OT Trip Report: King Range (northern Lost Coast)
Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 3:42 pm
While waiting for the Sierra to unthaw after this historic winter, we took a great trip to the King Range National Conservation Area (the northern part of the Lost Coast). (The SF Chronicle notes today, 9 June 2011, that the Sierra snowpack is at 94 percent, what it normally is on April 1!). The King Range NCA is located on the rugged Pacific coast of Humboldt County. It is the only place on the California coast that isn’t accessible by Highway 1. You don’t need to reserve a permit for this trip and water is available all year around, which means you can take this trip on a whim. (Official info: http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/content/ca/en ... /index.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)
What makes this a novel backpacking experience is walking on the beach for miles and miles. You camp on the beach. Hearing the surf for two or three days straight is soothing. And I enjoyed playing beachcomber as I walked along. I found a lot of interesting tide debris – shells, rocks, and the like. You never know what you’ll see around the next point. (Inland trails are available but we didn’t explore them.) We built campfires with driftwood.
The hiking itself is not demanding although some areas of the beach are impassable at high tide, and you have to watch for that. Print out a tide chart and take it with you. The BLM publishes a map that shows where the beach is impassable at high tide. I’ve taken this hike twice. When I took it in the fall, there was still plenty of water. You need a permit but you can get it by filling out a form at the trailhead. As I mentioned, permits don’t have to be reserved. (Last time I went you needed a permit to build a fire, but that wasn’t true this time.) As for using the bathroom, the BLM wants you to do it on the beach below the tideline. Being that, shall we say, exposed, was unusual.
For our trip, we spent a night in Garberville. (Garberville is 4 hours north of San Francisco on Highway 101. Double rooms at the Garberville Motel were $59. For breakfast, I highly recommend the Woodrose Cafe. The Branding Iron Saloon has a good jukebox.) From Garberville, driving the 25 miles on the winding road to Shelter Cove, where the trailhead is, took 45 minutes (look for the BLM Office and Fire Station on your left a mile west of Thorn Junction if you want to talk to a ranger, get a map, or find out about fire permits).
From Black Sands Beach in Shelter Cove, we hiked 4 miles north to Gitchell Creek and made a base camp there. The next day we day-hiked nearly to Miller Flat, an 8 mile round trip. The entire trail along the coast runs for 25 miles, from Shelter Cove in the south to Mattole Beach in the north. The weather in this part of the world is fickle. We got sprinkled on one morning. Fog and clouds and sunshine came and went the rest of the time. We had a beautiful clear sky one night. Temperatures were not cold and the creek crossings, by Sierra standards, were tame.
What makes this a novel backpacking experience is walking on the beach for miles and miles. You camp on the beach. Hearing the surf for two or three days straight is soothing. And I enjoyed playing beachcomber as I walked along. I found a lot of interesting tide debris – shells, rocks, and the like. You never know what you’ll see around the next point. (Inland trails are available but we didn’t explore them.) We built campfires with driftwood.
The hiking itself is not demanding although some areas of the beach are impassable at high tide, and you have to watch for that. Print out a tide chart and take it with you. The BLM publishes a map that shows where the beach is impassable at high tide. I’ve taken this hike twice. When I took it in the fall, there was still plenty of water. You need a permit but you can get it by filling out a form at the trailhead. As I mentioned, permits don’t have to be reserved. (Last time I went you needed a permit to build a fire, but that wasn’t true this time.) As for using the bathroom, the BLM wants you to do it on the beach below the tideline. Being that, shall we say, exposed, was unusual.
For our trip, we spent a night in Garberville. (Garberville is 4 hours north of San Francisco on Highway 101. Double rooms at the Garberville Motel were $59. For breakfast, I highly recommend the Woodrose Cafe. The Branding Iron Saloon has a good jukebox.) From Garberville, driving the 25 miles on the winding road to Shelter Cove, where the trailhead is, took 45 minutes (look for the BLM Office and Fire Station on your left a mile west of Thorn Junction if you want to talk to a ranger, get a map, or find out about fire permits).
From Black Sands Beach in Shelter Cove, we hiked 4 miles north to Gitchell Creek and made a base camp there. The next day we day-hiked nearly to Miller Flat, an 8 mile round trip. The entire trail along the coast runs for 25 miles, from Shelter Cove in the south to Mattole Beach in the north. The weather in this part of the world is fickle. We got sprinkled on one morning. Fog and clouds and sunshine came and went the rest of the time. We had a beautiful clear sky one night. Temperatures were not cold and the creek crossings, by Sierra standards, were tame.