We figured on getting up at 6am in order to miss high tide at Punta Gorda. Well, I got up at 740 and Marika 20 mins later. 
So much for plans.
Breakfast was a latte for each and corn beef hash. The finest canned hash available. It is actually very good if you spice it correctly and hit it with hot sauce. We didn’t have any of that. I forgot to pack it.
We cleaned up camp and dishes. Then got water and snacks for the hike to the abandoned lighthouse a mile past Punta Gorda.
We left about 9am for the hike, about an 8 mile round trip. Now you have a choice hiking, follow the beach and walk in sand the whole way or walk as high up the beach as you can to get secure footing and easier walking and half as much sand. Well, I am not like a romantic woman and do not enjoy long walks on the beach. We hiked higher up for easier terrain. For those of you that think walking on the beach is easy, you obviously have not done it. It’s a 3 step forward 2 step slide back thing. It’s like cross country skiing uphill.
The day is cold and foggy. We saw a few backpackers head out. The Mattole campground is the trailhead for the Mattole River Lost Coast Trail which is about 20 miles long. Most folks get dropped off here and picked up at the other end. We are doing the round trip 4 out and 4 back.
The walk out was nice but hard slogging in the occasional sand we run across. The wind is mostly gone, nothing like yesterday. A positive change in the weather.
About halfway there we saw what appeared to be a sea lion shaped rock on a high rock by the beach. We thought rock, because it wasn’t moving. Turns out it was a sea lion. Take a look:
The rest of the walk to the lighthouse was nice and uneventful. Low tide at Punta Gorda was calm. We arrived at the lighthouse. It is situated a little up the hill from the ocean, of course. It is abandoned. But there are no doors and windows so we had full access to go in and up to the former light. When we got up we had a full view of ocean and beach. 
I looked out and saw tons of drift logs all over the beach. One white turned out to be a sea lion. Then I began to notice that more of the logs were sea lions and there were elephant seals as well. Most of what I thought driftwood was animals. Much to your benefit, I did run right down and take a ton of pictures. 
We started the return trip to the campground right after we saw the sea lions. We wanted to make the Point before the tide really started coming in. The walk back did seem much longer. And more sand. It was murderous. And we had already seen it all on the walk out. Took about an hour and a half on the 4 mile walk back. Once we got back we had lunch. PBJ and applesauce. We were so tired it was all haute cuisine. We packed up camp and decided we wanted to hike up kings peak. So we packed up camp and headed down the same road we came in on. All twisty, turny, crappy bit of it all the way back to 101. We had to get directions so we stopped. Turned out we missed the turn off on the road out. By the time we found that out it was 4 o’clock. And I needed to get gas. So we pitched a tent at a local camp ground then drove north on 101 to get gas. We stopped in Scotia and got gas and groceries. We went looking for cocktails and found nothing. We stopped at a Mexican place and had beer and wine. Not quite booze but best we can do.
We returned back to camp and sat in the car. I was blogging and Marika watched TV. We finally had a cell signal!! Now time to make dinner. Burgers and beenie weenies. As is obvious to most, we eat very well out here when camping.
We are all cleaned up. Dinner is over and we are lying in the tent. Again with me blogging Anh Marika watching TV. There was no signal out at Mattole so we are behind on things.
Time for bed. Goodnight.