4 more from the Lost Coast

I'm kind of glad this one was a bit out of focus. This is Bethany coming back up from the ocean on our first night out on pt. 2 of the Lost Coast. We'd just walked out of civilization without the legally required bear canisters to protect our food. The late afternoon miles had gone slow in the sand. The trees weren't big enough to hang our food as high and securely as I'd like so there was this worry in the air that we'd wake to the rummaging of 300 pound scavengers working out a way to drop our next 5 days worth of food and spoil our unspoiled coast adventure before it really began. The walk up the beach with fog hiding civilization from us kind of flicked the awareness switch required to live well without plumbing, supermarkets, walls and doors, etc. It was nice.



Some great rock the next day.



So, the proverbial snake in the grass eh? We walked near, or right over several of these in the last 10 miles of Lost Coast. I still don't know if these are young rattlers of some sort or some faker species. I gently prodded one of them with my trekking pole and it shook its non existent rattler and coiled up like it was going to do something. None of us stuck around for that.



So... at the Mattole River Campground we learned that some people like to come out and camp with the whole family. This means, Mom, Dad, two precious little girls scampering around, the parakeet shivering in its cage on top of the car on the windswept beach, and of course the hamster that never once poked its nose out of the shavings on the cage bottom. I also learned that there is a segment of rap music that could be accurately described as 'death rap'. It's not uplifting at all!

Okay, signing off for a bit.

continuing on

First, in the Little River Cemetery, this gravestone totally caught me, I think because of the hand. Telitha E. died in 1885 at the age of 35.




What's not to love?



This is us outside the Shelter Cove General Store. This is the morning we embarked northward up the second half of the "Lost Coast". Bethany is practicing fencing to defend us from bears. She was tested many times, and at all hours, we came away unscathed.




This is "Nick". She got dropped off at the General Store while we sat out on the porch. She had one wet foot, hence the removal pictured here. After a little conversation she told us how she'd been on a magic mushroom diet for the last 4 or 5 days, and had eaten little else. Bethany gave her some salmon jerky, an apple, and some electrolyte hydration. When she was in our world we had a lot of fun talking, and when she was in her world it wasn't as fun, at least for us.


These peacable looking animals are Roosevelt Elk. They've been reintroduced to the area. We've had several experiences with them along the Lost Coast. These males were relaxed, the next three times we ran into the males it wasn't so mellow. We weren't charged or anything, there was just a lot of tension crackling as we were forced to walk in much closer quarters than they preferred, which in turn scares me/us. Bethany made wild noises that helped us get through successfully.

more mini stories

Haaaaaallo! How about mostly pictures?



Named Ft. Ross, this is a Russian built outpost, still sturdy after I think 150 years or so. It was done up to look inhabited, and bussed school children were participating in some mock ceremony at the flag pole inside the walls of the fort. It was fun to see it all happening in a rainy foggy morning. Bethany spotted our first wild boars running through a creek bed about a 150 feet below us in a gulch on the way to Ft. Ross.



So if you climb down that wet rocky slope in the deep end of this picture you get to see this:



A sinkhole is apparently created when the ocean erodes a hole through solid rock and then sucks out the earth behind it leaving a hole. The sound of the water bellowing down this opening to the ocean is unpredictable and really loud. It was like standing in a musical instrument the ocean was playing. I spent a half hour or so in there alone listening. When the ocean lines up just so and really smacks the rock wall you're on the other side of, it puts you in the midst of a vibration unparalleled in my life experience.


A millipede I watched walk for a while. I think they're beautiful.


This is Lu and Adrian. Lu was once married to the mayor of Point Arena, and Adrian is her cool, smart 15 year old son. The four of us spent the night at their house mixing it up and having a good time. We watched basketball and talked about everything under the sun. Lu might be the coolest Cuban kindergarten teacher on the planet. Adrian was wicked smart and got me into working out again.

After many miles of quietude

Greetings to all on Bethany's birthday! She is taking an afternoon nap, along with everyone else in the household, and I'm trying to wrap my thought processes around the expanse of multitudinous events that have transpired since I've sat and typed here for any and all to scroll through.

