Yosemite Here We Come.....Again! (Ten Lakes Basin)

Once again I took a trip in mid August to the Ten Lakes Basin, Yosemite with my best buddy Marco.  We had planned on it all summer and were not going to miss it for the world!

We left his place in Orange County around seven in the morning, headed down the I5 and were so excited to be on our way to a four day adventure!  Last year we had gone to the same area in Yosemite, and we had left around eight.  We knew we had a bunch of driving ahead, but we resigned ourselves to the trip ahead.  We arrived in the Valley and got our permit and bear canisters.  I thought one would be enough, since I have never put sealed or prepackaged food items in a bear canister with the belief that they were scent proof to animals.  However, recently, when I went to the Lost Coast, the Rangers said that I needed to put EVERYTHING in the canister. So I got two!  Good thing we both had large packs!  I was sporting my new (used from the REI Gear Sale) REI Flash 65 Pack.  I also had a few other new items, which I will comment on later.  Marco had his massive 85 liter Gregory that he had borrowed form a friend and never given back! We cruised up to the trailhead and got there around 3:30 PM, a good hour and a half earlier than we had arrived last year!

We began to get our gear in order and I realized that I had overlooked one minor detail.  It wasn't a piece of gear, I had all my stuff, including my fishing kit and pole, but I had forgotten to get my car fixed.  I had been experiencing power failure due to some wiring issues and I tossed around the idea of removing the battery mount while we were gone, but I forgot during the excitement!  We put on our packs, said goodbye to civilization, and headed out!

 My New Pack (the grey one), Marco's Monster!

 How is it that I have all the gear and he has only clothes? HAHA

 The Trek Begins!

6.3 Miles to Graceland

Day 1

We headed out on the trail and quickly passed a couple who had left around a half hour before us! Marco was setting a blistering pace, determined to get to the Basin before the light failed this time, whether I died in his wake or not!  All that cycling sure does the body good!  I did my best to keep up (smokers lungs and all ;-)  and we soon reached the first trail intersection, 2 miles from the trailhead at a small brook.  

 Us right before coming to the first trail intersection back towards Whitehorn

I was wearing my Vibram Fivefinger Treksports as usual and Marco had on a pair of Tennis shoes, and we were both feeling good! The only issue I had the entire trip was on the hike in around this point.  My pack was new so I had not adjusted it to my frame yet.  It was really uncomfortable, and I hoped that once we got there I would be able to adjust it better.  I was also wearing some new convertible pants made by North Face!  It was nice to actually be able to wear shorts in the semi-hot weather.  We continued on and came upon the high meadow that signaled the end of the easy hiking.  The climb up from the Meadow was near vertical, a climb of over 900 feet in less than a mile!  We headed up the slope, chasing the fading light, trying to beat it as it sank close to the edge of the far off mountains.  

The High Meadow (the light was fading fast!)

We climbed the hill rather quickly to my chagrin and reached the summit of the basin rim around 6:45 PM.  We had only been hiking for less than two hours, and had covered nearly 5 1/2 miles!  I keep telling Marco to keep drinking, but he said he felt great and didn't heed my warnings!  We saw a deer sitting along side the trail, and it looked hurt solely because it wasn't getting up as we approached.  We got within about ten feet of it before it finally rose to its feet and slowly walked away.  We also saw a spooked dear (some people in the woods next to us scared it) tear across the high ground at top speed!  Man those things can move! We headed down the hill into the lake basin as the sun started to go behind the hills.  

 Looking back the way we had come (my favorite pic of the trip!)

 The deer!

