Multi day hikes – tamingthemilemonster

Wishing on the Lost Coast

Location: Lost Coast of Northern California, King Range National Conservation Area
Trails/days:

1. Day 1- Shelter Cove to Big Flat Creek Camp (roughly 9 miles)

2. Day 2- Big Flat to Maple Camp along Rattlesnake Ridge and King Crest Trails (8-9 miles)

3. Day 3- Maple Camp to Shelter Cove along King Crest, Buck Trail and coast (roughly 12 miles)

Good to Know: tide chart needed as parts of the coast are inaccessible during high tide, rattlesnakes live in the King Range, and there are bears so you must pack food /scented items in a bear canister

Glad I had: hiking poles and flip flops

Last summer (beginning of July) my husband and I spent 3 days on the trail along Northern California’s Lost Coast. All the details have faded a bit, but I couldn’t resist reminiscing about such an amazing place. I worried about leaving the kids for too long, so even though I wanted to go from North to South hugging the coast it would have made the trip a bit too long. So instead we decided to park at Shelter Cove, hike the coast the first day and then shoot up into the Kings Range on the second day and then hike back out. We packed and planned for 3 nights but ended up just hiking out late the last day since there were only a few miles left.

The route we took gave us the best of what the region can offer. Sea spray in your face one day, and sweeping views of the coast from a dry, brush splattered mountain the next. In between we saw fern valleys and forested stream beds. It was so beautiful at each turn that I nearly ran my husband into the ground from my excited pace I set. He was worried about me struggling with the weight, and he wanted to plan for any possible contingency, so his pack was way too heavy and mine was a bit light.

The first day was spent rock hopping, worrying over the tide chart, and enjoying the seaside. We made camp at the Big Flat Stream camping area the first night and I am pretty sure it was a slice of heaven on earth. The stream has cut a way through the cliff that appears to have a forest tumbling down out of it, and then it opens up so wide at the mouth leading out to the ocean. It was right at sunset and we were treated to watching a deer grazing on the seaweed. We had an hour to set up camp and eat, then after watching the amazing star display we rolled into bags hoping the bears wouldn’t play ball with our bear canister set out under a rock some ways away from camp.

Day two we woke to a coastal fog penetrating everything. It was cool and I was glad for my jacket and gloves as we packed up. Took a few moments to dance along the rocks at the shore looking for sea cucumbers and ocean critters, then we packed up and started our day of climbing. The trail starts gentle enough with some meadow land that leads into the streambed and ferned valley. Rattlesnake Ridge seems short on the map but that is because you will spend several hours in switchbacks. It is a steep relentless climb but manageable with one foot at a time. The bigger anxiety for me was having to straddle a large pine that crossed the path, which brought images racing in my mind of the movie where the guy is riding the bomb as it falls from the plane. It did seem we could be one slip of the foot away from our children growing up minus a parent or two. With that and the constant search for bears ahead and straining the ears for rattles- it was not a relaxing day strolling along the trail. But you certainly felt alive.

The trail gets pretty lost once you make it to the ridge line and you need to watch ahead for sudden drop offs and push brush out of the way. Even though it is much hotter at the higher elevation it is a good idea to wear long pants to not get scratched up. We didn’t encounter our first rattlesnake until we were up on the ridge trail (where we found 2) and we just skirted them to the best of our ability. We did run into a ranger on our way up. He excitedly said he followed a bear down the trail we were about to head up on. It was a nice chat, though I suspect he thought we had built the fire pit he was quickly demolishing in the camp we stopped at to make some lunch. My husband had fallen into the creek when trying to find a safe way for me to cross. So we had to stop for a bit to dry him out. He and I take different strategies to stream crossing- I don’t mind taking the effort to take off my boots and roll up my pants and just wade through because I don’t’ trust my balance much. I think he likes the challenge of trying to puzzle the way out.