I've kept a journal since our time with Bethany's family in Sunnyvale and considered simply transcribing it onto the blog and inserting pictures where they fit in the log, and I'm not going to do that. I've written 78 pages and taken hundreds of pictures. I'd be blogging for days not hours, and you'd be sleeping, not reading. I can't help but catalogue the minutiae for myself so that I can reference the mental catalogue later down the path, and I'm hoping that somehow I can rise from that and pick some formative periods to write about here that somehow will come close to summing up some of what's been happening in the last 30 or 40 days... Lordy it's been awhile. How about this: Welcome to the world of mini super-condensed stories, sometimes accompanied by some pictures. I'll start in Half Moon Bay where Sarah shuttled us after the splendid Sunnyvale visit.

1. We talked with an off duty SF cop who told us the best sneaky place to camp in McNee State Park, north of Half Moon Bay, and then warned us to be "alert and careful" if we ended up camping in Golden Gate Park. He's seen some things...

2. We met Ron and Bill, the self proclaimed "Tired Teachers" in Daly City California. To date they are the only other hikers we've met with a goal to walk a great length of coast. Though not continuous, they've nearly completed all parts of the California Coastal Trail in their spare time. Good guys in good spirits still adventurous in their 60s!

3. We stayed at the famed Green Tortoise Hostel, est. 1974, in NE San Francisco. Bottomline: Beer competition loving single people stay in the main hostel, cozy couples and singles arriving too late sleep in an "annex" a block away. Perfect.

4. Bethany and I circled down into central SF, then up to the Golden Gate Bridge, then across it, then walked 6 miles in the dark on our way to the Marin Headlands Hostel. With bad directions, we overshot it by a mile and a half and arrived after going temporarily insane and jogging with packs on at 11pm.

5. The next day we met a happy, energetic, encouraging and insatiably curious man who called himself Butter. We spent the next 2 1/2 days with him, learning about our surroundings and exploring our outlook on life, all while feeling loved and loving a great, great guy. This is one of my favorites of him.

6. We took the wrong trail on our way Stinson Beach and ended up at a small coastal ranch called Slide Ranch. After offering a little work we were welcomed heartily by one of the caretakers of the ranch named Ryan. We ate chard and greens from their gardens, I swam in the ocean for at least two full minutes, I milked a goat, saw installation mud art, listened to a teacher sing old Clapton into the ocean wind, learned about composting, fed chickens, and so much more. Slide Ranch was great, it's people were kindred, and they felt good. I would go back there if given the chance.

7. We walked through Bolinas, around Bolinas on the beach and up the coast into the Point Reyes wilderness. I met a kid named Brandon outside the food coop that shook hands with me and then told me he thought he had a staph (sp?) infection... grrrreat. We saw a lady that couldn't speak and wore burlap clothes, people with vortex eyes, and people that were sick on las drugas. : ( An old surf board maker gave Bethany some thick pink wool socks that were supposed to be white, and gave me a cool Bolinas Bay t-shirt with an octopus on it.

8. The Pt. Reyes wilderness was beautiful. I got to bathe in a waterfall that overlooked the ocean.

9. We met a Jew named Andy in the general store in Pt. Reyes Station that insisted that he find us the best sneaky camping that he would personally find and direct us to. In his car on the way back down the road Bethany found "Christian Dialogue" cds, and a Hulk Hogan doll, random. We ended up walking for a mile and a quarter in the dark through a cow pasture and setting up a camp on an old road that he promised would afford us a spectacular view in the morning. We weren't disturbed, and the view of the slough on the north side of the Pt. Reyes park was quite beautiful in the morning fog.

10. I mailed home my laptop in Marshall CA and we ate BBQ'd oysters across the road that had been freshly yanked that morning from Tomales Bay, a stone's throw away. Mmmm.

11. We ate some "country cookin" in Tomales and ate some pastries at a bakery next door that Andy swore was the best in California. It didn't blow our minds, and the country cooking left us bloated as we trekked north. We fought the wind for many a mile and tucked ourselves in for a siesta on a sunny hillside. We walked to a hamlet called Valley Ford and got carted from there to Bodega Bay by a couple with a dog named Benji eating Drumsticks (the ice cream ones) in their little Honda while they stayed out of the wind.

12. Bodega Bay was our meeting point for friends living in Santa Rosa to snatch us from the coast and let us hang out for a few days inland. Alex, Meg, and their exuberant pup Flash, treated us like royalty. We watched Alex whale on some other team in softball, played constantly with Flash, watched hockey and basketball together, went to a farmer's market and a head shop, to a brewery and a breakfast joint, to a great local grocer and Mexican joint. We chilled. We slept. We saw some wine country. We BBQ'd more oysters and ate fudge cake. Good times. Alex made sure we had gear to succeed. Holy cow, could we be doing this without his and other's help? Doubtful.