The trail heading down into the basin from the rim

We had enough light to make it down the rocky hillside before it got too dangerous, and as we came to a log bridge over the main creek in the Basin my warnings to Marco to keep drinking came back to bite him!  He was stepping up onto the log and as he did he got the worst cramp in his calf that he said he had ever had!  A blistering pace and not enough water will do that I told him as he rolled around on the ground in agony.  While we waited for his cramp to go away, the light continued to fade.  By the time we were going again it was dusk and we had just enough light to make our way down to the big main lake and skirt the edge and find a camping spot.  I had my mind on a spot that some other guys had had last time we were there, up about 200 feet from the lake on top of a little ridge over looking the scenery.  We found it uninhabited and took it for our home!  It had a great campfire pit and also a ton of rocks and things to sit on.  We set up the ten fairly close by so as to have the fire near at hand if any bears came through.  While we cooked a little dinner, sausages over the fire, which had been pre-lain by the last group through, Thanks guys!, Marco got eaten alive by the mosquitos!  I had had them all over me during the hike, but once we got there they rarely bothered me.  They must like Mexican blood better than Scandinavian! HAHA! Anyway, we ate, drank some sake, the best camping booze there is cause you can drink it warm, put our bear canisters to bed and headed that way ourselves.  It had been a great start to the trip, and we were hopeful for the following days hiking expeditions and also the promise of high lake trout!  Sleep came easily with the aid of Tylenol Simply Sleep!

Day 2
We started the day off right with a breakfast of coffee, eggs, and sausages.  Our fire was keeping most of the bugs away, so Marco was happy!  Our plan for the day was to take a little day hike up the main creek and to explore the fishing possibilities at the string of high lakes above the main one.  We headed out around nine and got to really experience the beauty of the area unlike last year, when I had only my Vibram KSO's that were not nearly thick enough for the granite and rocky terrain.  My feet just hurt too much the last time for day hiking!  My own fault, but I was not going to miss out this time!  We followed the creek and soon came to the first lake above the main one.

 Marco cooking and rockin out to country music on the Ipad!

 The Creek we followed

 Speechless beauty

 I'm ready to catch some fish!

A mexican in paradise...hhaha!

We continued up the creek as it snaked its way down granite rock faces.  We stopped along the creek at a really cool point to sit and write.  What a beautiful day!  

 Creek on Granite Slab

 Neat Waterfall area

 No better place to contemplate God and Life

Two Buddies

We hadn't seen many fish in the first lake, so we hoped that there would be some in the higher lakes.  As we came to the third lake in the chain, we saw that there were indeed fish all over the place!  Small 6-8 in. rainbow trout! Some were larger, but the majority were typical for a hight altitude lake. But fish are fish! so we decided to try a few approaches.  Marco tried a dark little Panther Martin size 1-32 spinning lure.  I decided to try my hand out on some power bait.  We both threw ours lines in and I immediately got a bite, but I think that my bate ball was too big and they didn't hit again after that.  Marco was the first to pull one in!  He was simply dangling his line in front of a few fish that were swimming right next to shore, when he was able to snag one!  A nice little seven-eight incher!  We put it on a stringer, not wanting to let any of the fish go, since we hadn't caught squat the year before.  He had one other nibble on his and caught a little guppy, but that was it for Marco.  I got tired of power bait, and I tied on a little Mepps silver spinner, a 1-32 as well.  As soon as I threw it in the fish swarmed it and I had one within a few casts!  I then caught about eight others, but only kept the larger ones, so we walked away around 2 PM with five fish for dinner!  I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to catch the first fish I had caught on my own well.......ever!  

 The third lake

 Marco's first fish

 Standin on a fallen log fishin

 So pretty

The catch of the day!

We went back to camp with our catch and thought of a great idea about how to preserved the fish till we were ready to eat dinner.  First we cleaned them out in the nearby creek, and then took them to a small snow patch that was still lingering on in the shade of the trees above our camp.  We dug a hole in the snow and put the fish inside!  This kept  them nice and refrigerated for the next few hours while we got firewood, water from the lake, and took a little much needed rest.  When we were ready to cook the fish we got them out of the makeshift fridge and slathered them in olive oil, salt and pepper. We then wrapped them in tin foil and threw the whole mess in the fire!  Man they tasted good! The first few were a little overcooked, due to my paranoia of getting diseases from uncooked meat (sorry buddy!). But the next batch was great!  Now we know how long to cook them for next time!  I had brought along a grease guard to try and use as a grill, but I also now know that a grease guard does not stand up to open flame!  Learned my lesson!  While we were eating and chillin we had a surprise visitor in the camp!  A four point buck just came strolling into the camp not ten feet from the fire!  I tried to get a pic but he was moving constantly so they all came out blurry.  Lame! We enjoyed some more Sake and I drank both the flasks of Rum that we had brought cause Marco wasn't feeling it.  His Loss!  I got a decent little buzz (cause we all know it takes much more alcohol to get you buzzed while backpacking for some reason?) and headed off to bed ready for the next day and our next exploration of the area.

