Big Sur and Friends along the Coast

After a nice visit with folks in Santa Cruz for the second week of February, we continued our journey southward headed for some great backpacking and camping in Big Sur for the following week. Our plan was to backpack into Sykes Hot Springs on the Big Sur River- an 11 mile hike- before the forecasted storms arrived. We arrived at the trailhead a little later than planned, and were only able to make it about 5 miles to Terrace Creek Camp before nightfall. The camp and trail were very crowded, with lots of people enjoying the last of the unseasonably warm weather. Continuing our hike the next morning, we were amazed to count ~60 people exiting Sykes (yikes!) in various groups, but we were only slightly distracted from signs of the Basin Complex Fire that burned much of the area two years ago. There was lots of open sky along the route with Oak and Madrone carcass silhouettes. The larger Redwood trees that had burned were regenerating lower on their trunks, but had intact crown structures, resulting in strangely inverted tree shapes.

We arrived at Sykes mid-afternoon, thankfully minus the 60 people that were there the night before. A short soak that afternoon was followed by a nice fire, dinner, and a longer soak after nightfall. The moon was half full, and shone brightly on the picture-perfect streamside springs. They had been notably improved since my last visit, now with three pools, two of which were rock- and cement-walled on bedrock! We slept well that night, but awoke early the next morning.

The pitter-patter of raindrops on nylon started just before dawn, and grew to a downpour by morning. We packed and hiked out through a beautiful mix of misty views, rain soaked clothes, and watery trails. All of the water lovers were out that morning: we must have past several hundred newts and banana slugs on the trail!

From the trailhead, we drove straight to our campsite at Kirk Creek Campground, where we were to stay for the next 4 nights. The coastline was beautiful, and as the storm started to break that afternoon, we realized what a treat we had in store for us. For the next four days, although we endured some serious weather, we watched dolphins and sea otters play in the surf right below our camp.

We departed at the end of the week, headed for San Luis Obispo. For our last night, we were treated to a major storm system, with high winds and surf and incessant, heavy rainfall. By Friday morning, most of Highway 1 from Gorda south to Ragged Point (about a 20 mile stretch) was a one-lane road, with slides blocking the northbound lane every 1/4 mile. Nonetheless, we arrived safely at GoWesty, our next destination and a sort of Nirvana for VW Westfalia owners.


GoWesty did some nice upgrades to Goldi, including adding a little lift provided by their progressive springs and replacing the fuel lines. The lift should be nice for Alaska and Baja adventures... stay tuned! It was President's Day Weekend already, and we were happy be staying with our friends Bob and Jamie, and their adorable 10-month old twins Oscar and Albert. While we were waiting for work on Goldi to be finished, we were happy to join Bob for a productive mushroom hunt, which produced Chantrelles that were a nice compliment to Jamie's mixed grain and vegetable dish that night. We felt great after showering and a good nights rest out of the weather, and Goldi handled nicely after getting her lift.

We finished up the holiday weekend by continuing south to Ventura, to visit Blake, Kate, their two year old daughter Lucy, and newborn twins Madeline and Mitch. The nasty weather continued on the drive down, but broke for a nice day that we spent at the Ojai farmer's market and the Ventura coastline.   Amidst an amazing continuous cycle of burping, feeding, changing, and sleeping we enjoyed fun time with Lucy, great home time with the gang, and a little venture on our bikes to the beach.  We also enjoyed getting to know Becky (Kate's cousin from Chicago who was there to offer the much needed "fifth hand".

On this leg of the journey, I realized that we were getting far enough from Reno to visit our wonderful friends that we don't get to see that often. I also realized how lucky we were to know these folks, and to see that they had become fine parents to such beautiful children. At any rate, just as everyone was headed back home from the weekend, we were leaving gracious company for the wilds of Joshua Tree and the Mojave Desert.