Punta Gorda, Day 2(Saturday, October 6th)

‘Boot camp’ started at 7am as I woke us up early in anticipation of a long day. We went to eat breakfast at Poppa Joe’s, a fairly large local joint that was painfully slow in making our meals, but with incredibly good food. They had one cook and too tiny a griddle to serve two dozen people.

Roughly an hour after ordering, we got our food, ate heartily, and Marc and I took off on Mattole Road to begin our drive to Punta Gorda Lighthouse. We drove south past Cape Mendocino, cutting inland before Punta Gorda. Turning off onto Lighthouse road, we drove this poorly paved road for a while. There were no signs anywhere and we merely had to rely on google map’s directions to get us there.

Ridge road was a bit nerve-wrecking to drive through.

The directions I mapped indicated that we had to take a left onto Ridge road after roughly 5 miles of Lighthouse road. Indeed, when my odometer showed 5 miles had passed, a scary-as-hell, 35 degree incline, gravel road appeared before us. Figuring surely this was a mistake, we drove out the remaining mile to the end of Lighthouse road where we ended up in a campground. I believe this campground is where most people do their trek out to the lighthouse. Sticking with my map and comparing with the campground directions, I felt pretty sure that it would be better to return to Ridge road and take the other path to the lighthouse.

It was probably the right call walking this instead of driving this.

Sure enough, Ridge road was really tough. Driving a 1996 Honda Civic, I started climbing this hill in 1st gear. Despite the great power of 1st, the car really struggled up this hill, and I think it’s fair to say both Marc and I were pretty tense. Again, with no signs anywhere or a true sense of comfort, we simply continued on Ridge road. Eventually, we reached a small turnoff to the right, which, according to the map was supposed to be Windy Point road. Ridge road seemed like a smoothly paved highway when compared to Windy Point road. A few hundred feet into this most precarious drive, we came across a green gate. Marc jumped out of the car to read a sign that said that only 4×4s should drive this road. Already pretty nervous, we agreed it’d be best if we just parked off to the side near the weeds and trek the rest of the way down this road.

Still high up above the ocean.

We walked down Windy Point road for about 2 steep miles downhill, fully aware we’d have to climb this road on the way back up. At the end of this road we were finally at the coast line. Punta Gorda Lighthouse was visible at this point, looking deceptively close. After a mile of walking along the black sands beach and also on weeds, we reached the lighthouse. I took some pictures and we climbed to the top, where the lense used to be and had some pre-packed lunches we brought with us.

Finally at the coast line, Punta Gorda Lighthouse in the background.

So much was made of this creek in my readings, saying it would be virtually impossible to cross at high tide. Well, we crossed just an hour after high tide and I didn’t think much of it.

Finally, Punta Gorda Lighthouse! So remote…

Some old, rusty remains of a ship wreck.

Heading back to the car, the climb up Windy Point road seemed to take forever, as the noon sun beat down on us and the temperature got pretty warm. We reached the car tired and sweaty, but glad it was still there.

It was hot and we had already climbed quite a bit from the coast line. We had all of this to look forward to.

So glad the car wasn’t stolen, towed, damaged or otherwise missing.

We descended Ridge road slowly and could see our next destination in the distance to the north- Cape Mendocino. Check back tomorrow for more.

Driving down Ridge road, noticing Sugar Loaf Island and Cape Mendocino up north in the distance.

Headed west to Cape Mendocino.