Lost Coast Trail, part 2.

We began our day with a stream crossing and rainbow.  Following our fearless weatherman's lead, we removed our rain gear and crossed Cooskie Creek.  The sun had been out all through breakfast.  Then a cloud promptly lowered itself upon us and not only rained that super fun sideways rain, but it hailed a bit too.  Did I also mention that I had chosen that same moment to go to the bathroom?  My legs and backside glowed a bright red in the cold wind.  Not my favorite way to start the morning.

Soon we were continuing on along the beach.  Now that my backside was securely sheltered, it wasn't so bad. The rain shower continued as we approached our first hikers of the day.  They were heading north, directly into the driving rain.  The first group looked cold and wore ponchos instead of rain coats.  The second group, dressed more like hikers that expected to get wet greeted us with smiles.  "Nice morning for a walk on the beach, isn't it?" they asked once we were close enough to hear.  Attitude is everything...and apparently, not getting caught with your pants around your ankles when the hail hits.

Just as we were thoroughly soaked through, the rain subsided and sun appeared.  This was basically the way the day continued, but once our pants dried, we kept the rain gear on.  We were done playing games with Mother Nature and her shenanigans. 

Eventually, the trail left the rocky beach and meandered along an open plain.  Great hillsides of poppies added orange flair to the green grasses.  Even the poppies were reluctant to open on this wet day, they knew enough to stay bundled up.  The fields eventually changed to those of my favorite wilderness flower, lupine.  If I were to look at photos from my Alaska backpack adventures, about half of them would be of this incredibly photogenic and common plant that just happens to be my favorite color.  It is a little harder to find here in my part of California.

We also marveled at the amazing rocky designs of some cliffs.  Zebra stripe cliffs we called them, but I don't know what they really are, Matt suspected they had something to do with a nearby fault line.

I sometimes feel like I slow down my friends when I take as many photos as I do on these trips.  Frequently, they stop to wait when they realize I'm not right behind.  I often sneak away intentionally and catch up, other times I'm too far behind and unable to.  Thankfully, it never bothered these friends.  Their only suggestion was that I take some photos of when the weather wasn't pretty and sunshine.  Okay, here it is guys: 

It looked like this about 60% of the day.

The other 40% looked like this:

Weatherman Cloud Porn

this:

One of my favorites from the entire trip.

and this:

We were finally sick of the wind for the day when we reached the point where Rattlesnake Ridge trail branches off.  It was one hour before high tide, and we decided to call it a day and leave the last stretch of beach for our final day.  Kim and I set up the tents together, throwing all our things inside to keep them from blowing away. 

Out of the wind, it felt sunny and wonderful and all of us walked around barefoot that evening (I later got Poison Oak on my feet, so yeah, bad idea).  We had dinner with the company of many deer.  They were unafraid and were equally entertained by us as we were with their dinnertime gymnastics routines as they reached for the good leaves way up high.

Our evening was spent playing euchre.  I have to relearn how to play every time we visit with Joel.  For the second day in a row, I suggested I sit out and watch them play.  For the second day in a row, I got a really great nap out of it.  Some taper this was turning out to be, hehe. :)