 Our camp in the afternoon sun

 View of the lake from our camp

 The first batch of fish

 So Fresh!

 A blurry pic of the Buck

The fire at night

Day 3

The next day we decided to check out the one lower lake that was not really connected by stream to any of the other lakes.  We hiked around the bigger lake and up and over the small rim of the next lake over. We took our fishing gear thinking there would be fish, but we saw none in its clear glasslike waters.  It was a hot day, so we decided to take a swim at a nice area where the granite slabs ran right into the water for about 100 feet, giving us a nice bottom on which to stand.  It was chilly!  But refreshing once you got in and started to swim around.  We felt clean finally and headed back to the big lake to do some more fishing!  Marco caught one right off the bat, but it was a little small so we let it go.  Then I caught one that was nice sized and we put it on a stringer hoping for more for dinner!  But sadly we didn't catch anything else!  We must have gotten really lucky the day before.  All I caught after my first fish was a sunken log! I didn't want to lose my lucky lure, so I went for the second dip of the day to retrieve it!  We headed back in the early afternoon and settled for dehydrated meals.  Marco had an idea that we could hike up to the top of the rim of the lake basin before it got dark so that we would have plenty of time to drive home and not get in too late.  I concurred so we packed up camp and headed out.  As we were heading out (this was Friday night), we saw tons of people coming the other way on the trail! I was actually happy that we were leaving now, since there had been hardly anyone around the whole two days that we had been there.  We passed at least 20+ people! As we reached the rim of lake basin we got to talking about how nice a cold beer would taste. And low and behold we talked ourselves right off the mountain and back to the car!  We had had our fill of fishing and camping and really didn't want to have to rush our drive on the way home in the morning.  As we got to the car I remembered what I had forgotten at the beginning of the trip.  Didn't disconnect the battery mount. Shit!  The car was dead, but luckily it was a stick.  We push started it after about twenty minutes of battling it out with a stunted tree that was blocking our path!  Finally on the road we drove into Bakersfield and enjoyed a nice cold BJ's Beer and some steaming hot Pizza!  What a good way to wrap up a trip!  

 The fourth lake

 A good ways out

 Swimmin back in, its cold!

 I look like my dad in this pic! Scary.

 Marco takin a swim

I have come to love the ten lakes basin so much, and will definitely return again someday, but next year we are planning on checking out May Lake, a close by lake to the ten lakes basin.  Wish us luck!  Thanks Marco, buddy for a great trip!  We learn something every time!  

FInally! The Lost Coast of California!

Its been a while since my last post.  Allot has happened in my life since, allot of good and allot of bad, but there is nothing in the world that would have made me miss out on the biggest trip of my backpacking career to date......the Lost Coast of California in Humbolt county.  24 or so miles of pristine coastal wilderness that I had been planning to conquer with my dad for the past year. This post and those that follow are my attempt to catch up on my blogging!!!!!!

Day 1

I was supposed to be accompanied by my best buddy Marco on the drive up to the Lost Coast, but he chickened out at the last second (JK buddy!) so I was forced to make the trip alone.  11 hours of driving, mostly along the worlds most boring highway, I5 North.  I did the first part of the trip in record time, but once I reached the 101 I had many endless hours of winding slow driving to look forward to.  I passed a few sections of amazing redwoods as I neared the town of shelter cove (where my dad and I would meet) and became more excited with every second!  I reached the ranger station which was located just outside of shelter cove and got my bear canisters and map.  Then it was just a waiting game, waiting for my dad to get there, hoping we would have enough time to drive down to shelter cove, dump off my car, and drive all the way back over to Mattole campground where the trail commenced.

