I thought the water crossing on the Lost Coast Trail was no big deal

In my experience, the tide charts said we had a 4 hour window at Mattole Beach, but a big swell came in and we got stuck for almost 8 hours waiting for it to go down. We had to huddle on a tiny rock shelf and it got pretty cold. Has anyone else had a tide table fail them that badly on a coastal route?

3 comments

3 Comments

samthompson3mo ago

Man, what changed your mind? I used to think those tide tables were basically perfect too, until a trip up near Olympic. Charts said we were golden, but then this freak surge just filled the whole cove in like twenty minutes. We had to scramble up a super sketchy cliff face with full packs. Now I always add like a two hour buffer, minimum. The ocean just does what it wants.

nancy8203mo ago

Yeah... that "freak surge" thing is super important to get right. What you're describing sounds more like a sneaker wave or maybe a tidal bore, not the tide tables being wrong. The tables just predict the regular water level from the moon and sun. They can't account for sudden weather stuff like wind pushing extra water in. So adding a buffer is smart, but it's for those surprise conditions, not because the tide math itself is off.

joseph5291mo ago

You ever had a buddy who thought he knew better than the tide tables? My friend Greg did the same thing on the Oregon coast. He looked at the chart, saw it was supposed to be calm for another hour, and figured he could take his time exploring this cool little cove. Then the water just started coming up way faster than he expected, like not gradual at all. He had to ditch his pack and make a run for it up this steep sand dune, his boots just filled with water. The worst part was he lost a pair of expensive binoculars that got sucked out to sea. He won't shut up about that stupid cove now.