I hadn’t realized how excited I was to get away. All week I had been focused on wrapping things up at work; I was leaving the company I had been at for three and a half years to go work for a small non-profit. I woke up Saturday morning, giddy with anticipation. “An adventure!” I thought as I checked my backpack one last time. My partner in crime, Emily, and I had been on several vacations over the past few years, but it’s been a spell since we’ve been on a bona fide adventure, a trip where the unknown was to be expected….

After six hours of driving through increasingly more and more remote countryside, we arrived at the northern trailhead of the Lost Coast. We distributed the common gear evenly – she got the bear canister; I got the tent, stove, and fuel – and we set out. We walked briefly along the coastal trail, opting instead for the ridge trail, the trail less traveled as it were.