Luckily I didn't have to wait long, only a half hour or so.  He showed up and we were reunited after about 6 months! good to see my daddio!  We decided that since we were there we might as well get all our gear sorted out, what to bring and what to leave behind, so that when we left my car we would only have the essentials for the trip.  We packed up everything and by the time we were done My pack must have weighed around 65 lbs and my fathers was around 35 lbs.  Granted, I am 27 and he is 53, but it seemed a little on the heavy side for me!  The reason for this weight differential, besides age, was that the only backpack in my possession at that time was the 40 liter REI Venturi, which can work splendidly as an overnight or two night backpack for summer backpacking, but most definitely was too small for an extended trip, when used by my father.  He loves to pack everything and the kitchen sink!  Well, not that much, but definitely more than I was used to carrying.  Once we got everything situated I realized that another reason for all the additional weight was that I was carrying fishing gear and a clam gun (2+ lbs!) which added to the massiveness of my backpack.  I was carrying my dad's Gregory (model unknown) and it was a monster 85 liter pack, able to fit, for lack of better words, everything and the kitchen sink!

I had spent weeks and weeks planning this little trip, weighing all my gear, making sure that my pack would be less than 40 lbs, even with all the extras for such an extended trip, clamming, and fishing and such.  All of it smashed to pieces by the lack of a larger backpack!  Or maybe it was not the lack of a larger backpack but the having of a too large backpack.  I'm not really sure, all I know is that my planning was all thrown off.

Anyway, we got into the cars and I followed my dad, winding our way down the coastal range (The King Range) and into the town of Shelter Cove, where we would leave my car and continue our journey from there.

We got to the parking lot which also served as the end of the lost coast trail, or trailhead, depending on which direction you want to hike it.  We were planning to hike it north to south, since all the research said that the wind should be at your back the majority of the time! As we got out of the car to go take a look at what we would be hiking on, we met a scout leader who was waiting for the rest of his scout troop.  He said that we were lucky, and had the weather to our benefit.  He had been on the coast the previous three days, and they had had rain.  He said his Bivy sack was a pain in the rain.  Really! no! Get out of town!  I could have told him that.  Anyway, we parked my car, said a quick prayer for it and our hope of driving home, and took off for the opposing trailhead, a 50 + mile drive, winding through redwood forest, grassy rolling hills, and cattle ranches.  We finally got to Lighthouse Road, the last section of dirt road that would take us to our beginning point and the trail head.

As we pulled into the trailhead parking lot we were in awe of how absolutely beautiful the scenery was! Backpacking, on the coast, Really?!?!?!  I had never thought I would do it, but here I was!  It was around 7 PM by the time we got our stuff out and started trekking, with only around 45 min. of light left.  We decided to hike until we found a driftwood structure that suited us and one that had a stream nearby so that we would have readily available water.  As we hiked we saw our first bear tracks right there in the sand!  This sighting made me excited for the amount of wildlife that we could see on the trip!  The fact that the bear came right down on the beach was enough to tell me that I would see plenty of wild life.

We kept hiking through the sand and every now and then the trail went up off the beach onto the edge of the bluff, giving us better footing and making for a spectacular view as the sun began to set!  "Man the sand is hard to hike in", I thought.  Little did I know that I would be regretting that notation of an obvious fact later on in the trip!

We passed a few people who were already setting up camp and kept on going for a few more miles unto we found the perfect spot.  A small but effective driftwood windbreak and fire pit (which we didn't end up using, tear!).  We quickly got out our gear and set up the tent, which nearly blew away a few times!  We had eaten fairly recently and had no need of dinner, so we satisfied ourselves with some odwalla bars and water.  I had the first smoke I had had in weeks that felt free

Our first camp

, and we trundled off to bed, excited for what the low tide in the morning would bring! Once we got in the tent I found a few of natures friends clinging to my clothes!  Ticks!!!!! AHHHHH! The rangers had warned us that they were everywhere, but come on! I had only been hiking for less than an hour! Of course my dad had none, since ticks do not like old man blood (jk dad).  I promptly threw them from the tent, zipped the door tight, and fell right to sleep! No need for ear plugs or sleeping aids tonight! I had my very own wave machine white noise crashing a few yards away! Beautiful!

