Lost Coast Challenge 3/23-24

[Jay Wilkerson]

Locals Only

Honeydew Cabins

Limited Space

Fort Knox

Tarp Set Up

Mattole Road

Diversity

[Ken Thompson]

Aka A Thorough Soaking

Still dry

Hustling along into the increasing wind

Occupied at the light, we press on

WINDY! Check the deflection on the tent

Undeterred by the weather spirits were still high.

We all learned something, and survived

Even some snow.

Thanks for the show Mother Nature.

[Matthew Black]

I missed the sea lion. Good to see you guys.

[Luke Schmidt]

Thanks for posting ya'll. I always regretted I never made it to the Lost Coast while I was in CA.
Whats with the snow is that normal? I thought snow along the CA cost was really, really rare.

[Justin Baker]

Luke, some of the roads around there go up pretty high. The king range can get up to 3,000-4,000 ft, even though it's right next to the ocean.

[Ken Thompson]

That amount of snow is unusual, especially this late. It was a big, cold storm front. Came in pretty quick as people started their day here in shorts.

[Adam Criswell]

Glad you all made it back safely, I was wondering how the weather would be. Wind + rain can be a pretty dismal combination.

[Diana Vann]

For posting the report and photos. Did you get back a day early?

I was (and am) in the snow this weekend, too. When the Lost Coast trip filled up to capacity, I was disappointed, but made plans to go skiing at Lake Tahoe instead. It's snowing up here (lightly). But at the end of a day out in the elements, a bed and hot tub await. Still, I'm sorry I missed going on the trip. It looks as if you had a great time.

[Matthew Black]

Oh, I had a hot tub and a bed alright; the shallow pool of frigid water I was laying in warmed up very quickly and my station wagon was a palatial canopy bed when I hiked out in the dark.

It was a great effort and I only regret not bringing older and heavier gear that would have been much better suited to the conditions. The snow on the drive out was stunning and it is always a treat to head up North and visit with Ken.

Now I am going to go bat some clumps of wet down around again in my poor little sleeping bag.

[Matthew Black]

iPhone photos through a Loksak aren't very clear.

[Chris C]

Did you guys get lots of precipitation or just the usual relentless wind?

[Matthew Black]

On the way out we had gusts of wind from the South that drove sand into us hard enough to be painful and halt our progress. Luckily this was intermittent although the wind was constant.
We received wind driven rain from about 8:00pm until about 6:00am. It was initially from the Southeast then came in from the Southwest. Ken Thompson served as an excellent advertisement for Hilleberg tents and Casey is the poster boy for site selection.

Thanks for the hat, Kat. My head is the one thing that never felt cold.

[Jay Wilkerson]

First of many creek crossings.

Wind swept dunes.

[Joshua Billings]

Nice trip you guys. Love it up there! Ken, your tent must have behaved admirably in those conditions. Did you hike in the snow or just drive though it?

[Jay Wilkerson]

We just drove through it Josh. What we needed was your pyramid tent–the weather was fierce! My sleeping bag got soaked and my tent failed in the wind. Lots of lessons learned.

[Ken Thompson]

@ Josh Yes the Unna performed just as advertised. It's a pig, a warm dry pig. Worth every penny as it paid for itself that night alone. Huge amount of space for one. No discernible amount of wind movement inside made for a restful, warm environment.
Needed less layers on because of that. Nice.

[Ryan Slack]

Though I've never been, I love looking at trip reports of the Lost Coast, especially those sans bluebird days. From the comfort of a laptop, it looks quite adventurous. Not sure if you felt that way every minute out there.

Sorry if I missed this while reading: I count two Tarptents and one Hilleberg, for four people. Did two of you double up or did someone sleep under that tarp? Wondering, if so, how that worked out in the conditions!

[Matthew Black]

The tarp is a5x8 Integral Designs Sil1 and it worked out very poorly. I lack the experience and skills to make it work in that kind of a downpour and obstinately refused to believe that I was already facing the big rain night.

I've consistently seen recommendations for 8×10 as the safe minimum and I will not forget this.

On the bright side I really did enjoy the hike out in darkness with the detritus and flooding left by the storm all around me lit only by a Photon keychain light.

I was also impressed by how warm I stayed in a down bag as it wicked moisture throughout the torso. This is primarily due to the pad beneath me, but it was still eye opening.

[Ryan Slack]

Well, hindsight being 20/20 and whatnot.

Looking at those pictures, if I were to choose between my 6×9 tarp and my 8×10 I would definitely pack the latter unless I had a wpb bivy. 5×8 is quite small, but workable in more protected areas especially with some kind of splash bivy. I find the extra length to be even more helpful than the extra width, especially in any kind of half-pyramid type pitch (pitching with steeper angles).

I hope you didn't hurt your sleeping bag's feelings. Otherwise it looks like you had the most adventure of all!

[Matthew Black]

She's an old' bag and though she isn't speaking to me now, I suspect she will come around.

[David W.]

Sorry I missed this one. It looks beautiful and chilly. As a fellow Contrail owner, I feel like I suffered vicariously through Jay. I guess I will need to buy or borrow a tent before I do the Lost Coast.

[Author]

Posts