13. After an early AM dropoff in Bodega Bay by Alex we walked north for awhile and found an Indian Restaurant in the middle of nowhere on the banks of the Russian River. Reasonably priced and so amazingly delicious! We made our way onwards to Jenner CA, which we'd been warned was the start of a territory where we shouldn't camp due to an unsolved and pointless murder of a camping couple in recent times. Boy was that a great feeling hanging over our day! We ended up camping quietly in a river bed, and obviously came away unscathed. Here's a picture of Jenner's Post Office. It's about the person inside, not the facility!

















14. Next we hiked "Sonoma's Lost Coast". With our newly acquired trekking poles in hand we walked/hiked/scrambled/scampered/traversed/trudged through 8 miles of tough shoreline. 1 mile an hour. We saw black oystercatchers, we ate lunch a 100 feet from harbor seals and their pups, we rescued stranded crabs and starfish, we saw the remains of many cars and motorcycles that had made the fatal plunge down from highway 1, hundreds of feet above us. A stellar an exhausting day. Here's a picture of Bethany in typical terrain that day and another of a luxury BMW wrecked a rusted gold.

I'm signing off for now because it's nearly evening and tonight we get to celebrate my Dearest coming into her 29th year! (Meaning she's 28...) Love to you!!

The whirlwind

Greetings!  Oh it's been too long, much too long.  Much has transpired, many miles have been plod, risks have been taken, rains have fallen, boars have howled in the still of the night... we're here, we're safe, we're recharging, eager to get moving along.  The constancy we count on is change.  Life is grand.  Some recollections of the last little while to follow:

We left lovely Morro Bay early early one morning and took our last look at their magnificent lava rock, quiet and stern in the harbor.  This isn't edited light...

And up the coast we went through the beautiful village of Cayucos, then Harmony and on to San Simeon.  San Simeon has Hearst roots, and is nestled on the coast below the famous and utterly opulent Hearst Castle.  We opted not to tour the castle at the $22/person tour rate and instead stopped into San Simeon, viewing it as our last supply stop before the famed Big Sur.  We popped into the final outpost, "Sebastian's Store", and fueled and watered up before continuing up the coast.  Just as a side note:  The best, absolute best, veggie sandwich I've ever had was made in this quaint little store.  I'm not exaggerating when I say the sandwich was as big as my head.  ANYWAYS, off we went into the unknown.  The coast was beautiful as always and fenced perfectly with 5 level barb wire fencing that seemed to have been strung up yesterday.  Signs every few hundred feet stated the obvious, "No Trespassing, Violators will be prosecuted.  --The Hearst Corporation"  Ain't they sweet? ;  )  One ponders liability and property ownership significantly more when being channeled onto the pavement of Highway 1 shored up by the deep pocketed "got here first's/hearst's fences" on either side, not knowing where you'll lay your head that night as the feet sing their sore songs and the sun falls on it's steady course towards the horizon line.  Well, we slept somewhere, and woke in the hazy predawn and walked the whole day through.  To our east the rich mountain heights climbed quietly higher, and to our north we saw that the coast would soon meet the mountains and our mellow plodding days on the flats would soon be replaced by moderate grades, sharp corners, and droves of curve sick car passengers exploring the coast the American way, in cars, trucks, trailers, and RVs of varying size!  Vroom!  I'm not trying to pat my own back when I chide the masses on the coast motoring along.  I am saying unequivocally that I'm increasingly cognizant of the fact that we live bubbly lives, exiting one bubble to get in a car bubble and zip through other places to other bubbles, claiming we've experienced something special having done so.  I think that the bubble life denies us a quality of experience that we as a whole aren't beyond sensing somewhere inside of us, but do struggle to grasp is available to us if we only slow down and interact in more natural and intuitive ways with our planet.  In a short time walking I feel increasingly a minority in our society and witness more often the stranglehold truly unreal obligations claim in our thought processes.  I am not above anyone having walked a little ways.  I do appreciate the perspective this slowing period is gleaning for me.  And how quickly it vanishes if I let it!  Yikes!

