overland

Lost Coast May trip with OTG

We had our inaugural OTG Trail Run event along Northern California's Lost Coast this past weekend. Yes, this includes some duplicate content, but I wanted to do a quick trip report to share what a Trail Run event is all about.

The itinerary for the Trail Run was to complete the Lost Coast 4x4 trail starting in the south at Usal Road, and work our way north towards the Mattole River Valley. To ensure we had enough time to enjoy the views and do some side adventures, we ended up doing the route over the course of 3 days and 3 nights.

Day 1
Perhaps a bit ironic, but we met at the Tesla Supercharger in Laytonville. The lot had a ton of parking, and I'm sure the few Tesla owners who did roll in were thing what the heck is going on with all the modded rigs?! We broke "camp" and made our way north along the 101 before veering south on Highway 1. The group aired down at a large pull out about 6 miles from Usal Road, and we split into two separate groups so as to mitigate any trail traffic jams on Usal Road. Aside from a bit of wind, the views along Usal Road were spectacular. The Lupine was in full bloom along some of the recently burned sections-- which is a good reminder as to why fireworks are not allowed at the beach (yes, this was caused from a firework a couple years back)!

Given the size of our group, we drove around scouting the interior campsites in the forest before we found a nice clearing in the alders a bit before the two camps in the redwoods. It worked out great as it was howling at the beach, and the mountainside and alder trees provided a ton of shelter-- we barely knew it was blowing 20 mph at the beach! Close to sunset, the wind finally died down, but then one of our neighbors figured it'd be a good idea to go mudding and doing donuts next to a bunch of campers in the woods. We heard it got his truck stuck in the mud around 10pm and was calling out for help according to a friend camping by the beach. Given how he'd treated his fellow campers, it looked like nobody felt obliged to return the favor and the truck was reportedly still stuck in the morning!

Day 2
The itinerary for day 2 was to make our way north towards Shelter Cove. We slogged through the 20+ miles of trees, turns, and bumps along Usal Road before breaking left at Four Corners and heading to the Needle Rock Visitor Center for lunch. We hung out for about 45 minutes, explored the visitor center, the barn, and snappes some photos of a pair of Elk, one of which was apparently laboring according to the caretaker. From Needle Rock we headed to the light house at Shelter Cove and did some exploring in the tide pools. One small colony of sea lions and another of habor seals were sunbathing along the exposed tide pools rocks. That night we ended up camping at Tolkan Campground, next to the Paradise Royal bike trail. If you haven't been to Tolkan, it sits atop a knoll, literally the highest point on that section of the ridge-- right where the wind likes to below through! It was windy most of the evening, and even after the wind died down, you could hear it blowing through the trees all night.

Day 3
Day 3 found us making our way to the Mattole River, with plans to camp at AW Way County Park. We figured we head straight for AW Way and try to secure out campsites early, but first we'd hit Saddle Mountain Road. Saddle Mountain is absolutely spectacular, and with blue skies all around and the pacific sitting 3,000 feet below, Saddle Mountain delivered some truly awe inspiring views. We followed the steep and loose trails down Saddle Mountain back to pavement along Mattole Road before heading to AW Way. We secured 5 separate camps all adjacent to one another, and it worked out great. The temps were in the low 70s (quite different from the night before!) and it looked like we'd be in for some pleasant weather later in the evening. Most of the group decided to head towards Mattole Beach with plans to make the 2 mile out and back hike to Punta Gorda Light House.

We arrived at Windy Point and parked our vehicles at the trailhead. If you haven't been to Windy Point, it's named that for a reason. The wind was howling but the views were second to none. Upon descending the hiking trail the wind began to subside and about 25 minutes later we arrived at Punta Gorda. To our surprise a colony of elephant seals lay on the beach right at the light house. Some in the group were walking on the sand and didn't even realize the seals were there until they were about 50 feet away! We climbed the spiral ladder in the light house to where the old light and lens used to be, snapped some photos and then trudged back to the vehicles. We made the biggest campfire of the trip and the group enjoyed laughs and stories over the flame.

Day 4
I'd been evangelizing the greatness of Bull Creek Flat Redwoods to the group, and quite a few decided they'd make the stop on their way home. I ended up running across @camtnbiker Ger and his buddy Dean at the Giant Tree in the Rockefeller Forest. Bull Flat has more 350'+ trees than any other forest on the planet, and as grand as Avenue of the Giants is, driving Mattole Road through through the ancient redwood forest is truly something else!

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