The Lost Coast: Day Two (and Day Three)

Getting a meal at the Lost Coast is a dicey proposition. Yesterday evening, the innskeeper told me that the only place open for dinner was the brewery but because they were short staffed, I had to be patient. The food was great, but I think I waited for almost an hour for my meal. This morning, I saw an ad in the local paper. The brewery was desperate to hire staff.

The little coffee shop downstairs from the inn was supposed to be open at 7am. My plan was to grab something to go for my hike. But when I went down there, it was closed. The owners left to celebrate their anniversary. This was inconvenient as the start of the hike was two hours away and high tide was at 1pm. There was a section of the hike that was impassable then.

I passed the time while driving by listening to a local FM station. First up was a radical LGBTQ news program. They spent a lot of time on a Mexican and Namibian gay couple who were not able to adopt their twin girls in South Africa. Then, the radio station played a community meeting from the night before where a national forest representative took questions from the public about how the federal government was going to take care of all the damage caused by last year's horrific fires. The audience was pissed.

The trailhead at Mattole River Beach.

The plan was to walk 3.2 miles south to the Punta Gorda Lighthouse and back. There was barely anyone there. It was beautiful. Walking on the sand was difficult.

My footprints.

I took a break here and ate an orange.

You can barely make out the abandoned lighthouse in the distance.

I had to cross a few streams. I just got progressive lenses and all these rocks made my vision blurry,

Thankfully, the last half-mile to the lighthouse had a solid dirt path. After slogging through the sand, I felt like I was on a moving walkway.

Just below the lighthouse was a seal rookery. Oh, I forgot. While walking to the lighthouse, I saw up close four or five vultures feasting on a cute seal. Its head was intact and its eyes were open. It did not look like it was in pain. But the rest of its body was in the process of being picked clean. Nature.

The walk back was tough due to strong northerly winds. This is why they recommend that one-way hikers go from north to south. With about an eight of a mile left, I had a cramp in my quad.

I celebrated with an incredibly juicy and cheap ($7.55) jalapeno double bacon cheese burger with onion rings at No Brand Burger Stand in Ferndale.

Back in Shelter Cove, I decided to check out a couple of movies. The internet was too slow for streaming.

After 15 minutes, the In the Line of Fire tape broke. So I watched Clerks. It was still pretty funny.

The next morning, I drove back home. I listened to a pro-agriculture radio station. Its audience was mad at a recent California law that banned poor treatment of pigs and other livestock.

I stopped in Garberville and ATE INSIDE at Eel River Cafe. I went in because there was only one other guy eating inside (and I just had my second Moderna shot). It was hard getting used to eating inside.

THE END