One exciting thing to write; above San Simeon along the coast we discovered that there are miles of coastline the enormous Elephant Seal calls home for the breeding season!  To our delight we caught many views of these slumbering oafish animals.  They must be tremendously efficient in the cold waters to be as big as they are.  On land however, they are loud, flatulent, lazy, and combative with one another.  Here's one picture of hundreds of them sun bathing.  Please excuse the finger, my automated lens covering mechanism has failed and I had to hold it down with my finger for awhile before I got my Macgyver on and got out the duct tape:

We were much closer to the seals on several occasions than this picture reveals and seeing those doughy eyed 7 foot seal pups made me want to take one home!  I could just imagine taking care of one and watching it grow to 22 feet, adorable!  Without admitting much I will mention that our camping night before our ascent into the more mountainous terrain was on shared space with a lonely elephant seal.  Oh the stories I could tell!  Said night was spent somewhere near the furthest peninsula in the picture below.  This picture was taken from Ragged Point.

   

Then we made the steady climb onward.  Below you can see Ragged Point on the left.

And so it went.  Out to a jutting point, breathtaking coastal view, in towards steep impenetrable mountains, and back out again.  After what seemed like 15 or 16 miles of this, we found the wonderful and penetrable canyon, Salmon Creek.  ( If there are salmon in this creek, they were about six inches long.  I don't have a rod with me so I could merely view them as they swam lazily in the crystalline pools below white waterfalls.  I think they were some sort of trout, no locals asked had any idea what kind though...)   Official camping at Salmon Creek was about 2 1/2 trail miles away from Highway 1.  A welcome treat and a helluva way to end our long day. Here's a view from the climb away from the highway:

If you can't tell by now, I'm quite proud of our increasing ability to knock off tough mileage.  We're getting into a groove I think where bigger numbers are more manageable.  At Salmon Creek the next morning we saw our first banana slug.  It looked as though a big piece of yellow ghostbuster's slime had fallen from the trees into the middle of our little footpath and began edging it's way back to the safety of the dense brush.  It was about 5 inches long.  What a beauty!

 

Salmon Creek was a restful time.  We drank from the streams, we ate our fun little meals and enjoyed being off the pavement for awhile.  I couldn't resist a skinny dip in a nice pool and found myself warming on rocks in the sunlight.  We attempted a departure from Salmon Creek via another trail that would let us venture off pavement northwards and were rebuffed by the ever present and wildly happy Poison Oak.  The trails, which must be vigilantly manicured, weren't.  So after an hour or two of ducking and side stepping, and step overs, and general anxiety over accumulating masses of itching toxins we turned back and spent another night at Salmon Creek.  I really enjoyed the feeling of relief that comes when one knows that the fresh cool water of the creek is neutralizing the mounds of toxins and saving me from another couple of weeks where I wonder if I can tear my skin off thinking that would feel better.

We  made our way through some gorgeous little village hamlets, Gorda, then Lucia, resupplying at inflated coastal hamlet rates, still able to appreciate the quaintness of these little oasis' along our paved trek towards Big Sur.

Ah, Big Sur!  This long awaited, immortal land.  Bethany was asked by a biker traveling south with her husband, "Have you been to Big Sur before?"  "No", was Bethany's reply for the both of us.  She just gasped and shook her head as if to say, "Oh, you're in for the treat of a lifetime!  Bless your fortunate souls!"  The local print constantly reiterates a famous statement I now paraphrase, "The greatest meeting of land and sea on the planet!"  Or the author Henry Miller who said something along the lines of, "This is land as God intended it", like hey, this is where God got it right!  Well, frankly, it's a beautiful place, and if I were to use all of the hype and descriptive for what is technically Big Sur, I can't say that I honestly can distinguish it as somehow being on some other level of beauty than that which we've experienced for many many miles now.   The Big Sur State Park was closed.  It rained hard on us.  We paid $35 for a camp site.  Bethany almost got ran over.  Maybe sometime down the road I'll find a new appreciation for this place.  This time around I was just glad to have it in the figurative rear view mirror.  What's exciting to me is that we've been in redwood country for awhile now.  We slept one night under a bridge in Monterey county, just as Bethany's Dad did as a scout many moons and hair shades ago.  We've mixed with locals in the farmer's markets after a long stretch of carbohydrates and foods laden with preservatives.  Bethany has brand new boots that might actually help her feet survive our ongoing walk.  We've slept on amazing ocean dunes.  We've seen the most graceful and beautiful deer I've ever seen.  We've made it this far!  Hooray.  Signing off for now, feeling tired.  Soon we'll speak of our having made our way up through Monterey and into Cupertino where we've been visiting with Bethany's familia.  :  )

more on Morro.....

