We did the Lost Coast (Mattole - Usal) with a group of Scouts in 2015, what a fabulous trip. Virtually every little stream in that stretch had steelhead and coho fry and smolts in them. It was amazing to see that, no matter how we try to screw things up, those populations were hanging on. The spawning area on all of them is no more than a couple of hundred yards long, and in many places much shorter.

I did bring a fly rod for the northern half of the trip, but left it with the friends who resupplied us at Shelter Cove. I got the biggest Barred Surfperch of my life on that trip, but they were few and far between. I wish I hadn’t chosen to leave my rod. At Little Jackass Beach (the first beach north of Usal, and one of my all time favorite campsites) there were huge schools of smelt right in the surf line, being chased by seals and river otters and getting dumped on the beach by every breaker. I’ve always wondered what else might have been chasing them...

It’s a spectacular 65 mile hike. The Sinkyone Wilderness trails are pretty rough in spots, there is a TON of poison oak, and the humidity has got to be 70% up in the redwood forests 1000’ above the ocean, but it’s worth every discomfort.