Day 2

The next morning we awoke to an awesome surprise!  My dad had just decided to walk down to the ocean after a cup of coffee to check out the low tide.  As soon as he came over the low hill he was greeted by a small baby leopard seal! Just sitting right there on the beach, presumably waiting for its mother who was out fishing.  We were able to get within a few feet of it, but it growled at us and scooted off to the safety of the waves before long.

We walked around for an hour or so exploring the tide pools, but sadly there was not much marine life close at hand as I had expected!  We even tried to throw our home made crab trap in and got nothing for our troubles.  It was not the most encouraging beginning to the day.  I also tried my clam gun but to no avail.  The sand was mostly composed of small rocks that would not create enough suction for the gon to work.  Two down.  Only the fishing pole remained to get us some good old ocean harvest!

We packed up our gear and headed out around 9 AM.  We knew there was a large section of coast that was impassible at high tide that we were going to have to cross during the day, so we picked up the pace and made good time.

The dirt is so much better than the sand!

Dad at the wilderness border.

 After about an hour we came upon the fabled Punta Gorda light house.  It was really neat!  I couldn't imagine what it would have been like to live there while operating that light house all those years ago, cut off from society.  But I wished that I could have done it!!!! What a picturesque location for a work place!  We took some photos and while we were resting, we ran across an abalone hunter that had been unsuccessful in his pursuits.  He told us that we had great weather and would enjoy ourselves.

 Punta Gorda Lighthouse from the North

 Me in the door way

Dad standing on the balcony up top

As we hiked toward our destination (which we didn't know at the time since we were playing it by ear hehe ;-) the trail started to drastically change elevation.  We had though that the whole trail ran along the actual beach, and when we checked the map, we realized that we had taken a side trail, that ascended into the King Range!  We had gone far enough that we didn't want to turn back, and we hoped that there would be a trail running back down to the beach at some point, or we were screwed! Even though we went out of our way, we were presented with probably the most grand and beautiful scenery that we had experienced to date!

Dad pointing the way into the great beyond!

I thought the slope of the trail and the background scenery was so cool on this one. Reminded me of a Hobbit path or something hehe!

As we continued up the trail we soon heard the bark and growls of many sea lions!  The big rocks were covered with sea lions, and as we approached a gulch, we could hear them even better!  The gulch/ravine channeled the sound up to us from the ocean.  When we looked at the map it read Sea Lion Gulch, which was evident by the amount of noise!  There was one large sea lion, the biggest one of them all, sitting off to the side on a smaller rock, the proverbial king of the rock! And any time the other seals came near the rock he would fight them off!  We found a small stream at the top of the gulch and we filled our bladder bags and got going again eager to find our next picturesque camp site.

You can see how many there were!

The King of the Rock! haha

We ended up finding a trail going down to the beach again thankfully and were able to make it to another stream before the tide hemmed us in and we had to stop to let it go out.  We first checked out the vista from the top of the ridge looking back the way we had come.  

Me taking a break on the side of the hill! Beautiful, we had come a long way!

Dad posing, Mr. Muscles

My favorite picture from the trip!

We decided to take a little bath and then build a fire and do some fishing. While my dad freshened up, haha, I decided to build a little wind stop/fort to put a fire in while we waited.  Then I did a little fishing, to no avail, and hung out by the fire!  It was a nice long rest, and we ate a little lunch while we waited for the tide to move out.  We got tired of waiting however, and decided to climb over the rocks and take the hard way around the waves! 

 ME setting up the wind break and building the fire

Drinking some powdered gator-aid, its not Rum but it'll do hehe!

Trying to fish

I look like I kinda know what im doing haha!