Diablo canyon has been closed off for quite some time to the public, and it is known to have some of the most dramatic coast in California.Barbara and David made us sandwiches and we started on the six mile stroll through wild poppies and happy cows.  Pete's Dragon was filmed in this area. Barbara commented on how the rock formations look like Stonehenge. The path lead to a vista with views of the PG&E nuclear facility. The domed towers almost look like a cathedral from that distance. Pretty!  With many power plants looming a stone's throw from the ocean as we've come up the coast the question has circled time and time again as to why the plants must be built so near the water.  David explained that the plant can pump cool ocean water to cool the reactors and then pump the hyper hot water far out into the ocean where it is then distributed without affecting to large a marine life area.  Fair enough, now if only we could find a way to get that whacky plutonium byproduct off site and far far  away from our shores, or our planet... 

All in all we had a wonderful experience experiencing the coastal area with our new friends!  Montana de Oro is glorious.  Here's some pics, including both of our's first ever bobcat siting!  Well, could someone confirm that?  Is this a bobcat?  It relaxed in the sun across the road long enough for me to snap a few frames and then vanished into the thick brush...

And then I can't help but put a picture of some crabs hiding in the creases, cute!

Here's another seascape image we like:

And some dramatic flower on a tree on a way out of the park...

Cheers!  We now travel north, this may be the last blog for awhile as the coast above Morro Bay becomes quite remote until we pass Big Sur... Love and love!

Santa Maria to Morro Bay

This journey has certainly brought to light the enduring beauty of humanity and our duty to explore this world we live in. Throughout the trip we have  been privileged to meet a variety of people we easily hold now in esteem as friends and family,  who inspire and uplift. I want to send out my eternal thanks to those who have called out to strangers, turning them quickly to friends.  In small instances, and sometimes even spending hours or days with people our perspective and knowledge is stretched and expanded.  I consider these thoughts as I review a span of  time where we dropped from our hidden camping spot outside the "mountain" hamlet of Casmalia to the town of Santa Maria and then journeyed up the coast through Guadalupe. Los Osos, and up to the cozy community we write from now, Morro Bay.  We dipped from Casmalia into the valley and had our found a farmer outposted at a remote intersection with his shaded tent of fresh fruits and vegetables and Spanish sweet treats of which I know not the names, but totally enjoyed.  He in broken English and we in broken Spanish, labored our way through a conversation with lots of smile and goodwill towards purchasing the biggest avocado I've seen in my life (for a dollar!)  and a bunch of other fresh veggies.  Within a half hour a Santa Barbara County Sheriff swerved off the road to check out some suspicious folks with big packs.  We ended up having a great chat and gleaned local knowledge and safe travel advice from the portly sheriff.  That evening we ate some great food at a natural foods cafe and were greeted by tiny people that smiled a ton.  The next day another tiny lady helped us at the post office, with smiles and laughter bigger than she was.  The list goes on and on.  The experiences pile and pile, the intrigue into our journey brings curious questions and encouragement, serendipitous encounters are amazingly frequent and hopefully received in gratitude by us. 

On the road from Guadalupe up to Oceano a man photographing flowers in full bloom greeted us across a raging Highway 1.  Would we like a lift a few miles?  Where were we going?  What brought on the journey,  etc...  So enters Ron Williams, pictured here snapping flowers in  

full force along the highway.  Ron took us to nearby Oso Flacos Road which led to a massive set of dunes.  We learned that he had traveled north from Santa Barbara in search of favored flowering subjects while his wife spent the evening cramming for tomorrow's book club discussion.  We were very glad he did if only for the opportunity to meet and chat about the area, the country, the world, political stances,  nature, family, and many other topics.  We really enjoyed our brief time with him among the dunes, lakes, and flowers.  We arrived late in Pismo Beach and met groups of high schoolers from other parts of Cali and Klamath Falls Oregon camped in Pismo for their Spring Breaks.  We all shared slight alarms and then laughter as the Park Rangers dealt with the yelling vagrants howling at each other in the dark on the far end of the campground.  The kids were top notch, offering excitement, support, BUG REPELLENT, and quick quips and comedy, and music.  

