This trip was
my son's first backpacking trip (he is 6) and he had a blast. Point
Reyes National Seashore offers a number of camping options. Coast Camp
is a short 3.1 miles each way via the Coast Trail
or a really short 2.1 miles via a "Fire Lane Trail", see map
and profile below. 
Tyler
and I decided on doing the short route, since it was shorter, and because
the longer route (Coast Trail) was closed. It was closed earlier in
the season due to flooding of the creek that runs through there, but
today it was closed because a salvage crew was removing a wrecked salmon
troller from the beach and using the trail to transport material on.
Here is the link
to the youtube video (shot by someone when it was on the beach intact
a few days earlier). You can read the blurb on the youtube video, but
basically the captain fell asleep at the wheel and ran aground on the
beach. I did not follow my own rule on this trip of calling a ranger
ahead of time to find out current conditions, so this news was a surprise
(and provided some excitement for my son). The other surprise was that
the rangers were requiring us to pack in our own water... they said
the line was shutoff as the water line runs along the Coast Trail where
the heavy machinery was traveling. I did not ask for details, as I was
considering my options on the carrying enough water for the trip. I
decided to play it safe and carry an extra gallon to share between the
two of us, after topping off our containers for the way in. I also had
a filter with me as I knew there is a creek that runs into the ocean
here. The ranger told us to not use the creek though since they expected
many campers and did not want everyone accessing the creek to get drinking
water. Again I did not question the logic I just went with it (with
the short hike in even carrying a gallon of water was not really much
of an inconvenience).
The beauty of this camp is you are right on the water (well a really short hike down to it) and you can explore the beach once you have setup camp. Wildcat Camp is also the same distance from the ocean but the sites are really close together. At Coast Camp sites 1 through 7 are the best with each offering some privacy from the other sites. We stayed at site #4 and it is adequate for 1 tent maybe a second but it would block access into the site and be on a slight slope. See my previous trip here for a description of larger site #7. All 14 sites are pretty exposed as you can imagine being this close to the beach, Sites 1 through 4 are probably the best if you still want to see a corner of the ocean (no breaking waves just blue ocean). Even if you can't see the ocean you will hear it in the evening/early morning. Things to note are poison oak is plentiful and the raccoons here are no joke. Lock up anything that smells or looks like food. Each site has a metal locker, picnic bench and barbeque. There is a really nice pit toilet near sites 9 and 10 with water near the beach access trail. Sites do book up for the weekends so reserve your site early. We went on a Friday and most (if not all) sites were occupied that night. Permits can be obtained through www.reserveamerica.com. Permits must be picked up from the Bear Valley Visitor Center on your way in. If you are arriving outside of the visitor center's hours they will post permit outside for you. Shot is of beach looking south from Coast Camp.
Tyler and I were hiking
in from Laguna Trailhead using the Laguna Trail, to the "Fire Lane
Trail", to Coast Camp. Getting to the trailhead is easy. After
you leave the Bear Valley Visitor Center( located at 1 Bear Valley Road)
take a left onto Limantour Road. Look for a sign for the Hostel/Laguna
Trailhead on the left. Take the left onto this one lane road and pass
the Coast Trailhead on the right and then the Hostel on the left. On
the right you will see the Laguna Trailhead and cross a bridge over
the creek and into the parking lot. As you can see leaving on a Friday
afternoon cut down on the vehicles in the parking lot. We had a total
of three cars in the lot with us.
The trail is well marked
with you headed in a southwest direction for the bulk of the trip in.
My gps confirmed the sign mileage of 2.1 miles each way and around a
200' of up and another 250' of down on the way in. The way out seems
more uphill than downhill even though it is pretty even. Here is Tyler
getting ready to hand the water to me after he discovered what a gallon
of water weighs.
So the driveway/trail is
prominent in this shot. The buildings house some equipment and also
some rangers. The trail makes a quick right following the ridge.
The first junction happens before you are even warmed up. Stay right/straight
at this junction to get to Coast Camp. Notice the directions to the
Hostel. This is the hostel you passed on the way in along the road.
We talked with some people staying there on the way out and they reported
it as very clean and reasonable. I guess it books up but they rent out
the group area space, if there are no groups, without a reservation
needed.
This is the same shot with the view pulled back some. Hard to miss the
junction here. We saw a guided trip going in on our way out the next
morning. They were stopped here discussing the plant you don't want
to get too close to on this trail, Poison Oak. It is plentiful along
the trail and at camp. If you stay on the trail and are mindful of keeping
out of the bushes at camp you will be fine.
Tyler's first water break headed up to the ridge on the way in. Weather
was perfect with a high near 60 with a breeze that kept the fog away
all night.
There are plenty of plants that grow through here (besides Poison Oak).
