You must have been reading a whiteblaze forum where much of the information posted is erroneous... I had a tick climbing my pant leg 1 mile north of the Mexican border in '14. I would agree that there probably isn't ticks to the same degree as other parts of the country (worst ticks I have experienced was on the Maah Daah Hey trail in North Dakota) but to think that they aren't on the West Coast is a but absurd. A quick search on the PCTA website should suffice to dispel this rumor.