For my 30th birthday, a bunch of us went to Lost Rocks, a secluded bouldering spot on the northern coast of California. Slow Boy and I stopped here on our belated honeymoon last fall and, despite the cold and dampness, loved it. We vowed to return. This time, the conditions were perfect, sunny and breezy — and different: the sand had shifted so the boulders (and what to climb) changed.

To get to the beach, you have to hike down, and by that, I mean straight down. It’s not far (1/4 mile?), but it’s steep, gravelly, and overgrown. I was so impressed with our crew, which included two pregnant women, a dad with an 18 month old, and Ben’s everstrong parents. One chica, who I’ll call the Stepper, made the most trips: 8 overall, clocking 12 minutes up and 9 minutes down. Slow Boy, the Crow, and I decided to try an alternate route, which was a poor decision resulting in hive breakouts from cow parsnip. Note to bushwhackers: do not follow the road less travelled by.

The start of the climb down. Here it looks actually visible!

The place is an amazing. Not only does it have classic and awesome boulders, it’s a peaceful, quiet beach next to an Indian reservation (where we think you’re not supposed to trespass; however, other climbers we encountered said they just don’t want you to climb their sacred rocks). It feels somewhere between natural and abandoned.

Welcome to Lost Rocks.

Obviously the main attraction for us was to boulder, but non-climbers in the group enjoyed the beach, trails, and exploring. There was a morning run (back up the steep trail) through the Redwood Forest on a trail Slow Boy and I still have yet to figure out how far it goes. On the beach, after a lot of scrambling, we found a cave formed by two large rocks falling into each other. It became so narrow some literally had to squeeze their chest through (Mr. Toed says “this can’t be good for my lungs”). It dead ended overlooking the ocean in a space just large enough to fit three (small) people, but somehow due to some miscommunication, we were six and a dog. It got claustrophobic.

One more scramble and we wouldn't have had any energy to climb! (Well, not really, but it was a lot)

Squeezing through the tunnel

We camped on the beach (it still remains to be seen whether this was legal, we’ll have to check) in a private spot surrounded by boulders, invisible from the beach except for our fire glow at night. The sunset was absolutely stunning and bizarre! I don’t remember Mr. Toed’s explanation, but it started forming weird shapes – at one point I saw a hamburger.

No one dared to enter the water with those waves. We could feel it when they crashed into the rocks.

Growing up on the east coast, I usually caught sunrises. Is this what sunset looks like? How odd.

The grand finale of the trip was an unexpected, surreal event. There is no picture as it really wasn’t a photo op moment.

To preface, there was a dead seal beached and on Saturday afternoon, a few spotted a lone baby seal walking slowly on the beach. Then the evening went something like this:

“Good night everyone!”, said the couple with the 18-month old. “Good night!”, we happily responded. A few seconds later, the mother returned screaming “Get me a light! I need a light!” We quickly handed her one, terrified for the child and trying to imagine what could have happened. After a lot of overhearing, lights, and confirmation, we would never have guessed it.

The father had gone into the tent, where their 18-month old had already been tucked in and sleeping, wondering why she was thrashing around so much. Instead, he found there was something moving between him and his daughter. Alarmed, shocked, and in the dark, he realized “wait, I know that motion”, referring to the neck motion of, well, a seal. It turned out that within the few minutes of them opening up their tent to brush their teeth and say good night, the baby seal had found its way INTO their tent. Yes, it is crazy but it’s true!

In all the confusion, the seal somehow got out of the tent and hid in a corner, looking thin and terrified as we shined our lights on it, debating what to do. It was very possible that the mom was the one on the beach and we also noticed it had been tagged. We sadly scared it off to keep it away for the night, and the next day notified the Marine Wildlife rescue who are going down to look for it. Hopefully it will be OK! The baby slept through it all, and it took just some time for the adrenaline in the parents and us to die down.

I’ll end this post with a geek-out on bouldering, in case someone googles Lost Rocks. The climbing was awesome! From the trailhead, we went 20 minutes south (over several scrambles) and 5 minutes north. Supposedly the stretch is 2 miles long so I don’t think we covered it all. But we still found lots of fun stuff: classic problems you’d find set at a gym, easier traverses, actual top out problems, some beautiful smooth slopey stuff that we didn’t touch because the tide came in, and sweet roof problems which unfortunately were hard to work on due to the dead seal stench.

The beauty of bouldering in the sand is that the landing is even better than at the gym. I demonstrate here by unexpectedly wiping out on my rear. Still, a spot wouldn't be so bad

Ben on a highball V2. Up the arrete, traverse across to top out with some jugs

Me on a crimpy, delicate V3/V4. Crux is more at the start, top out is to the ledge.

Me on a fun, burly, overhung V5. First move was hard, then goes to a tight cross. Top out was like at the gym!

Ben on a sweet roof problem. Starts with V0 holds but big moves, then cross to a hard pinch, then to a big throw (which we didn't get).

Chippy on a fun, V2 traverse.

Only Jon sent the sweet, classic V5 roof problem. Campus up the crack, high right, hard match, then throw a heal to pull hard up right.

And finally, a big thank you to all my friends and family for making this such an amazing birthday celebration. Driving 7 hrs one way in one weekend just to get lost is really something.

The house! From left: Coach Potato, Slow Boy, the Crow, Meannie