The larger plants that have the purple flowers on the way in are Point
Reyes Creeper. This one in the shot below is of some Common Horsetail.
To me it looks like spiky bamboo.
Stay right/straight at the next junction as well unless you are headed
over to Sky Camp. This shot is a the junction looking towards the Sky
Camp "Fire Lane Trail".
Here is the same junction
looking at the other signs on the post. This is about the halfway point
if you are headed to Coast Camp.
This hike is exposed. There is no shade so bring a hat and some sun
block. This is the only shot I have of trees on this trip. They look
like they have been on their way out for some time now.
Here is one friend we saw along the way. Some of the bigger animals
that use this trail are horses. We saw two groups headed out that day.
Once you get to the top of the ridge you will start to see the blue
ocean in the distance (so make sure you aren't just looking at your
feet)..
Another shot of the trail on the way down to camp. The big tree in the
center is along the trail from Coast Camp to the beach.
Apparently I needed to have Tyler hike a little farther as he seemed
to have plenty of energy left for some air guitar. Notice the number
on the food locker (that is sadly not mouse proof) and the bbq. We setup
camp and headed to see what this shipwreck was all about. Many of the
hikers that we ran into that day told us it was worth checking out..
Tyler brought a few essentials
for the sand...
Here is that tree I mentioned
earlier. It had a brand new swing setup on it. Pretty sweet. It had
an email address from the people that set it up a few days earlier so
I was sure to send them a thank you from Tyler and I for going to the
trouble.
Tyler thought it was cool enough to try out for a bit before we headed
to dig for treasure.
As we headed to the beach
I took this shot back towards sites 1 through 7. Notice you can only
see one site. The park service did a great job spacing the sites out
and making sure to leave enough of the natural landscape to camouflage
them well. Although you may hear your neighbors at camp, you aren't
going to see them.
This is the creek that runs
down to the ocean. As you can see it is pretty small but flows enough
to be a good water supply (at least this time of year). Tyler and I
picked a good spot to jump over it and headed north on the beach to
the front loader we saw cruising along..
It was very hard to miss the action on the beach. The excavator and
front loader were both being used to demolish the leftovers of the troller
that wrecked here a few days earlier..
Did I mention it was a little windy?! We got sandblasted a couple times
on the way to the action.
We spoke to ranger Nat for
a bit to get the lowdown on the work being done. You can see him helping
load the 55 gallon drums of fuel into the front loader. This was the
last load of the day as the dump was closed until Monday, so they couldn't
haul any more debris until after the weekend. Nat was nice enough to
show us some pictures on his phone of the boat the day after it ran
aground. They had pretty much cleaned it up by the time Tyler and I
got there. Most of what was left was debris and drive shaft. The life
boat that the captain used was still intact and on the beach though..
Nat told us that the boat was pulled up above the tide line to be worked
on after most of the valuables were taken off it the first day. The
youtube link
shows the boat actually in the surf.
After watching the front loader head off Tyler decided he would create
a dam in the creek.
We had a quiet evening at camp and most of our neighbors did not stay
up too late (or if they did they were very stealth about it). It was
windy that night but the bushes around camp kept us somewhat sheltered.
We had locked up everything that resembled food into our food locker..
except my water bag. That night I heard quite a bit of animal activity.
When I heard the sound of plastic getting chewed on the picnic table
nearby I investigated to find my water bag with a single puncture and
tipped on its side. Luckily it held water fine if tipped on its side,
opposite the puncture. Silly raccoons were thirsty, or mad that I locked
up everything. I also heard either a rabbit or racoon get into it with
something that growled. Whatever it was it certainly lost that fight,
and probably is no longer based on the final "scream" noise
it let out. Tyler slept through all of the nighttime noises and was
bright the next day. Here he is filling up the canteen the next morning
at our makeshift sink. We also lost one cliff bar to a mouse that evening.
Apparently the mouse can sneak into the food locker.
Tyler said goodbye to the
beach the next morning and we hit the trail. Weather was a little warmer
than the previous day and a little less windy.
We saw rangers moving this
water tank before we left the camp area that morning. The building is
the pit toilets. I imagine that this was a temporary water solution
for the weekend and possibly the next week for the final stage of the
salvage operation.
A quail that decided to check
out the view from atop a bush. .
So we made it out. This is
a great trip for testing out some new gear or a new backpacker. You
can see that this a popular trailhead on the weekends based on the number
of cars parked this Saturday. We saw 4 other families with small kids
on this trip that were spending the night so if you are looking for
a good entry level trip look no further. Stay tuned for the next family
friendly trip to Angel Island in a few weeks.
Red line shows the path we
hiked and then section of trail to get to site #4 (and our path to the
beach the morning we left). Elevation profile shows how easy this hike
is on the lungs/knees. Click either for a larger
version.
. 
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