The rocks we climbed over with the waves breaking on them

After the rocks we were getting really tired, and had been hiking for almost eight miles of mostly nothing but sand.  The day was hot and the sun was really beating down.  We were in a section that was under water at high tide however, so we had no choice but to keep going.  We stopped for a break on some logs, and at one point had this sickly little seagull following us down the beach, begging us for food.  We kept on going and the beach seemed to go on forever!  We were both exhausted, and the sun was getting low, but we really wanted to find a nice camp site and were shooting for Spanish Flats. We finally made it and saw about ten to 15 other people, a boy scout group, and two other groups of around four to five people each.  We bunkered down in the best wind break driftwood structure we could find, set up the tent (or tried to since the tent pole promptly broke, and neither of us had brought a tent pole repair kit, not to self for next trip hehe), Repaired the broken tent pole with all purpose duct tape, cooked some dinner, and were ready for bed.  However, I was not going to let my opportunity to have a fire pass me by, so I built a fire, and roasted me some good marshmellows and had a few smores with my dad before we hit the sack! What a long day of hiking, but well worth it! 

Our little beggar friend!

 Man this is some desolate Sh**! My feet are killing me!

 Dad reclining on his beach Lazyboy haha!

Dad eating at the table we found provided by the sea!

Awesome wave shot of some Cormorants on a rock

 Me and my fire......finally, southern california wilderness, suck it haha!

Amazing sunset looking back the way we had come from Spanish Flatt

Day 3

We took our time waking up and getting going on the third day of the trip.  We laid around the campsite, chatting with the neighbors until they took off, and then we decided to take a little day hike before setting out ourselves.  We followed the stream up towards the gulch at Spanish Flatts and hiked back into the foliage a ways.  We found an awesome camp site back by the creek, under a tree with a great fire pit.  Wish we had explored more the night before! Would make a great camp (for those of you reading this that may attempt the lost coast hehe). Anyway, we hiked a ways back into the woods following the creek.  Saw some beautiful flowers, some deer, rabbits, and lots and lots of lizards.  No rattlers thankfully!  

Beautiful little purple flowers in the dry grass

You can see a deer if you look really close!

The fore-mentioned campsite

 Hangin over the creek!

On our way back to camp

Wishing we had hiked on earlier so as to avoid the heat of the day!

It seemed to us, as we got further and further down towards our destination of Shelter Cove, that the scenery was somewhat diminishing!  The landscape was starting to turn really dry, and we mostly only saw long grassy shoreline with barren rock covered beach the entire hike the third day.  It was beautiful in its own rite, but we were so tired from the previous days hike that we missed much of the beauty.  Trudging along through the sand and grass was hard work! But we did happen to see a really cool cabin while walking along it's personal runway!  Awesome, can you imagine having a cabin on Big Flatts to which you flew in your own plane! There is no better place to be!  Also, they skip all the hard stuff, like hiking hehe!

The long road ahead. Look at how huge my Pack is!

 Dad looking like he could use a moped! Look how small HIS pack is!

 Back the way we came. Desolate.

Runway for private cabin

Awesome private cabin

We finally trudged our way into Big Flatts and finally saw the river that comes out of the gulch at Big Flatts.  We were beat!  Almost ten miles the day before and today was only five, but it felt like ten!  We dumped out bags at the first structure we came to, but decided to take a look around further to see if there were any other cool places to camp!  We filled up our now empty water supply and scouted around for a better camping spot.  We ran into a group that had been ahead of us the whole way who had a great spot! They told us there was an even better spot back in the trees!  Sure  enough, when we came through the thick foliage we saw a large fire ring with logs all the way around, and a nice big grassy area for tents.  Over all of this were some of the coolest trees that we had ever seen!  Tall and full of curving branches that stretched over us to create the neatest canopy!  My dad's sciatic nerve was bugging him so I went back for the packs and carried them the rest of the way to the shelter, probably a good 500 yards! I still got it! HAHA.  We then set up camp, took a bath which held some hidden surprises for my dad (lucky!!! HAHA), climbed around in the trees, made a fire, drank, ate, and then I decided to try some fishing.  After fishing, which provided no fish, only sea weed, we went back to camp and then out to see the sunset.  I had my eye on this great log looking west, but my dad saw something better, and so I bypassed it at the last second.  We watched the sunset and then headed back as twilight set in.  As we were walking past the log I had proffered as a good spot to sit, I saw something slither! Black, two inches wide, with a rattle on the back end!  A Timber Rattler!  AHHHHHHH!  Sitting right where I would have jumped over the log and put my feet down!  We promptly threw some big rocks at it and most likely killed it, although we never got close enough to check haha!  We warned our friends who were sleeping close by and then went off to bed.  My fishing worms container had sprung a leak, so i decided, instead of putting it in the bear canister, to hang it up so as not to befoul the food.  Not ten minutes after going into the tent for the night, we heard a bear rattling around in our stuff outside the tent!   I was sure that it would get the worms, but they were around twelve feet high with nothing to climb around.  But I was not gonna go look now!  Wait it out! Till the morning.  Sleep finally came.

