Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Lost Coast Trail

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Day 2, my struggles begin:

I tossed and turned a bit the night before, with my knees aching and my feet feeling a bit tender. Yet, it was a beautiful morning. The winds had died down, and the weather was feeling a bit warmer. After a breakfast of instant oatmeal, I broke camp, packed up, and was ready to move on.



The terrain beyond Cooksie Creek was more sand and rock, and is an area that is not passable at high tides. Much of the landscape was barren rock cliffs and eroding hillsides. The only thing of real interest to me was the bear tracks we spotted of what appeared to be a momma and her cub. We never saw the bears themselves, but it was interesting to see evidence of them explore the beach.

My spirits were a bit low through here, and my feet and knees were starting to hurt. At a break I discovered that I had half-dollar sized blisters forming on both of my heels.

Just when I started to let myself feel a bit miserable everything changed again. The trail led up onto the bluffs above and the landscape transformed to rolling green hills covered with beautiful Poppies. It was really a spectacular sight and lifted my spirits instantly.



A good three mile stretch after that followed an old dirt road that felt so good to walk on. We made great time, slowed only occasionally by the streams we had to cross.

All good things come to an end though, and I was forced back onto the beach for the remaining mile and a half before making the next camp. I made it half way through before shedding my pack and shoes for a break that I did not want to end. Checking my GPS and looking down the coast I could literally see our destination three quarters of a mile ahead. No amount of motivation was going to get me to put those boots back on though, so I strapped them to my pack and finished off the days hike barefoot trudging through gritty sand and bands of small sharp rocks.

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Finally arriving at Big Creek I was greeted with a quite amazing structure of drift wood that people had built. Within an hour I was feeling better again after a cold sponge bath in the creek and a cup off freshly pressed coffee (Rob's Jetboil rocks). I had an amazing meal of backpacker lasagna(which I highly recommend!), then we headed to the creek to enjoy that last light of the day that is always the best for photography.

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The evening ended with a strong mixture of vodka and Gatorade fruit punch mix and some backpacker chocolate cheesecake desert. The fire was warm, I was thoroughly buzzed, and my spirits were high again. I slept much better this night, and for the remainder of the trip I never let myself get quite so low as I did on this day.

Here is Rob's day two. He got a great shot that really captures the moment for me trudging through those tough tidal zones. There's also a great Poppy shot there that I'm super jealous of (why, oh why didn't I get my 85mm F/1.8 out???).

1 comment:

BackpackerPH said...

Yeah! backpacker chocolate cheesecake desert & backpacker lasagna is one of my favorite!

I am a backpacker and my life is all about backpacking..
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Nice site btw.