We found the lost coast, sadly it is no longer lost...

One of the most beautiful spots of all the California coast (in my mind) is the small area of land west of Highway 1 (yes in one part of California there is a west of Highway 1) called the Lost Coast. It so called because there is no freeway hugging the beach in this area and thanks to this we have relatively few tourists in that area, mostly backpackers and adventurous campers who stray from the highway. This beautiful stretch of coast is so remote and rugged that the people who build highways for a living thought it was to much of a challenge to put a road through, don't we all wish the whole coast was like that? We decided to check out this area as a precursor to a backpacking trip in the coming weeks. We made it out to the Mattole River at the northern end of the preserve. I think we may start here and hike south for a ways and then explore the mountains a bit before heading back. All to be completed in a mere 3 days, hope our hiking shoes are comfy and waterproof! I've backpacked here before but it remains one of the best trips of my life, one I would love to repeat, one I hopefully will get to return to in the next few weeks. Well back to our trip around the lost coast... We stayed at a really nice county park along the Mattole River just inland near Honeydew. This campground surely is a lost jewel. Who knew that a county park could have such a nice campground. It was right on the river and the campsites were really spaced out, if anyone is in the area A.W. Way County Park should be on your list of places to stay. The next day we drove over the mountains to Humboldt Redwoods State Park where there was one or two massive trees. Well maybe like one or two million! We did a small hike and hurried on to the Eel River so we could relax, wash up and get some sun. Instead of going to a known swimming spot we just randomly drove down the highway looking for something that looked promising... and after 4 or 5 stops we found a great spot off 101 that took some work getting down to. It was some random pull off (I wont tell you where) that we hiked through some brush and scolding hot sand to get to that I don't think many other people ever see, unless its from the road. It was a great little spot, couldn't see much of the highway and we knew no one else would make that trip down without us seeing them first. The water was not freezing and the sun was out which made for a delightful few hours. Driving home we started looking for restaurants to eat at and wound up in Myers Flat at this winery called Riverbend Cellars. That was one of those random life encounters where afterwards you say to yourself, what??? We learned the life history of the wine pourer (he's an electrical engineer from Chicago who walked and hitched his way across the US without any money). He was a bit odd but really friendly and the complete opposite of so many wine people in Sonoma and Napa. We lost a bet to him about the distance from Myers Flat to Arcata so we had to buy a bottle of wine but thanks to Nicole's haggling skills we walked away without having to pay a tasting fee. Way to go Honey :)