by Ferd Furer
It was a rough start for Dana and I getting to the Lost Coast, but all's well that ends well. Who says there is anything wrong with smoking cigarettes alone on a Berkeley Street when you are waiting for your driving companion who is a little behind schedule. My Trek began at 11:45pm on Friday night after work and we got to to Shelter Cove at 6:30am. Dana crashed out in the back of the little white truck and I found Joe, Amy, Chad and Otis on the beautiful Black sands Beach. I enjoyed a beer and the sights and then took a quick 2 hour power nap and had a V-8. I was ready to go. For some reason my pack was very tall and heavy. When I first put it on my back, I couldn't help but wonder if I could make it ten miles in the soft sand of the beach. After the first mile or so, I got into a groove and just cruised. I was on a never ending quest to find the hardest packed ground. I never thought I would love hard dirt so much. I had two major fears: #1--Empty Platipus, and #2 Poison Oak. I'm happy to report that the Platipus never went dry, although I had a close call when I did not pack my bag correctly and cut off circulation from the Platypus to the mouth piece. I did a quick re-pack as the group treked ahead, and thePlatypus flowed again. Phew!! I saw a lot of Poison Oak, but was fortuneate not to let it touch my skin (hence the goofy looking long socks). I can't say it enough--the Platypus is the best backpacking invention. Okay, the water filter contraption is pretty cool, too. You know, I can't leave out the freeze dried food either. That's pretty cool, too. The freeze dried apple strudel stuff couldn't have tasted any better. So, after hiking for about ten miles and the sun was about to set, it was time to find a campsite. The most important criteria for a great campsite is running water close by and a stockpile of dry drift wood for the fire. The bigger the fire, the better!! We came across a few potential sites and then finally settled on a beach campsite. The funny thing is, when the sun sets, it does not matter where you camp, because you can only see for a radius of ten yards around the fire. So, essentially any campsite with a fire and running water is a good campsite. Oh, and the closer to the destination, the better! This was my main motivation for looking for a better campsite. "The more we do today, the less we have to do tomorrow." The 2nd day of hiking was pretty much like the first day. A quest for the hardest packed ground!! There were some beautiful sights along the way. Actually, everywhere you looked, there was something awesome to see. Man, it was picturesque!!! At the end of the day and 12 miles later we found our campsite. This campsite was cool because there was some added excitement embedded in it. We were worried about high-tide. We actually predicted (within inches) of where the tide would come up too. It was fun watching the big sets roll in and anticipate how close it would come to Chad's tent. At it's highest point, the tide came to within a couple feet of his tent. I'm glad it wasn't mine. On the third day, we only had to hike about 2 miles to our final destination. That was music to our feet. By this time we were all a bit sore, but we were almost there. A couple hours after we started hiking, we cruised into Black Sands Beach/Shelter Cove. The feeling of accomplishing the 25 miles surely eased the pains in our muscles and joints. We made it!!! Our work was not yet done. Since we did a "walk through hike" two of us had to go back to Mattole (the starting place) to pick up Joe's car. Since my car was the only other one there, I was nominated. This turned out to be quite fun. It took us two hours to do the drive on day one. When we went to pick up Joe's car it took us 1 1/2 hours. We knocked of a half hour of time. We were flying through the mountain roads. The little white truck handled it quite well. Then when we drove back to pick up the rest of the group, we knocked another 15 minutes off our time. It was crazy, I even locked up my breaks a couple times. That's the difference between driving a car and driving a car. That frosty Sierra Nevada at Outback Steak House never tasted so great. |
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