It was a hard push to make it to camp before dark. I was nervous because we appeared to have about an hour of light left, but then made a turn that put us on the shady side of the mountain. I don’t mind hiking by headlamp except that we were on another series of switchbacks that were not the best defined and it was clear we couldn’t stop and just make camp in the steep terrain. We found camp right at dark and threw up the tent and crawled in. The site was also on an incline so we put our feet to the slope side and hoped to not slide in the night.

Day three waking up was like unwrapping gifts on Christmas morning, the forested views out our tent were awesome. We had a leisurely breakfast and look around before packing it up to head back down. It was nice how the trail opened up later in the morning onto a wider- old Jeep/service road style of trail. We had been having to talk back and forth in single file all of the second day and it was nice to relax and stroll a bit (there may have even been a bit of hand holding). By midafternoon the pack weight on my husband was taking its toll and he was falling behind. This was when I had an experience with wildlife. (No not a bear, we didn’t see any- though we did see the remains of the fish they had eaten on the coast.) I was going down the middle of the wide trail, feeling pretty safe since I had a good view and was steering clear of the deadfall; when I heard the rattlesnake. It was up on the hillside along the road which put it right about eyelevel. He was bending and curling as I backed away, trying to put more distance between up. I was much closer to one of the ground the day before and didn’t think much of it, but having this one eye-to-eye still makes me shudder thinking of the damage he could have done me if he chose to strike my upper body.

If day 2 was our day of doing nothing but climbing up, day 3 was nothing but coming down. My toes started to ache from being pushed forward in my boots. I must say though, Buck Trail was a much nicer trail to be on based on the shape, slope and vegetation along the way. I am glad we did the loop the way we did because the switchbacks on Rattlesnake were easier to climb up than they would have been to come down, but Buck Trail would make a nicer there and back trip. Once we hit the flat ground of the coast it was a tremendous relief to the muscles- which caused me to pick up the pace again (poor husband). We took a break when we hit the ocean again enjoying some time communing with the serenity of it all on the beach. Then headed back down the coast. It was pretty incredible how we had seemed so uncertain on our feet walking the rocky shore just a few days before and by day three we were surefooted and confident- which might just sum up the whole experience.

Hop Valley Trail Part 2

Zion National Park- Hop Valley Trail part. 2

Day three on the Trans-Zion trail.

By our afternoon break and snack we had made it through the Hop Valley and assumed we would be climbing out of the valley and get to the trailhead. We did climb out, and found ourselves on what appeared to be an old jeep trail that just continued to climb at a steady tolerable rate, for an hour. We happily emerged through a gate out of a pasture to the trailhead sign, yay! Though we didn’t see the car the other hikers said they parked at the trailhead and the road wasn’t where it should be according to our map- they don’t just go and move roads so we must not be as far along as we thought. Bummer. In fact we still had a good bit of the connector trail to get to the formal trailhead, but it was worth it as we found a vault toilet and garbage cans. Super extra bonus was that I had cell phone reception for the first time- I was able to call and discover all of my children (and my hubby) were still alive and well.

In the shadow of this surprising bit of civilization we ate tuna sandwiches (it is amazing out good a tuna packet spooned out onto slightly stale bread can taste!) and assessed our situation. Several things were clear:

1. The weather was pretty crappy. The winds had managed to blow in rain clouds that we could see dumping on various portions of the park in the distance.

2. It was dinner time and we still had roughly 4 more miles to go and needed to find a suitable campsite, with luck in daylight.

3. If the wind kept up would our tent stay put/upright through the night? (Yes, we indulged in the fantasy of perhaps setting up camp in the vault toilet to stay out of the winds.)