The next morning we walked a short distance to Oceano North and learned that we'd again have to detour 23 miles from the coast to avoid the PG & E Nuclear Power plant at Diablo Canyon.  At Oceano North a ranger gave us a break on the camping costs and we settled into another campground, greeted over and over by the friendly RV crowd and their 4 legged companions.  See the theme?  Kind people, kind people, and more kind people.  We dropped into bed early to get ready for a long throttling day northwards to Los Osos, and hopefully past Los Osos to Ron's recommended can't miss spot, Montana de Oro (pronounced Moan- tawn-ya day Oar-oh meaning "mountain of gold").  We plugged along and nearly made it.  We snuck into a dried creek bed in Los Osos around dark and woke for the final leg to Montana de Oro.  After fun conversation with locals at the 50's throwback coffee shop and grocery stores we made our way back down the coast to Montana.  And what a beauty! We are very fortunate in our timing. The yellow mustard and orange poppies are in bloom, and the hillside is blanketed in golden blooms. The Los Osos locals were all very proud and excited to share their love of this testament to color and magnificence right outside their doors. As they say, "Hawaii has nothing on us!!!"

Camping in Montana De Oro is primitive, meaning there is no electricity and no flushing toilets. We walked down a gorgeous eucalyptus lined road to our campsite.

 The waves that crashed against the bluffs sounded like gunshots! The volume of water and force that exerts is mindboggling! 

Reuben has a special gift of asking his questions of the perfect person to answer them. While cooking dinner, we saw our neighbors pull up in their spiffy sprinter motor home. Now, as a side note, I must comment on the efficiency of these homes! 24mpg! 

Reuben and this gentleman  stuck up a conversation about the campground and Reuben asked why nuclear power stations are located on the water. "Well, you've asked the right person there. I'm a nuclear engineer!" Our new friend is David Hodgdon and his dynamic wife Barbara. 

David had told as about the power company PG&E opening up a coastal hike on certain days that was otherwise closed to the public. Security is very tight and positive ID is required to enter. As we were finishing up breakfast, they told us they were going to that hike. They were kind enough to wait while we scrambled for this opportunity to join them. What a lovely day we shared! They were from Santa Barbara and were in the same camera club as Ron! What a small world. If this small sample of the residents of Santa Barbara is any indication of the community there, we will be moving in pronto!  

 

Heading north, El Capitan and beyond!

After a fond farewell to Wilco and his city, we started our journey north to El Capitan state park. Walking on the highway was a little dangerous, so we opted for the smooth path by the railroad tracks. I felt this was the beginning of our adventure, and both of us felt like Huck Finn walking the line. The scenery was just beautiful, and we walked a few miles on the beach as well. Here are some pictures.....

We call this shot 'Cows in heaven!'  They have life made here with the tall grasses, and even a view of the sea. What more could you ask for? There are huge ranches right on the coast that we had to circumvent as we found out later in our journey. 

We walked into fading light, hoping to find camping at the state park. Many weary miles later we found the campsite only to see a sign saying "No Camping!"  We were hungry and it was pitch black, so we decided we would have to camp there anyway, and leave a note at the ranger station explaining our predicament.  I  had started cooking dinner when a car pulled up and a sweet voice asked, " Excuse me, are you lost?" We explained our situation to her and she said she was the camp host there, and that budget cuts had caused closures in many of the state parks. She graciously gave us a map to her area and told us where to camp safely so we wouldn' t get a ticket. She even unlocked the bathroom for us so we slept well that night after all! Her name is Carolyn.

That morning Reuben made friends with a blue jay, who was quite pushy

 about our sharing our food.

After our night at "El Cap" we walked to the beach to Refugio State Park and found ourselves in a gorgeous little alcove where we rested before what we knew to be a few really tough days.  Once we left Refugio, we had 10 miles of beach to Gaviota State Park with no food buying ability there or for another 22 or 23 miles thereafter.  We rested up and trekked up the gorgeous beach towards Gaviota State Park and found some serious solitude.  We saw our first seal resting on the beach, our first sea otter and a ton of peaceful settings.

About 2 miles after this shot was taken we ran into a secluded stretch of beach where a lot of men congregated and made the place a nude beach.  We obviously didn't take any pictures and didn't chat a lot! ;  )    Here's some video of the seal galloping into the ocean away from scary Reuben and Bethany.  Pardon my inability to aim the camera too well!

