Status update: Big Sur

Thought I would resurrect the blog and add a short note about my life today. I am now in Big Sur, working on mastering the crafts of wire wrapped jewelry and nature photography. I am pretty much living off the grid, so my posts will be limited. Gotta head out at this moment to photograph the California Condors. Be back soon...

Pebble Beach, San mateo county coast

A few miles south of Pescadero on hwy 1, or near a third of the ways from Half Moon Bay to Santa Cruz, this is a great little spot to stop and stretch, have a picnic and explore the beach and rock. It is not well marked and just a cul de sac pull out. There is a picnic table and a grille, a pit toilet and no water.

Once parked, you can explore the little cove with pebbles to the right, or check out the unique sculpturing of the sandstone right in front of the parking spot. With it knobs, waves and crests, the landscape looks like the moon or something. There are reefs further to the ocean, and tidepools to the south. Local fishermen like to fish off the rocks in this area too. Bluff trails lead out in either direction.

There is a geocache here, Coburn's Folly http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=efd25a26-407a-4858-a6f7-93a2fa6eff97, marking the site of a failed resort hotel. Coords to the cache are N 37° 14.290 W 122° 24.978. These coords can also be helpful in locating the pullout. There is also a plaque in the parking lot detailing the interesting history of this failure. a few other caches are within a mile radius of the beach.

Pebble Beach is actually a part of Bean Hollow SB, another worthwhile stop. I think that this stretch of the coast is some of the nicest and lesser used in this part of the state.



And now to the important stuff. It is posted NOT to remove the pebbles. And so, if you have this swag, my hope is that you do plan a visit to Pebble Beach, and that you will return these pebbles to their rightful location. Or, if you are not going to visit or have bookmarked the info, keep the swag out there

The Oregon Coast- Lincoln City, Taft, Boiler Bay to Depoe Bay

The central Oregon Coast has a lot of unique qualities that I enjoyed. Starting with Lincoln City and "The Worlds SHORTEST River". 440 feet in length, it connects Devils Lake to the Pacific Ocean. I caught it at low tide, and it hardly qualified as a creek in my book... Still, the site is a state recreation area and home to two of the worlds LARGEST kite festivals (go figure ;). There are "drive on" beaches in the general area, to add to the allure.

At the south end of town is the historic Taft district, bordering the Siletz river. I enjoyed wandering around the district, stopping in to watch some glass blowing, exploring the beaches, and grabbing a couple of unique geocaches. I had a good chuckle to myself, thinking of Morgan, as I saw her restaurant, and then a great window decal on a parked element :).

Always balancing the cons of "Boondocking" against the pros, I spent the night at Chinook Winds Casino. Some yahoo parked a few spots down was feeling no pain, and was literally howling at the full moon for the most of the night. None of us fellow campers had the nerve to confront him...cause, as far as I'm aware, nobody had any silver bullets (can't be too careful ;)! Funny thing was, he was off by one night, and there would be a (possibly rare?) lunar eclipse on the full moon, the next night (8/27/07). Never a dull moment on the road, I like to think.

After a poor nights sleep, I made my way to Boiler Bay, and then to Depoe Bay. Whales! I mean, LOTS of whales. I had not realized that Oregon had "resident" Gray whales! They do migrate south to Baja, but drop out of the northerly migration, spending the summers here. It so happened that the whale watching society had set up docents at Depoe Bay, and as I stood with them talking, several whales up within the outer bay, sometimes as close as 50 feet of the seawall! Incredible! I just had to retrieve the geocache "Yarr, there be whale" (gc11mho) which was within 100 feet of the docent's table. We (one of the docents and I) called a biologist who had a Zodiac tour going, and directed her to the closest whales within the bay. I have since lost her card, so cannot post her name or boat, but she is evidently legend around here, so wouldn't be hard to locate.. She runs a 16 or 18 foot zodiac out and encourages her groups to beat on the boat to interact with the whales when they come up (they are evidently attracted to the vibations). I had the docent ask her to schedule me on her next trip out, but it ended up that the wind kicked up and I was the only client scheduled. I had to argue with her to NOT go out with just me, since the $20 fare wouldn't even pay for her fuel. While I was at the harbor waiting for her to come in, I witnessed a harbor seal performing to a fisherman who was cleaning his catch, trying to entice him into a handout. It was hilarious to watch, the seal would roll onto its back and slap the water with its flippers, splashing up a storm and sometimes nearly clapping for the fishermans attention. The fisherman would have nothing to do with the seal though. A bit later I did see a couple of kids who had been around that were teasing it into its act with a fish carcass.

Oh, BTW, Depoe Bay is billed as the SMALLEST Harbor in the world.

The Oregon Coast- Seaside to Tillamook, and "The Capes"

I made my way out to the Oregon coast for a southwards journey, the last week of August. With summer vacations coming to an end, it proved to be a bit crowded, at least through labor day. I made the best of it, but the beaches of Seaside to Tillimook were pretty much overrun. The cheese factory was definitely worth a stop, and I was intrigued by the packaging techniques. I ended up with an audience of employees on the floor, wondering why this fool in the window was staring at their work so much... :)

As hwy 1 moves inland a bit, you can sidetrip along the coast on the "Three Capes Scenic Route" (Kiwanda, Meares and Lookout), which definitely should not dissapoint...At the point of Cape Lookout, which extends some two miles out into the pacific, I was surprised to spot a Sunfish down below. I would have never believed I would see one of these from a land vantage.

On the hike out to the point, I was scouting the waters with binocs for sealife, and guess I came close to doing a header off the cape at 500'! At least that was the perspective of the hiker that grabbed my arm. He was shaken enough that I had to take his word for it. I had been standing at the edge looking down through the binocs, and heard him come up. As I dropped the binocs and went to move out of his way, I suffered a bit of vertigo from having been behind the binocs for so long, and tripped on a root as I moved. He was white as a ghost afterwards, so it must have appeared closer than it seemed to me. Ah, just another adventure ;