Humboldt county Lost Coast wilderness

Wishful community model no doubt for some Pacificans.

San Francisco Chronicle/Amy Barnes, 4/8/12. John McAbery carves out a life on the Lost Coast". 

Humboldt County -- Gretchen Bunker laughs from the backseat as the car bumps across a green stretch of windblown hillside. "You can park here. The sign says 'Road Ends,' but we like to say 'Continent Ends.' "
Bunker and her longtime partner, John McAbery, tumble from the car and eagerly collect their walking sticks. McAbery, 67, deftly maneuvers down the steep path leading to his beachfront cabin. He stops to scan the horizon for whale spouts. "This is what I have to look at every day. I've been looking at it for 34 years, and I'm not tired of it yet."

What a great place, no people!

A thick band of ocean and sky wraps around cliffs nearly a thousand feet high. The view extends from Cape Mendocino to the Punta Gorda Lighthouse and east to miles of pastureland and wilderness.
Without power or phone, McAbery's cabin in rural Humboldt County rests on the largest stretch of undeveloped Pacific coastline in the continental United States. With the perfect combination of high tide and winter storm, the ocean sloshes under the floorboards and appears at his back door.

Putting his experience as a contractor to use, McAbery built the 288-square-foot cabin himself. "Originally there was a shearing shed here, which is where I lived when I first got here. Me and a million mice and my kids. I gathered all the materials for the cabin off the beach. Old barn, old corrals, poles that used to carry a telegraph line down to the lighthouse. I split all the shakes from logs off the beach. I did it all by hand, no power tools. It was quiet and I took my time and it was just me all alone and little by little I put all the pieces together."

Collecting trash from the beach is an important part of McAbery's daily ritual, "I keep it very clean. About a mile and a half of it on either side of my cabin is as spotless as any beach you'll see in the world." Immersed in his contented solitude, he plants hundreds of native trees each year, listens to NPR on his solar radio and reads lots of books. But mostly he carves. Read more.

Additional - Wikipedia. "Lost Coast", unpopulated rural coastal area off Highway 1 from Rockport to Ferndale,  100 mile "Tour of Humboldt County's Lost Coast, . Lost Coast adventure trip, 12/9/11 camping/ paddling trip video , 3:34 minutes, 


Posted by Kathy Meeh