Countdown to LOST (with a few potential spoilers)

Unlike Jack, I don't have to spend my weekends criss-crossing the Pacific or consult a pendulum to return to the island, but I'm just as eager to get back. Every January for the past three years I've made this pilgrimage, but this year is special. This is the last time I'll be on the island while LOST is still being filmed. The countdown clock ticks loudly.

This year I stay at Turtle Bay on the North Shore. The spirit of LOST sightings past haunts the resort: It was the site of the first DVD launch party, attended by the cast. An enormous banyan tree is a former LOST filming location. It's a good base for my return to the island, but it's not my primary destination.

A short drive away, just past the tree where Kate and Tom dig up a time capsule, is one of my favorite beaches anywhere (and I like a lot of beaches). Whether I'm lucky to see activity at the Papa'iloa Beach site or not, that's where I need to be.

Even without the quite obvious set only yards past the orange fence dividing public from private land, the view is spectacular. The beach is less traveled by tourists, but it's far from quiet. The surf explodes on the rocks. Recent storms have left the beach several feet lower than when I last saw it. Black rocks (but not THE Black Rock) guard the coast between glassy blue-green waves and the castaways' camp. In mid-January, record swells make the waves especially impressive--and crank the volume to max. When I think of crashing on this beach, I'm not picturing a plane.

Dutiful LOST fan that I am, I take pictures of the camp site each year. One of my students provided me with photos from the original crash site, taken during her holiday in 2004. Since then, my photos track the castaways' ups and downs on a remote crescent of beach. Last year's photos are kind of depressing. The camp circa January 2009 looks abandoned, and not just because the cast was on hiatus when I visited. This year, however, my photos show lots of changes.

The camp looks lived in! That makes me wonder about all the reset rumors--which seem to have some validity. Although people who've seen a scene or two being filmed for Season 6 can't provide a lot of detail--you know how misleading a single scene can be, taken out of LOST's convoluted context--it does sound like old scenes are being revisited. We've all read the online confirmations that actors playing long-dead characters have gone native one more time. So it's very interesting that the easily-viewed beach camp looks fresh.

Luggage around the fire pit makes the perfect sit-upons, and several huts have been creatively constructed from the fuselage. It's plane to see that the camp looks very different from the last time I--or even Season 5 Sun--dropped by.

Boone Hill shows evidence of more activity, too (although overzealous fans may have been digging up clues rather than castaways planting more corpses). Maybe Season 6 really is the Zombie Season, and the dead are quite literally coming back to life. Ick. I really don't want to trip over Nikki or Paolo while I wander down the beach.

Surprisingly, Mr. Eko's church still stands. I like to sit in front of it and watch the waves--it's a sentimental spot for me. I've always been a fan of Charlie and Locke, and both spend some memorable Season 3 time there.

Unfortunately, I don't run into the crew this day, although I later learn that filming on Papa'iloa takes place soon after. The beach is apparently still important more than halfway through filming of the final season.

Next year when I visit, I'll know the complete story and what all my photos mean in relation to LOST lore. I'm saddened by that thought, but I have more than five years of real and virtual memories of this island. Pick your fandoms wisely. I found my LOST love on the island.

One week until the premiere. I've been home a week, and I can't wait to go back to the island.