There is a large private ranch north of Gaviota State Park called Hollister Ranch.  (Somebody should name a clothing line after such a cool named ranch!)  Then the next 33 miles of coastline is occupied by the Vandenberg Air Force Base.  From what I understand it's the west coast station for US Space command.  Being forced inland forced us to climb high into California's coastal mountains and witness some spectacular lush green hillscapes as we made our way around the ranch and base.  It was beautiful, and not as cold as we anticipated.  

After many miles on Highway 1 we reached Lompoc (pronounced Lom - Poke)  We spent several days tending to my oaky condition before leaving Lompoc to finish our trek around the ranch and base.  Bethany renamed the town Longpoke because we've spent more time there  than in any other place on our journey thus far.  Appropriate.  Somewhere on this long journey I had my first experience with Poison Oak.  A wise woman name Faye Donna McNeil said it best, "Poison oak is no joke, and the itch is..."  I think I'll spare any friend/family/blog readers photos of my horrific itching blister masses and stop talking about poison oak in hopes that by not talking about my itch it wont be prolonged anymore! Bleh!

We've journeyed onward and further inland.   While walking inland we've noticed some oddities that we definitely wouldn't notice behind the wheel.  For example, the road from Gaviota to Lompoc had more dead and dying butterflies smashed by speeding cars than either of us have seen before. We wondered if this road held special significance to the butterfly population as the place to come to die.  How romantic. The road from Vandenburg village to Santa Maria was filled will all kind of gloves. Latex surgical gloves, heavy work gloves, blue rubberized palms, slick leather drivers.... this road no doubt held the same sacred significance for gloves. It was a privilege to witness.

We're eager now as we write this in Guadalupe, to get back to the coast!  Love you all! 

Next stop Santa Barbara!

On our way to Santa Barbara, we came across a man teaching hang gliding on the beach. He was an older Gentleman, and reminded us of a bird himself, light on his feet with hollow bones. He shared his passion for flying and inspired us to experience hang gliding as well. He was familiar with Point of the Mountain in Utah, a very popular spot for it. When he gave us a demonstration his movements and the way he was riding the wind reminded me of my dreams of flying, of being lifted and playing in the thermals. I can't wait to try myself!

shots on the striking Santa Barbara beach

'The Band' pictures

Well if you've set out to walk the Western coast as we have and you get a text from a good friend named Jason Wilcox that lives in Santa Barbara that says, "The Mother Hips are playing here on the 14th", and it's the 12th and you're over 80 miles away, do you: A) Reply and say, "Sorry, we're really into walking, see you in a week! or B) Ignore you're throbbing feet and do 85 miles in 48 hours, or C) get a lift up to Santa Barbara to see one of your favorite bands play in their home state? Yep, you guessed it, we're not against catching the Wilco Express to cover the distance and spend the weekend with a good friend.  Coincidentally, we actually had spent last St. Patrick's Day with Jason so it seemed like too many stars had aligned to miss out on some good times.  J showed us around Santa Barbara, took us to some gorgeous beaches, and showed us every health foods store in a 10 mile radius fulfilling all three of ours' healthy food desires.  Here's some pics and video that captures some of the beauty there:

Wilco and me on some rocks

Wilco and Bethany finding a place to chill

A new phenomenon we discovered was natural tar seeping from the beach. We went to a place where it was house sized! The university was just a few hops away. It's hard to imagine a better place to go to school than one located right on the beach.

Inter-web-net: the end of civilization

OH, California. 




I feel very naughty about not keeping our public up-to-date on the goings on of  our transient selves. The truth is, we left civilization.  Any who consider their computer to be the (better) extension of themselves would indeed despair to hear we were without Internet for the past week and a half, and I would hesitate to bring up such a painful premise unless it were necessary to explain our tardiness in communication.

Since last we updated, we have walked on many new surfaces: sand, shells, train tracks, rich forest loam, and highway asphalt.  Bethany's feet were so raw she ended up hiking a 7% grade and one 15 mile trek in her flip-flops. 

