Big Sur

Had a very busy week last week. Spanish class on Monday, Step class at the gym on Tuesday, Stereophonics concert at the Great American Music Hall on Wednesday, dinner at a friend’s in Oakland on Thursday, drive down to Salinas for the start of our Big Sur weekend on Friday! Salinas is the birthplace of John Steinbeck, but we didn’t see anything to do with him. Instead, we just stayed at a cheap motel there and took advantage of a cheap Mexican supermarket the next day for our camping supplies. It really was like Little Mexico from the food to the huge array of piñatas (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi%C3%B1ata if you don’t know what they are!) to the fact that a little Spanish certainly helped with communications at the deli counter.

We’d planned to get in touch with Oli and Karine (my colleagues from work, who were accompanying us on the trip) when we arrived at the Big Sur coast, which starts some 120 miles or so south of San Francisco. There was a big flaw to this plan, however, since there is absolutely no cell phone reception along this coastline, which is basically a narrow belt nestled between the Pacific and a range of high, forested hills. As a result, we didn’t see these friends until we got to the campsite that evening. However, we spent a pleasant day with our other friend, Cassie, driving down the gorgeous coast and taking little walks to the shore. We spotted a sea otter during one such stroll, visited a cove where it’s possible to find jade (aptly called Jade Cove) and photographed an absolutely gorgeous 80 foot coastal waterfall (McWay Falls), before heading to the campsite at Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park. Our camping spot was among trees, but not as spacious as some others I’d stayed at. However, there was just about enough room for all of us (six, in total, including Karine’s cousin, Marlène, who is visiting). After an initial crisis with the barbecue (it went out, after half-cooking the sausages), we had a great dinner of grilled meats and Mediterranean veg. with salad, topped off with apple pie warmed over the charcoal. I even got to practice my French with Karine’s cousin! For me it was pure delight to be camping and not to be freezing cold, after the Yellowstone experience! Having said that, I didn’t have the best night’s sleep, in spite of not having grizzly bears, wolves or even raccoons to worry about!

After breakfast the next day, we decamped and headed to nearby Pfeiffer Beach. I have a photo of that beach, taken on our road trip in 1999, when the wind was so strong that you could barely stand up! It’s a lovely photo, though. It was very windy this time too, although not as bad, but we still ended up with sand in pretty much every exposed orifice! However, it’s a beautiful beach with interesting rock formations that include perfectly formed tunnels. After admiring the beach for a while (and marvelling at the surfers), we took our leave of everyone and headed off to do a hike in Andrew Molera State Park. Oli, Karine and Marlène had been lucky enough to see a bobcat there the day before, but we weren’t so fortunate, although we saw some seals and lots of birds. We supposedly did an eight-mile hike, but we went the wrong way a couple of times, so it was probably more like nine. It seemed quite hard work, anyway, but it was quite lovely, taking in views across the dunes and bluffs to the ocean, as well as back to the steep hillsides. We hadn’t seen any fire damage from the recent violent forest fires until this point (which surprised me, since several trails were closed in the State Park where we camped), but now, with the aid of binoculars, we were able to spot a few blackened trees high in the hills.