Last week, Gordon, Sven and I spent four beautiful and relaxing days hiking 25 miles along the beach and bluffs from the mouth of the Mattole River to Shelter Cove, a location commonly known as the California "Lost Coast." We hiked an average of 6 miles a day, camping at Cooksie Creek, Big Flat Creek, and at Buck Creek. The first couple of days were very windy, and we were grateful to be hiking from north to south, with the wind at our backs and the flying sand hitting the backs of our legs rather than our faces. Although there are several places that are impassable at high tide, we were conveniently able to do most of our hiking in the morning hours, when the tide was low. We saw sea lions and seals sunning on the rocks; we explored tide pools and found sea stars, sun stars, hermit crabs, muscles, anemones, sea urchins, and even a few gumboot chitons (aka the giant pacific chiton). I confess that the first chiton that I "found," after cleaning it off and trying to lift it, turned out to be a rock. We had a wonderful time!
