This picture is of the road we traveled to get to the lost coast. Wikipedia has little to say about this untouched land. Pretty much says that it's a stretch of California coast in Humboldt county that for "geotechnical challenges" they never built a major road through the area. The famous scenic route 1 that is traveled up most of the California coastline retreats inland for a long while, leaving an expanse of northern coast that is extremely desolate. There are a few small towns and an entirely different way of life. Athough it does seems that the people around this area, in these towns, are there intentionally. They have chosen to be this far away. They are artist, writers, environmentalists, doct
ors and of coarse those that just ended up there. The highway from San Francisco (which is an incredible drive) can be diverted by an even more incredible route which runs parallel called The Avenue of the Giants. Then, 35 miles off the freeway (although it takes well over an hour to cross the winding mountain roads and over a rickety one lane bridge) you'll get to the very small town of Petrolia (estimated population is between 300-500 people). They actually have a gas pump in town, unlike the other small towns. And the high school which is federally funded has a teacher and a principal all for one student. Yes, one student and if that student decides not to go to school they lose their funding and it will be very difficult to reapply. That's a whole different adolescent pressure for someone.So we went to check out what some old friends were up to- which was converting a barn into a dance studio. A place to retreat for dancers. To work, to garden, to dance, to learn which seaweed is best to cultivate and dry in the sun, to learn about picking wild nettles and to gain a sense of community. They'll host this live/work retreat every summer until the space is finished and then perhaps workshops and performances. We camped on the land and woke up in the tall grass to these views:
It was wonderful to get away into this other way of living. As far away from the city as i could 
imagine. Unfortunately we weren't the only ones that found the lost coast- a baby whale was beached there. Dead and decaying, the smell downwind was horrible but it's remains were quite fascinating. Flooding thoughts of life cycles and the last time i sat next to death and how i'm not sure that it's a more simple way of life out there, definitely not simple. But real and quiet and genuine and raw and organic. If we lied on a river bed for hours together do you think a hawk might fly so close you'd remember it forever?Heather's lesson and advice for the future: start a blog because it's amazing to remember to write these things down and thank everyone that reads it, because now you all help me to be the keepers of memories. thank you.
