I left the office Friday afternoon feeling aimless, since almost all the people I knew in California had up and left for at least the weekend. The feeling was somewhat lonely but at the same time exciting, to know that for the first time I was completely on my own out west and would be entertaining myself for a few days. Having worked all week, I decided to head home and take it easy for a few hours and then perhaps come up with something exciting to do with myself. I eventually dragged myself into the shower and came out looking pretty fancy, so off I went to a club I’d heard about in nearby San Jose. After negotiating for almost 10 minutes with an unexpectedly friendly bouncer who thought my Maryland ID was a fake, I finally talked my way into the place. Maybe I look a little too good for my age? Anyway, the crowd was a little lacking, I thought, for a Friday night, but I had a few good drinks and met an interesting character or two. It was better than sitting by myself at home, I decided. I made it home in the wee hours of the morning and slept later than I had in ages. I awoke around 2 and quite simply, made almost nothing of my day. It was glorious. I gave my car a much needed wash and wax, but other than that it was chilling out with Marilyn and her cats all day, a surprisingly nice departure from my usual full schedule.
Sunday was a different story. With only a limited number of weekends in which to go roaming around this stunningly beautiful and entertaining region, I decided that an adventure was in order. I had spent the last few weekends wandering around amazing San Francisco and I suppose I was read for a nature break. I like to keep a little balance I guess. I called up my friend Ben, who is another intern from RIT with whom I work, and told him I wanted to go hiking and would he like to come along. To my delight, he accepted my invitation and was over about an hour later. We were going to go for a little adventure.
I packed sandwiches, sweatshirts, extra socks, protein bars, and plenty of other survival related items, and off we went, maps in hand. We headed out on 280 for a short while, getting off in the town of Los Altos Hills, a very nice area which is home to many Silicon Valley executives. I filled up the gas tank and we headed west, up into the Santa Cruz Mountains. These are the same wonderful mountains that I described last week after seeing them from the airplane. Wanting to get a better look, I found a road-less-traveled sort of route, courtesy of Google Maps, right over the summit of them, on some streets that turned out to be better suited to bicyclists than two lanes of automobile traffic.
Uphill we drove, and drove and drove! I was having a wonderful time. I had been on some amazing mountain summit drives with my parents before, and this was beginning to bring back memories. The best part was that this time, I was doing the driving! For those of you who do not know, I am a big fan of motorsports, driving, racing, and cars in general. These steep, narrow, and twisty roads were definitely pushing all the right buttons for me. Now worry not, my dear parents, I was being safe…just enjoying myself a little! When we started to get some real altitude underneath us, I pulled the car over and we got out to turn around and look back. I can’t say that urban sprawl from a distance is the most gorgeous sight on the planet, but I wouldn’t call it ugly either! We could see plenty of lush forest beneath us, as well as the infamous Silicon Valley and more mountains beyond.
Back in the car, we drove even further upward until our road ended and we found ourselves, courtesy of Google Maps, on an even steeper and more narrow road. This one seemed to be favored by some seriously masochistic bicycle riders. I mean, these people were combating what had to be close to a solid 10% grade for miles and miles, under the beating sun, not to mention all the car exhaust they were breathing as I frighteningly floored it to pass them, in the opposite lane and around blind corners no less! Let me tell you, that gets your juices flowing! And so now you are probably thinking, Michael, they are in good shape and enjoy their long uphill bike rides! Well I have no pictures to prove it, but I would have to say that judging by the faces of these poor people (they did not look happy), they just happened to have all parked their bike-rack-equipped Priuses (Prii?) over the other side of the mountain and now they had to ride up to the top if they were ever going to get home. I should’ve offered one of them a ride just to see what they would’ve said!
We stopped a couple more times before things started to level off, spotting beautiful and unusual scenery, such as some random people chilling on top of their van, and plenty of wildflowers and gorgeous vistas. Once we had made it over the first ridge, things started to get a lot shadier. And no I don’t mean it was a bad neighborhood, I mean it actually was shady. Can you guess why? Oh yes, you got it, Redwoods! Now it was not a whole forest of them, but there were definitely a few scattered around here and there. We got out and saw a few up close, took pictures, and then moved on. I kinda wanted to save the Redwoods experience for when I am actually in the Redwood forest, someplace I’m sure I’ll get to in another couple weeks or so.
At this point, the road was really getting narrow, and it was so dark that I had to turn my lights on. Mostly so I could spot those pesky bicyclists! In a few spots, it appeared that the California highway people had just giving up trying to paint lines on the road altogether, since it would’ve been rather silly to bother indicating which side of a 6 foot wide strip of pavement motorists should be driving on. I barely made it through when a motorcycle came the other way. Meanwhile, Ben’s Garmin GPS was practically laughing at us for taking the route that we did, repeatedly beckoning us to turn around and save ourselves, in between losing its satellite signal. Eventually, it showed us driving around on no road at all, but rather on top of a nondescript green blob that I assume signified an alternate dimension that I’d somehow driven us into.
After a few close calls in the Redwood forest with some squirrels and an old Saab, we made our next turn onto a road that not only had lines, but even featured the occasional guardrail (what a concept!). Well after all that, it was pretty much smooth sailing. The sun came out, our altitude began to drop, and I started to catch short glimpses of a faint blue horizon off in the distance. I wonder what that could be…
WELL! It was only another couple of downhill miles before we cruised through the only town in America I think I’ve been too that did not feature a McDonalds - beautiful and quaint Pescadero, California - and finally observed what this distant blue thing was. As you may remember from last week’s post, I am pretty passionate about oceans. I really don’t know why. I didn’t grow up all that close to one. I’ve probably almost drowned in them a couple times. Those rip tides are always trying to end me. I shouldn’t really be all that friendly with them. But I am!
