KING RANGE

We were supposed to do this trip into the Marble Mountains but there was still a deep snow pack. So we went to the King Range which is just north of my previous trip in the Sinkyone Wilderness. It too is part of the Lost Coast, however we stayed up in the mountain terrain which had amazing views of the ocean. We didnt get into the trailhead until 8 at night so we had to do a bit of night hiking. In total for the trip we hiked about 12-13 miles in the 3 days

tonight were hiking to Maple Camp in the dark. Tomorrow we will hit Kings Peak then go to Miller Camp!

thats why we have Bear Cans!

the fog came in

so we hiked in the dark for 2 hrs last night, it rained a little bit and the clouds covered up the full moon. We got to this campsite and it was steep with only a few flat spots to lay a tent down. It was freezing, I would say temps got into the low 30's overnight, however we were protected from the wind.

literally...the view from my tent

the creek running next to my tent

see?

looking up

sun is coming out

annnnnnnnd were off! Going to hike up to Kings Peak and then to our campsite for our second night!

here we dropped our packs and did the half mile hike up to Kings Peak!

hiking up to the peak!

theeeeeeeres the trail

made it to the highest point in the King Range

Kings Peak

Hippy Wife hahahaha

Panorama from 4,094 ft

and hiking back down to our packs

back on the trail...

random boulder field

can see the trail off in the distance! we will hike up to that point and then along the ridge finally dropping into a little valley where we will camp

Made it to camp!

looking up from the grass at our site

we decided to do a mini day hike and see if we could reach the beach....

we hiked along a mini ridge through a forest of burned trees

you can see how much burned during the fire.

this side was saved however from those nasty fires.

the burned trees do give this trail a crazy feeling though

see that tree on the right with a hole in it? I thought it would be cool to climb the charcoal tree and put my head through it.....

this is harder then it looks!

I cant believe we were actually going to hike down there! Forget it

although it is pretty!

swinging from trees!

cool tree

sun poking through the fog bank

Night 2 came with extreme wind gusts. I would say some topped off 60 mph or so. You could hear the gusts coming as it ripped through the trees and worked its way into our campsite. I woke up everytime a gust came afraid my tent was going to collapse on me, however it did great!!! At the bottom you can see how windy it was in a video of this fire....

another campsite I found when I went to go brush my teeth

looking down on the campsite

another view of the campsite

creek where we got water from. had the pipe set up for easier access to the water

neat tree

We had a steep long hike back out of our campsite. Here's a panorama at the beginning of the hike

looking toward Shelter Cove

we have to hike all the way up there. You can see the switchbacks on the side of the mountain

at a fork in the trail

burned trees everywhere

theres my trail waaaay down there

view from the top of the ridge

taking a break at the top

again, can see our trail ahead that just follows the very windy ridge

follow the trail....

after hiking along the ridge for a mile we finally dip back into the forest

How the trail looked all the way back to the cars

mossy rock and trees

360 View from Kings Peak

this shows how windy it was at night

view from the ridge....ocean and forest