Bull Frog Toes - Adventures and Stories: Part 17 - The Lost Coast Trail - Day 4

Start Here - The Lost Coast Trail - Part 1

Continued from - Part 16 - Kings Peak to Maple Camp

It was an uneventful night - albeit too short to cure the pain that was building up in me all over. My knee was in a state of denial and decided it was going to stay behind and rest another day. My big toe - left foot - had a wonderfully odd membrane blister that gave the appearance of a bullfrog's chin. I decided months later to name this Blogspot after my toe. What an honor to bestow.

Flyrod and I took to some medical triage to get our feet ready for what we know would be a punishing trip down to the beach. Lots of switchbacks. So - drain the bull frog, wrap the toes, apply duct tape to the ankles and get ready for breakfast.

Whitey decided to make some quesadillas with his leftover cheddar cheese strips, pita bread, and some olive oil. He fried 'em up in a pan and they were damn good. We had our coffee and oatmeal too.

So we donned our packs and started up out of the saddle and down to find the trail. Oddly the heavy weight of the pack was welcomed. The compression seemed to initially help the joint pain by tightening up the gaps. Since I borrowed Whitey's hiking pole I realized that he should have it back so he could save his knees on the descent. Lucky for me I found a 5 foot long Douglas Fir branch on the trail that seemed pretty sturdy - I named it Wilson after Tom Hanks companion volleyball from Castaway. There would be lonely pain.

MASH unit - Shelter Cove

Some really big pine cones.

Found the trail head - are we leaning? Need a V8.

The views from the top of Buck Creek were really awesome. We could see our destination in the distance - like a mirage that kept appearing and disappearing as we made our way down. 'Wilson' was a big help for me as I adopted a kind of march - dig back heel into trail to keep toes off front of boot - then roll foot forward and lift. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. After a while we all needed to put the brakes on and stop on a level spot or turn uphill to reduce the burn in our quads. This was a very step trail.

At one time, the trail must have been an old fire road or jeep trail. It was very wide in some places and I dreamed of a nice low-geared Willy's Jeep to take me to the bottom. But it never appeared.

By this time I was out of Advil and the available Aleve medication does not seem to work for me. Flyrod however had some Advil - one pill. I had to have it. When we took a break on a log on the side of the trail, I dangled a Cherry Gatorade mix packet in front of Flyrod - he thought I was giving it to him - but I was actually hoping to exchange it for some drugs. I did not have any color TVs to pawn for my habit - so we agreed that his one Advil - provided NOW! - would be exchanged for 1/2 of the Gatorade packet once we got to the beach. Deal!!

Down Down Down - Shelter Cove in the distance

Million Dollar Views!!

Always waiting for me.

As we got closer to the bottom of the trail, the forest changed once again to a rain forest - like it was when we started up Rattlesnake ridge. Ferns and enormous trees that grew tall were protected in the nooks on the side of the mountain. Some of the Douglas Firs were easily 6 to 8 feet in diameter and climbed upward out of the shady forest floor. Of course I posed on one for grins. Or not - I really was not smiling much at this point.

See, a road - where is my Willys Jeep

I borrowed back Whitey's hiking pole to get down for the pic - not smiling.

Coming out of the rain forest section we could start to hear the surf of the beach and Buck Creek entering the ocean. That meant we only had 5 miles left to get back to Shelter Cove on the beach. It was a comforting thought.