A second quick call to my husband to check the weather conditions encouraged us to keep going. Ok, so my husband told me we were silly and the tent would be fine. Done, and done. Off we went. (Knowing in the worst case scenario that there was another vault toilet at the Wildcat Canyon Trailhead.) On we marched with A.J. taking the lead and totally pulling me through the next few miles, thank you friend! One change that occurred at this point is that we had wandered into the land of the park rather than the wilderness. Again we had easy to follow trails and beautiful views. The one disappointment was that we found tons of deer scat but even though we passed through some wonderful open field areas, at dusk, we didn’t get to see any. This section was rather flat and enjoyable; however, once we got closer to the Wildcat Canyon the terrain changed to going over the rock formations we had been viewing from a distance all along. I was disheartened that the light was starting to go and we now had to scramble up and over rocks being guided only by stacked rock trail markers. The disheartening part is that earlier in the day I would have squealed with delight to clamor over such a fun feature, but now I was just tired and this was another obstacle between me and camp. We pushed hard and were thrilled when we made it to Wildcat Canyon around 8 o’clock. The wind was crazy sounding up high in the trees but it was relatively calm down on the canyon floor. We hunted around as much as we dared in the fading light for a site that didn’t include a host of dead trees to shed their limbs on our heads in the night, and set up camp in record time. We did take the extra precautions of staking the tent everywhere and tying the rain cover to a tree trunk. (The crazy wind had entered my psyche and I had wild visions of headlamp lights flashing in the night while we raced to catch a rain cover billowing away in the night.)

Heading into our bags for the night (did we even eat anything?) we soon discovered that the wind was having fun sneaking along us in the tent and sucking warm air from our sleeping bags. We experimented with layers of clothing and jackets draped over our bags but ended up spending a pretty cold night. It was so cold that we both agreed that the next day we wouldn’t roll out of bed until we could see some sunlight in the camp. But we can talk about that on day 4. Good night.

Zion National Park- Hop Valley Trail Part 1

Day three on the Trans-Zion trail.

Distance: Roughly 13 miles depending on camp choice.

Difficulty: Ranges from easy to moderate.

Water: Available but advised to not filter and drink.

The Hop Valley Trail leading us to our camp-at-large permit site in the Wildcat Canyon was set to be our biggest day of challenges along the Trans-Zion; first of all it was our longest stretch of mileage in one day around 13 miles, and second it was the stretch that included no water sources and a dry camp once we made Wildcat Canyon. So we decided to get up early, break camp and hit the trail; which in our tucked away canyon camp with no sun until late morning ended up as an 8am wake up. Nearly as soon as we crawled out of our tent it changed from a still morning to a windy day with a tremendous wind that started breezing through the camp making our camp stove work double time to produce some luke warm tea water.

We chatted about the regrettable case of our camp requiring us to backtrack nearly an extra mile that would have been avoided if we had moved our camp further south the day before, but we concentrated on creek hopping and planned to tank up on 6 liters of water each once we hit Camp 10; only we stumbled upon the trailhead before Camp 10 (*spoiler alert: first big mistake of the day about to commence) we were advised that Beatty Spring was nearby but weren’t sure if it was along LaVerkin or the Hop Valley Trail and so decided to head up the Hop Valley and hope it appeared. Two things: first the ranger said that this is the biggest spring along the route, that the vegetation changes considerably and you could probably hear the spring as it was so big; second, the Hop Valley sign had scratched into it the word Spring (thanks fellow hikers) however, it had an arrow pointing one direction with an X through it and a new arrow pointing the opposite direction. Leading us to feel we might have faulty intel. at best. Now, we should have stopped and consulted the map and figured this all out but in our excitement we pushed on hoping for the best.

Hop Valley is, of course, a valley. To get into the valley the trail turns into a rocky uphill grind to get over the ridge between the creek and the valley. So we headed up continually looking to our right anticipating vegetation change to lush greenery and to hear the lovely tinkle of running water. After close to an hour of up and head careening right, we admitted defeat in finding the spring that was never along this section of trail to begin with. We assessed our situation, we were on the longest driest score of trail with less than 2 liters each. There is water in the Hop Valley but the warnings against drinking it (I kid you not here) ranged from “I would drink it filtered if I were dying, maybe.” to “If you are dehydrated, drink it.” (I really think these two opposing views were offered by the same ranger at different times, on the phone a week earlier and then in person the day we began.)My partner A.J. voted we push on and just plan to get water in Hop Valley and I voted to be cautious and head back to a large known water source, LaVerkin Creek. Prudence won out, and we ditched our packs in some scrub brush, fashioned very fashionable water carrying belts of cords and carbineers and headed back down the Hop Valley Trail. And then back over again once we had tanked up. (Mind you, still never finding the Beatty Spring even while we looked again, now to the left the entire way we went.) Curse you, only slightly mind you, Beatty Spring. Honestly, if the rangers had just said to ignore the spring as there is plenty of water in the same vicinity from the creek we would have saved a huge amount of time and effort.

