The Lost Coast Day Three

This day was so great. We didn't know how awesome it would be to sleep in and hang out until 11:30am waiting for the tide to start to recede. It was amazing. It was so nice to take our time in the morning. Let our tents dry out. Eat a warm breakfast. Enjoy a Brady fire. Watch the Otter put on a show for us. It was a great start to the last day.

Our Otter friend. It was way better than the zoo. He swam did flips and showed off for a little while.

Time to start hiking. This was our first time hiking while the tide was going out and it was awesome. We hiked a little over 7 miles to Shelter Cove. The bad news was that it was all on sand. Lots of it was on really fine black sand which meant we were not super fast.

 Another foggy gray day. Luckily we didn't have any precipitation.

 Some of the beaches were so rugged.

 It is crazy how yu felt all alone. We hardly saw any other hikers. In the peak season this would be a little different because they give out twice as many permits. We felt like we had the whole coast to ourselves.

There were some beaches that had some pretty big rocks.

Occasionally there would be a little inlet in the bluffs and we enjoyed looking at some pretty canyons. These two pictures are two of my favorite from the trip.

We knew we were getting close to Shelter Cove when we started running into day hikers. We took advantage and asked them to snap a group picture.

 Then we hit the black sand. This was the really fine sand that was tiring to hike in.

 I didn't get a picture but we also saw bear prints on the sand this day. It was cool to see. We had to have bear bins and knew they were around but it was cool to see evidence of them.

 I could see the end at this point. That means it is selfie time!!!!!

 This last section was during low tide. The ocean is so incredible to me. You can see how low the water is. You can also see why it is a scary beach when it is high tide.

We made it to the end!!!!!!!I loved the last day. We timed the tide perfectly and so I felt very safe all day. We weren't racing against danger.

 I loved hiking with these people. Such a great group. I felt like a grandma compared to them but I loved the trip.

 I think because I am so much older I felt responsible for their safe return. That is ridiculous because they are all adults but it stressed me out a little while we were hiking.

 Gotta love the signs as we were leaving the beach.

 I am laughing because I know we made it out alive. I now have zero stress!

Such a cool hike. We headed back towards civilization and stopped at the best little burger joint. We took three days two nights to hike the 25 miles. I would not have wanted more time. We had plenty of down time in my opinion. The few groups we did talk to were hiking 4 or 5 days. So we did it faster than most. I feel like this would be a great introduction hike for people getting into backpacking. While hiking in the sand is challenging I felt like it was easier than going uphill. I actually didn't realize how tired my body was until I hiked three days later, Tuesday, and just felt very tired. This was  GREAT TRIP!