We initially thought we would camp at Big Flat/Miller Flat today; an area that is supposed to have nice campsites and wildlife. This area is around six miles from Spanish Flat with no impassable zones, so we could hike at any time. It was still foggy when we started off in the morning, but like our other days, the fog eventually burned off to reveal a gorgeous sunny day. This section of trail bounced between the beach and an inland trail, which was a nice break from hiking in the sand. We knew there was a private inholding around Big Flat and as we approached this area, the Lost Coast loses some of its wildness. There is a large house in this area that was busy with activity (and had a small plane in front). We saw people camped and hanging around the house and also saw a large group of people by the beach, many of them surfing (the next day we would see some of these surfers hiking out with their surfboards). We weren’t super keen on camping around here and it was early in the day, so we decided to keep on going. We were well within the tide window for the next impassable zone and decided to continue down the beach. Also factoring into our decision was that it was a beautiful day and the forecast when we started our hike called for potential rain the next day - so we thought it would be best to do more hiking while the weather was perfect.

This next impassable zone also stretches for 4 ish miles between Miller Flat and Gitchell Creek. Similar to the previous impassable zone, it was some of the most beautiful scenery of the hike. We thought we would stop and camp at Gitchell Creek, but we blew right by it. It was pretty small and didn’t look like it had campsites, so we missed it. By this time the hike was close to eleven miles. We tacked on two more miles to reach the next creek called Horse Mountain Creek. All in all we did thirteen miles and I was ready to pitch camp by the time we got there (the rocks/sand for thirteen miles did a number on my ankle on the leg I had Achilles surgery on last year). This was another campsite that was prime oceanfront property - we had a nice evening watching the sunset and enjoying our last night camping on the beach.

Because we had hiked thirteen miles on Day 3, our Day 4 was very short with only two miles to the trailhead at Black Sands Beach. We were clear to hike at any time (no impassable zone) and it was no surprise that it was foggy when we set off in the morning. I wasn’t a fan of the fog and how it made everything in our tent damp, but it sure made for some atmospheric scenery on the beach. It didn’t take long for us to reach the trailhead and we headed back into Shelter Cove for lunch. The afternoon was sunny and we were able to enjoy Shelter Cove under blue skies instead of the gloomy day we had when we arrived. We spent the night at Black Sands Inn (quite lovely with a room on the ocean) and said goodbye to the Lost Coast the next day. I’m so glad we were able to do this hike - it was truly wild and gorgeous.