After finding our packs, having a quick snack and slathering on the sun screen we finally headed out to truly being the Hop Valley Trail. Staggering a bit under the nearly 10lbs of new weight. The trail begins with the rocky uphill climb, levels off in a rather narrow valley where we were welcomed by wild turkeys, and then descends further down another rocky bit to finally come into the large beautiful Hop Valley. The entire landscape opens up with water meandering along a sandy bottom, pastures and more gorgeous rock formations lining the valley walls as far as the eye can stretch.

Regal trees pop up in unexpected places as you pump out the easiest set of miles over the entire day. You immediately cross the water (you will cross back and forth the entire way) and find the trail by the marker. We were warned the trail is sand, and sand it is. Heavy beach walking kinda sand, with your heaviest pack- yep. You quickly find the two camps as they are on the closest end of the valley, and can’t help but fantasize a bit about hefting your pack off, setting up camp and lying under one of the gorgeous trees in the grass reading a novel or taking a nap. Instead we pressed on enchanted by the wonder of our surroundings but one factor was become non-enchanting: the wind. A.J. had her contacts in and the strong steady headwind kicked up dirt into our eyes causing several blinking stops and it forced us to lean in further. This was the first portion of the trail that felt like we owned the place without another soul around and the flat terrain made for some relatively easy miles. There is evidence of cow grazing mainly in the way of old fence posts and cowpies. We didn’t see any more turkeys but it was fun seeing their tracks down by the water- huge feet!

There are not a lot of signs pointing the way, but there were tons of boot prints. It didn’t always pay to follow the boot prints as several times they led in a way that clearly many people thought was the way but actually wasn’t. With the sandy sand on the trail and the compact sand along the water, I would suggest keeping the trial within sight but walking along the water instead; knowing that you are in a valley and you came in one direction and have to leave in the other direction. Now when you get to the end of the valley it is inexplicably confusing. The water will decidedly turn left and head between two rock walls, the trail will appear to keep heading straight ahead, and then there is a trail marker that appears to point straight up a hill where there are countless boot prints all around. If you stand directly in front of the trail marker and face the way it is pointing you will find it isn’t really pointing up the hill, and the trail is so worn that it is pretty easy to decide to keep heading in the correct direction; I can only assume the marker is where it is due to the boundaries of private property that are clearly marked in the area. We did encounter one other party of a man and woman heading in the opposite direction, we found out from them that the wind was forecasted to hit up to 65 mile per hour gusts and turn in the night to come from the North. It is funny how the wind felt much harder to battle after that news; but I kept saying wind is easier than rain to deal with.

Zion National Park- LaVerkin Creek Trail

Time of year: Mid-April

2 nights as the first portion of the Trans-Zion trail from Lee Pass to the Groto.

Distance: About 8.5 miles one-way.

Difficulty: Easy- very wide well-established trail that is well marked with all camps numbered with signs. Some up and down on the trail and some creek crossings.

Water is continually available once you have descended down to the creek which will take no more than an hour or two depending on speed.

Less Pass Trailhead consists of a series of parking spaces with a sign clearly marking the trailhead. You descend immediately down along a mixed rocky/dirt trail.

My hiking partner and I excitedly headed down the trail. We encountered several other hikers early in the day who were out day hiking to see the Kolob arch. We even trailed and criss-crossed for several hours with a small group of horse riders along the trail. The terrain and views are magnificent, with early spring flowers and tree buds at our boots and the gorgeous expanses of the canyon walls and peaks when we looked up. You certainly can’t help but feel intimidated and humbled when you first step onto the trail and look around and the cathedral-like expanses of stunning rock that surrounds you. The trail immediately enchants with lizards scrambling into the sunshine atop boulders, random butterflies and moths floating by on the breeze and an interesting varied landscape with new plants around every winding curve of the well-established trail as it heads down to the Creekside.

