogurts and a breakfast burrito. As always, Tillamook’s dairy products exceeded my expectations and were top quality and delicious. When I walked out of the grocery store, I asked a couple in a parked car whether they were headed toward Highway 1. After making sure I wasn’t a murderer, they were more than happy to give me a ride. The 25 year old guy and 20 year old girl had been dating for 4 years, and were cruising around in their SUV with two pitbulls in the back seat. Like most people in rural Humboldt County, they were employed in the cannabis farming industry. The guy mentioned that it’s commonplace to grow cannabis, and that everyone (including his grandmother) grows cannabis. On that Saturday morning, they were waiting for their son to wake up so that they could pick him up from the baby’s grandmother’s house. The couple were very kind and helpful, going as far as to offer me Marijuana for the trail (which I declined), driving me all the way to Hidden Valley Trailhead, and expressing genuine concern for my safety on the trail.
At about 9AM, I started hiking south on the Lost Coast trail from Hidden Valley Trailhead. The trail began a few miles inland from the coast and at over 1,000 feet above sea level. The scenery and landscape during the first few hours on the trail, was a world’s apart from what I had been accustomed to while hiking the northern portion of the Lost Coast Trail. This section of the trail was characterized by continuous elevation changes, a forest environment, dark moist soil, and an (unexpected) absence of running streams for the first 5 miles of the trail. Being accustomed to passing by creeks every mile, I arrived at Hidden Valley Trailhead with only half a bottle of water. About a mile into the trail, I was already out of water and concerned when I realized that the next stream on the Lost Coast Trail would be a couple hours down the trail. After reviewing the trail map, I noticed that there was an upcoming side trail (Chinquapin Loop) which separated from the Lost Coast Trail, descended to Nick’s Camp (a primitive campsite), and then met back up with the Lost Coast Trail about a mile down the trail. On the Chinquapin Loop Trail, the map showed a stream which looked to be the only water source which I would be able to access for the next few hours. I decided to hike down the side trail, and was rewarded with a flowing stream to rehydrate.
After a few more miles of ascending and descending the forest trails, the trail came within a few hundred lateral feet of the Pacific Coast. This portion of the trail offered bird’s eye, Big-Sur-like views of the coastline from hundreds of feet above sea level. After this section of the trail, the trail descended through a rainforest-like landscape which steeply descended via switchbacks to Whale Gulch. Whale Gulch is a beautiful, fast-flowing creek, and served as a nice resting spot before continuing on the trail toward Needle Rock Visitor Center.
During the 2 miles before Needle Rock Visitor Center, there were numerous primitive campsites including Jones Beach Camp, Streamside Camp, and Barn Camp. These camps provide families and casual hikers with the opportunity of experiencing the remoteness and beauty of the Lost Coast with only a couple miles of hiking. Although the camps don’t have running water or trash cans, the beautiful surroundings, picnic tables, portable restrooms and fire rings are enough to provide groups with everything needed to make lifelong memories.
At about 2:30PM, I arrived at Needle Rock Visitor Center. At Needle Rock, I took a well-deserved 30-minute break during which time I ate lunch, refilled water, chatted with the volunteer host at the visitor center,and briefly scanned the inside of the visitor center for interesting information/items. Posted on a bulletin board inside the visitor center, there was a visual elevation line graph displaying the elevation changes for the following 18 miles of the trail until Usal Creek. This sight was mental torture that would remain in my mind and discourage/demoralize/burden me for the next 24 hours. Seeing the near-straight upward lines depicting the upcoming hills was the last thing I wanted to see while resting at the Visitor Center. If the horizontal axis of the graph had been spread out over 2-3 pages rather than 1 page, thereby displaying a visual with less steep lines, this undoubtedly would have helped me remain more optimistic when thinking about the upcoming portions of the hike. I’m sure that if I looked at a similar line graph created based on the section of the trail between Hidden Valley and Needle Rock, it would be characterized by similar, steep ascents and descents. However, this portion of the trail was enjoyable and I didn’t consider it very difficult at the time. At the time, I didn’t know what to expect and was just taking what the trail gave me. The difference in attitude/expectations that I experienced in these two sections, just goes to show how important mentality, mindset, and perspective is when hiking long distances. If you allow your mind to focus on steep hills, pain, discomfort, and long miles, then you’ll be discouraged and miserable. On the other hand, if you’re appreciating the opportunity to work out, enjoying the expansive views and enjoying the experience of solitude, it’s pretty difficult not to have a wonderful time. It’s all in the mindset.
At Needle Rock Visitor Center, I was trying to decide whether I would hike until Wheeler Camp or Jackass Camp before setting up camp for the night. It was clear that if I wanted to have a chance of catching the 12:55PM bus from Willits to Los Angeles on Sunday, I would need to hike all the way to Jackass Creek today. As I walked through Wheeler Camp, it was already 7:30 PM and the idea of rushing through the beautiful Lost Coast Trail and hiking after dusk, became very unappealing. I realized that my goal-oriented, ambitious side was latching on to this unrealistic goal, which the pursuit of would make me miserable without a good enough reason to feel that way. Then and there, I resolved to set up camp at Wheeler and to enjoy the last hour of sunlight at the oceanfront campsite, surrounded by the expansive, open meadow. As beautiful as that plan sounded, by the time I set up my tent all I wanted to do was lay down inside the tent and fall asleep.
