THE LOST COAST | Salsa Cycles

“The Lost Coast is a mostly natural and development-free area of the California North Coast in Humboldt and Mendocino Counties, which includes the King Range. It was named the "Lost Coast" after the area experienced depopulation in the 1930s.[1] In addition, the steepness and related geo-technical challenges of the coastal mountains made this stretch of coastline too costly for state highway or county road builders to establish routes through the area, leaving it the most undeveloped and remote portion of the California coast.[2] Without any major highways, communities in the Lost Coast region such as Petrolia, Shelter Cove, and Whitethorn remain secluded from the rest of California” -- Wikipedia

Our goal was to string together a route that encompassed paved roads, singletrack, and 4WD tracks and explore this remote region by bike. I would be riding my Mukluk Ti, Erik would ride his Vaya, and Andrew would captain his trusty Schwinn, complete with really, really skinny tires.  We flew from San Francisco up to Crescent City where we would unpack the bikes, get supplies in town, and then hit the trail the following day. You could make the argument that from the get go, our selection of bikes would seal our fate, but hey, we are cyclists, eternally optimistic to the end.

With all trips of this nature, curve balls are thrown your way, often from the beginning…but also at the most surprising of times. As the ground crew unloaded the bikes from the airplane it was clear that my bike box had suffered a catastrophic failure, most likely due to sitting on the tarmac in San Francisco in a torrential rainstorm. It was with great fear that I slowly unpacked the box, took inventory, and slowly built the bike into riding form. Upon initial inspection everything seemed in working order, but the truth would be revealed later, in the most inopportune of times. Bent derailleur hangers in the middle of the woods are never ever a good thing.

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