We passed along all of the camps during the course of the day, if your goal is to see and play near the arch, camps one and two are disappointingly too close to the Lee Pass trailhead; they appear to best serve those who are hiking out to Lee Pass and wish to spend one last night on the trail. All of the camps are very well established and will easily accommodate the group sizes that they are rated for. They all appear to have several clearing options for tents, logs/rocks arranged conveniently for sitting around your cook stove, the Creekside nearby for water, and trees for hanging food and shade. No campfires allowed. Camps 7 and 8 were very close together, ideal for multiple groups wanting to be close to each other and are near the water. Camps 9-12 are all close by the water. If I go back along this section of trail I would ask for Camp 10, it is near a tiny waterfall feature of the creek, it is on the opposite side of the creek from where the main trail travels and it is ideally situated to both reach the Kolob arch as well as continue onto the Hop Valley trail if going further on.

We spent two nights in Camp 12. It took us about 5 hours to go from the trailhead to Camp 12 including multiple stops to enjoy the scenery and to have water and food. Toward the end we did make multiple crossings of the creek which have many stepping stone options, but it was much easier to navigate the weight of the packs by using hiking sticks for stability when crossing. It was a very nice camp that met all of our needs with nice trees and close proximity to the creek. It was pocketed away more in the canyon than we expected making it late morning before the sun made it into our camp. We saved the arch for day two so we would have an exciting landmark to go explore when we woke up. The day two hike back to the arch over familiar trail was great fun and going to see the arch with lightly weighted packs and plenty of time made it feel a bit like a vacation within a vacation.

Once you turn off of La Verkin trail up toward the arch it is only another .5 miles until you get to the viewing area. The arch is still very far away and there are multiple trees that make it a bit obscured but it was still a neat feature to get to check out. We chose to continue on and hike the trail up the creek past the arch to find yet another small waterfall. It was fun tripping along the streambed exploring further afield, but in truth, there isn’t much change to the landscape as you continue. When we had our fill of the arch trail, we headed back to our camp, and I must admit it was great to head back knowing camp was already setup for us. We chose a leisurely afternoon of washing out our clothes, taking a creek bath and an early dinner. After dinner we donned our flip flops, and took a flip flop walk further up the trail toward camp 13, we chose to turn back after about a half hour as our footwear wasn’t ideal but did see even more glorious rock formations that really shone in the late afternoon light. The weather was amazing the first two days reaching the upper 70’s during the day and the low 40’s at night. The nights were cool with the sound of the creek soothing our weariness and the stars were stunning.

We turned in early knowing we needed to pack up early and head out of La Verkin the next day to tackle the longest stretch of our Trans-Zion journey the next day. While it was great fun having the same camp to come home to two days in a row, it would have shaved a good mile off of our longest stretch if we had moved from camp 12 down to 9 or 10 for the second night which are more closely situated near the Hop Valley trail head.

Trans-Zion Success!

I know everyone has been waiting to hear about the Zion trip. My hiking partner and I had an amazing time traversing the Northern region of the Zion National Park Wilderness area. Starting at Lee Pass and ending down at the Grotto. We covered over 40 miles in 5 days and witnessed some sensational scenery and had a great time testing our limits and enjoying some communion with a wondrous location. Over the next few weeks I will break out the details and adventures we encountered but here is a sneak peak at some of the views!

Location: Zion National Park

Season: Mid-April

Conditions: ranged from mid-70’s during the day to lows of 20 at night with wind gusts of up to 55 miles per hour.

Terrain: varied from flat valley floors to creek crossings to climbing rock switchbacks to the Rim.

Difficulty: Moderate

Pros: scenery, easy to follow trail, fewer people than the main park.

Cons: water resources can be scarce, distances between camps determine the daily mileage more than the hiker’s preference, wind and cold temps.