    To the beautiful and densely populated Los Angeles we trotted, where we caught two trains and two buses to skip the less savory areas for backpackers. We stayed in a hostel at Hermosa Beach, where a live reggae band jammed to all hours in the club beneath our room. They were fantastic and we enjoyed the cultural experience, even in our sleep.  Hostels are really interesting meeting places, and I am consistently amazed at the diverse digs and clientele that frequent them. The first hostel we stayed in San Diego was so posh! Hammocks swung in the back patio, where ping pong and potted plants coexisted peacefully. The communal kitchen was well stocked and clean with polite guests tiptoeing around speaking in hushed and respectful tones, like a library or a church. Reuben also wants to mention the solid marble counter tops, and spiffy tile throughout. They had a separate sound proof room with a huge flat screen for movies/tv watching, and the rest was divided into chill hangout nooks. Hermosa beach hostel was a little more surfer punk with some European flair. A thick Parisian accent gave us directions to the front door, which was really the backdoor to a happenin club. Upstairs were three floors of bunk beds, tiny bathrooms and one very small kitchen. The unifying presence of the strangest murals decorated the halls with diverse themes; superheros, the xmen, some new zealand maori with volcanoes exploding in the background and of course, Mickey Mouse.

 Now, Venice Beach Hostel was pure punk rock bachelor pad complete with beer in the vending machine, a van permanently parked in the basement, and Tinkerbell sheets. One bathroom with no door handle made showering a trifle difficult with people coming in and out of the bathroom to use the toilet. Bethany forgot to barricade the door with a chair first!  Reuben and Bethany both were intrigued by the potential and details of this arts and crafts style house, and thought it sad the level of disrepair and dirt! Oh, our hostel would be beautiful!

Strolling through the famous Venice Beach was a trifle disappointing as we had been warned about dangerous characters, wackos, weirdos, all the people who had slipped though the cracks of society and finally found a city to run wild in. We were all prepared with jujitsu moves and ninja gear but our biggest threat was drowsiness. 

The frame in Reuben's backpack broke and the company overnighted a new one to a FedEx in Santa Monica for free. It was fun to see all we were carrying spread out in the middle of the city while Reuben struggled to put the new frame in! 

The first week of the voyage!

Our journey began with a one way car rental from Salt Lake to San Diego.  Caitlin, Reuben's fantastic roommate, was kind enough to offer her credit card for us to use because rental places get nervous about their cars going across state lines  using only a debit card. Thank you Caitlin!

Reuben sold his Chevy Malibu before we left, and the 10 year newer version was our rented coach as well on our journey. We left late and 

ended up camping in the Virgin River Gorge. Our first night in our new home, the orange Marmot tent!

So after a quiet night we finished a smooth ride to our starting point and quickly got acquainted with our new mode of transportation, FEET.  This is what we'll look like most of the time for the next 3 or 4 months:

The week has flown by as we've learned to pack our packs properly, take care of our ultra tender feet, figure out where we're going and where we'll rest our heads, seen countless beautiful things, and encountered really great people from all walks of life down here on the coast.  We're going to get more in the blog swing of things, for now here's some highlight pictures of week 1:

We've enjoyed a lot of versions of this view in the first week:

Bethany and her friend John Butterfield and a flower I liked while we visited the Swami gardens on the coast a bit north of San Diego:

John is a great great guy that is currently studying to be a nurse in order to  fulfil his dream of taking care of the Navajo people living in or near monument valley.  He shared a lot of his wisdom and showed us a fantastic time.  An angelic man!  We also made a friend named Matt that lives down in San Clemente this week.  We were in a campground by the ocean on our second or third night eating fish tacos at a picnic table when he zipped up on his road bike in his funny biker shorts and bright yellow jacket.  In as friendly and cheerful way as we've ever heard he suggested that we split the cost of a $25 campsite to help each other out.  A great idea from a great guy.  We've had a ton of fun with him and have spent a few nights camping with him, and then met for food and some walking time together a few times.  He's planning a long coastal bike ride in a few months.  Below hopefully a video clip will work that briefly shows him and Bethany and myself as we awaited our food one evening after we all went to an AA meeting together.  The AA meeting was fascinating and inspiring.  It was really amazing to hear and experience an insider's view of a community of people supporting each other as they tried so very hard to exclude alcohol from their lives.

Well, I'm tired, and Bethany is fast asleep, so I'll add one more video and call it good for tonight.  We've both written some journal style entries  that we might retroactively incorporate down the road.  More likely though we'll just be a bit more prodigious and hopefully consistent in our postings going forward.  Here is a little clip of me playing around in a tide pool at Crystal Cove State Park with my beautiful camera shy girlfriend seen in the beginning.