 Our awesome site!

 The tent at our site!

Taking a much needed break!

Still the high climbers son!

Me taken from way up high!

My favorite fishing pic

 I sure take good pics while fishing, why not catch good fish ;-(

Some numb nuts started a forest fire! Nice sunset though.

Day 4

We were sad to leave our beautiful camp site behind but had to keep going, so we decided to head out early to beat the heat today.  We started down the beach and immediately saw a ton of bear prints, and it seemed as if they were right in front of us up the beach! But sadly we never saw them.  We harvested some muscles to stew later and continued down the beach.  We ran across our friends that we had been trailing the whole time and took a few pics.  Nice people!  We set out again and realized that the scenery had changed drastically again.  Now a beautiful and lush land mass was marching along next to us down the beach.  Amazing!  So cool, how the scenery can change so suddenly.  We found some neat driftwood and my dad couldn't help but stand on it!  

Momma and Baby Bear Tracks

 Our friends

Dad and I

Dad next to the now green countryside

Creek Crossing # I don't know how many

Dad and the wild Logabeast! Headed out to sea.

Some big driftwood

We decided to stop at Marshal Creek, only about three miles from Shelter Cove.  We took a hike up the creek to check if there were any cool campsites, but there were none, but dad took a nice accidental dip in the creek!  We then hung out on the beach and watched the surfers trek by headed for the great surfing at Big Flatts, back the way we had come.  We used some trekking poles to set up a makeshift sun shade with the rain fly of dad's tent.  We also finally gave back to the Lost Coast by building a cool hammock out of a net that we found on the beach!  It was a blast!  After lounging in the hammock we cooked some dinner, which was composed of clam chowder mix and the muscles we had found earlier that day.  It was great, except for the corn that didn't re-hydrate all the way, rock hard! Yuck! We finished off dinner with some chocolate rasberry creme brulete!  Full, and tired, we washed the dishes in the ocean, fixed the tent pole with a few sticks and some beach string, and hit the sack.  We were nearly there, but really enjoyed our last full day on the coast! 

Beautiful Creek

Drying out all our gear

Our beach setup, my makeshift sun shade

Inside sun shade

Assume the position daddio! HAHA

 Our Hammock

Dad

Posin

Beautiful coastline

Cookin our Creme Brulette

Waitin for Desert!

Washed pots in Ocean

The last sunset on the Lost Coast!

Day 5

We set out early and were planning on dining on some delicious breakfast once we got out around 9 am we hoped.  We walked along black sands beach, one of the longest stretches of beach we had come across so far.  We trekked our way up to the trailhead and were so happy to see my car still there unmolested! We headed to shelter cove where we ate at a great place and were finally full after our trek down the beach! What a wonderful trip with my dad!  Great weather, good company, and some amazing memories in the wilderness of Northern California!  Thanks Lost Coast!  We Shall Return.

Standing by our "fixed" tent pole hehe

Underground streams!

Dad on Black Sands beach

Me

Black Sands Beach

The last look at the Lost Coast from the Hammock.  Go Vibram Fivefingers!

Good Bye Lost Coast! 

Until Next Time...