The trip starts out with one of us saying, “Hey, we should try and do something more adventuresome this weekend…I can barely remember what we did last weekend” and from there the epicenes only escalates.

We decide to do a backpacking trip along the middle and southern parts of the Lost Coast in Northern California. We begin by thinking through our hiking plans, scratch that, there wasn’t much thought that went into this besides that we wanted to hike the Lost Coast Trail.

After looking into transportation logistics, we realize that there is no direct paved road connecting two points along the southern part of the Lost Coast Trail. The shortest route is a 64.5mi bike ride on Briceland Thorn Rd to route 101 to highway 1 and then on Usal Rd, connecting from Shelter Cove to Usal Beach. . .longer than we were interested in. Instead, we opt for a more direct route, starting at a parking lot near the junction of Shelter Cove Rd and Chemise Mountain Road, biking down Chemise Mountain Road to Usal Road (four-wheel drive road), and continuing riding until Usal Beach. This route works out to being 25.28mi, much more manageable, assuming the road is in good shape. Our first bike packing trip!

We start off with a gentlemanly start, waking up near Andersonia on Saturday morning and heading to Shelter Cove around 8:30am. We really should have driven up to Shelter Cove Friday night to get an early start Saturday morning. We arrive at the trailhead and begin packing our packs, pumping our bike tires up, and pulling together food. With what we are about to get ourselves into finally starting to set in, we camel up, drinking as much water as we can.

It’s 11:30 AM, we awkwardly get on our bikes, having never biked with a backpacking pack before, and head off down the Chemise Mountain Road, Philip on his mountain bike and I on my hybrid. Not the most ideal setup for bike packing, but heck the best gear for a trip is the gear you already have. . .otherwise, you’ll end up spending all your money on the things you “need” and not have the means to do the things you want. Once off the pavement and on the old four wheel drive logging roads (Usal Road), the biking begins to slowdown and the entertainment factor increases. We pass abandoned old sedans down in the gulches, that look like a drunk person’s night ride mistake, and an assortment of jeeps and old trucks pass us blurbing something about how biking this road is a bad idea.

Around 18mi in we realize we haven’t been drinking enough water and start getting Charlie horses in our legs. To avoid our muscles seizing up, we start walking the uphills and sitting on our seats on the downhills. Even getting onto the seats of our bikes to bike the downhills causes Charlie horses in our calves, so we find side banks to get onto our bikes from. By this point, the ride has transitioned from fun to a slow trudge. 25mi later, we are on the final stretch, smelling the campfires and hearing the sounds of vehicles on the beach.

We arrive at the beach, surprised by the number of people here and the chaos of motorcycles and cars driving all over the beach, in the river, and across the grasses that specifically state “no vehicles”. The area is littered with debauchery, or, as a state park volunteer described it to us later on, “it is the wild west”. The most frustrating part of all of this, is that these are the sorts of people that ruin the freedom of these places for everyone by having the access get shut off. Being as exhausted as we are, we make the best of the situation and start making dinner and setting up the tent. Just before sunset, we go to bed. Within 10 min, the first round of fireworks begin to go off over on the beach. Not too big of a deal, as it is already quite noisy. 30 min later, fireworks are launch 50 feet from our tent. At this point we have had it, we pack up, stash our bikes in the woods, and start hiking the Lost Coast Trail. On the bright side, we will have to hike less tomorrow. . .

Five minutes into the hike and we are already happier! It is nearly a full moon, we are back to being hydrated, and amped from the Advil that we had taken before going to bed. . .we have gotten a second wind. The trail is very brushy, literally having to hike through bushes of flowers that go above our heads and sections have sluffed off down the steep slope, making the trail quite narrow. The hiking is quite slow for being on a trail. Out of deliriousness, we begin joking that we should just hike back to our car in a straight shot without sleeping. A mile away and we still see fireworks going off at Usal Beach. We see multiple sets of glowing eyes, first a fox, then a herd of mail elk, and last some deer. There aren’t many things that gets my adrenaline going more than a set of glowing eyes in the woods at night. Four miles later around 12:30 AM, we arrive at a heavily used campsite in Dark Gulch and decide to call it a night. Resting our heads on our pillows, all we hear is the creek running and insects humming.

Camping in Dark Gulch along the Lost Coast.

We wake up slightly sore from the day before, wishing we had gotten ten hours of sleep instead of seven, and continue hiking on the trail as it weaves in and out of gulches, headed downhill on the way in and uphill on the way out. The north sides of mountains are covered in trees and the forest floor consists of ferns or clovers, while the southern sides are more brushy with flowers and in the direct sun. After having passed, Anserson Gulch, Northport Gulch, and Jackass Creek, there is a fairly steep ascent with few switchback and then the trail flattens out, running along a ridgeline. The next beach is at the North Fork of Jackass Creek, which forms a pool just before entering the ocean.

After the North Fork of Jackass Creek there are some rolling hills and I’m really starting to feel fatigued from the elevation gain that we just did when hiking out of each gulch. We hadn’t considered the elevation gain when planning our hike. With how much distance we still have to cover, I start to think we might not finish hiking until 4 AM. But, there is something about pushing your body in this way and seeing what it is capable of that makes it exciting.

Around 16.5mi down the trail, we hit an old road, Bear Harbor Road, with two tire tracks and grass in between. The trail flattens out and opens up considerably, with the steep hillsides and cliffs turning into small meadows. We reach Needle Rock Visitor Center and sit down in the shaded grass to put on more sunblock. There is an old couple that volunteers here and we begin talking about the time they tried biking across the US when they were younger. The old woman brings us out two cold glasses of ice tea. They are surprised by the distance we have hiked that day, specifically because of the amount of elevation gain involved in doing so, and are surprised that we are planning to hike to Shelter Cove. We decide we should get going because we still have a considerable amount of elevation to gain.

Standing up, we feel rejuvenated. Normally, we try taking as few breaks as possible and making them as short as possible because these are what really decrease the distance you hike in a day. Apparently, our bodies really needed a break. The trail remains relatively flat until we reach Whale Gulch. The section from the visitor center to Whale Gulch ends up being our favorite section of the hike.

From here, it switch backs up a steep slope through another forest of ferns. By this point, we are on the homestretch and in “zombie mode”, hiking in silence focusing on taking it one step at a time until we reach the van. We finish the hike around 10:30 PM, having walked 28.31 mi with an elevation gain of 11,739 ft in less than a twenty-four hours, and are exhausted.

This hike was easily one of our hardest day hikes, but oh so fun!

View from Chamisal Mountain as the sun is setting.