The Pacific was finally in view, and this time from the ground! The aerial view I enjoyed last weekend was like nothing else, but this was on a whole other level compared to that. I could actually see, smell, hear, and touch the largest ocean on the planet! Heck, I could taste it too if I was so inclined to do so (I wasn’t really). And it really was everything I had hoped for. Ben was also experiencing it for the first time, so he was just as giddy as I was. We crossed the infamous Highway One and entered the first parking lot we found. I parked the Mazda and we both got out.
It was so refreshing to be in such a beautiful place with other people who appeared to be enjoying the experience just as much as we were. I snapped a few pictures and we just gazed out at the beauty. I am such a sucker for the Atlantic Ocean and its beaches, since the highlight of so many of my summers has been spent on them. But take it from me, if you do not already know for yourself – the Atlantic has nothing on this. The beach is just so natural, un-screwed around with, and just generally more scenic. In addition to the usual sand, there are cliffs and rocks and plants and no houses or hotels blocking your view. It is pretty much perfect. We got back in the car (it was chilly!) and turned back onto Highway 1, heading south. I was almost as delighted to be driving this amazing highway. To me, there is nothing like a road that spends virtually all of its 656 miles hugging some of the most gorgeous coastline in the world.
After a few more miles and a couple more stops here and there to see a groovy lighthouse and some flowers, we arrived at our official destination. Now obviously the whole trip thus far had been a destination, but we actually did have an objective in mind. I called it the chewy center of our day. We were going hiking on the beach! I know you are all frowning at me and saying that a walk on the beach does not count as a hike. Especially if you do it in flip-flops (I did!), but let me just say that it counts as a hike in my book. No, really, there is a write-up on it in my “100 Great Hikes in the SF Bay Area” book. So yeah, it really does count as a hike in my book (heh). Ok, enough bad jokes. Moving on…
The book told us to park in the lot at Gazos Creek State Beach and walk south on the coast for 4 miles, enjoying all the scenery and wildlife along the way. Well let me just say that although I love beaches and I also love strolling on beaches, 4 miles was not in the cards. Make that 7.8 miles round trip. Instead, we ate our turkey and hummus on wheat and walked down the beach for an hour, which amounted to a little over a mile, checked out the situation, and then came back. It was awesome. Really. There was so much to see, climb on, touch, chase (mostly seagulls, a few people…just kidding!), and just generally enjoy. I even got to pee on some really majestic looking rocks. How fantastic! I was so delighted that something I had actually looked forward to for so long was really as good as I had hoped.
The walk back north was windy but enjoyable. The scenery was really unbeatable, for me. And the best still had yet to come! Back in the car, we headed north. It was nice having the sun and the ocean to my left, right out the window. Even though the speed limit was 55, I found myself doing closer to 40 just so I could take it all in. That didn’t make a guy in a silver Volvo very happy, but lucky for him there are passing lanes.
I had purposely got different directions to get home, predicting that the magical forest adventure we’d had earlier in the day would probably make a better day trip than a quick nighttime return, which turned out to be correct. Instead, we hugged the coast on Highway 1, heading towards the town of Half Moon Bay. About 10 miles out, at a point on the road of particularly high altitude, we passed a place to pull over. I turned around and drove back to it, stopping the car on what turned out to be one heck of a high cliff. I was just overflowing with joy. Really people, this is the stuff that does it for me. The sun was a few minutes from setting so I called my Dad to say hello while we waited. Before long, the moment I had been awaiting finally arrived. I watched, 150 feet above the golden sand below, in awe and admiration as the sun set gracefully over the ocean, under a cloudless blue sky.
It was amazing. I won’t say that my life is now complete, but it is definitely one step closer. I finished up with my Dad and we drove the rest of the way to Half Moon Bay, stopping in a groovy looking Taqueria for some burritos. It was no Chipotle of course (I really need to stop comparing every burrito I eat to that place) but the carne asada was spicy and satisfying, and the horchata was sweet, like our day. I didn’t even finish the whole thing! How embarrassing.
We headed home on the road more traveled and made good time on the fast but boring freeway. Arriving home a little before 10, we were both pooped. Ben headed home to his place in San Jose and I went inside to play with the cats. I sat and reflected on another wonderful weekend in California, thinking of how great it was to see that sunset. I really can’t say enough about the fun it has been out here the last couple of weeks, and I wholeheartedly look forward to many more days like this one.
There are some pictures posted at the link below that I think are pretty great. I hope you will view them and enjoy them!
http://www.somepicturesitook.com/3-24gal Also…here is a little something I made for you guys to help you experience the beauty of the Pacific coast as I saw it this weekend. It is a big panorama so obviously there is a little load time and some scrolling involved, but click the photo below and I think you will like what you see. Make sure you click on the photo once it loads, in case your browser shrinks it to fit the screen. It should appear huge. If you like it, let me know and I will put together more! Thanks so much for reading.
wow.
how can all that have been only 10 miles from me for the past four years?
that being said, highway 1 around Big Sur is even more amazing...