Hello Everyone! Well, it’s definitely been a weird and challenging week out here. Nothing went as planned, but everything has worked out okay, at least for now. I had already left Lake Tahoe when I wrote this post last week, but when the master cylinder went on my van I headed back to the lake and spent the week with friends while I waited for it to be fixed. I got it back on Monday and then had to make a beeline for the Bay Area to get to the office in time to start my season. And I did make it, so that’s a good thing, and I will take out my first trip of the year this Friday. It wasn’t the week I had hoped for, but sometimes that’s what happens out here on the road.
After I finished this post last week, I went and had a nice lunch at the Truckee Airport with an old guiding friend of mine, Mike. I met Mike when I first started my guiding job back in 2000 and we worked for the same company for many years. He currently owns Tahoe-Sierra Transport Company which shuttles clients around the Reno and Lake Tahoe areas. We had some interesting Mexican/Indian fusion tacos and caught up for a little over an hour and it was really nice to see him. I spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around Truckee and taking photos. It’s a really cool little town with some great old buildings and everyone seemed pretty friendly. In the evening I went to a place called RMU which is a bar in a nice old house on the edge of downtown. I enjoyed some live music and a couple of beers and chatted with some of the locals. Truckee doesn’t allow overnight parking in the winter, but since it was after April 30th, I stayed in one of the downtown lots overnight with no problems.
On Thursday morning I got up early and had a nice breakfast at a little family-owned coffee shop on the main drag. I took some more photos and then headed just outside of town to Donner Memorial State Park. This is the site where the Donner party spent the winter of 1846-47. I think most of us know this story, at least to some extent, because of the cannibalism that took place as the winter wore on, but I didn’t know much beyond that. It seems like they made some bad decisions along the way, none of which seemed particularly hard to understand in context. The Donners and several other families headed west in the spring of 1846, hoping to make it to California before the winter. Traveling with covered wagons along rough trails was slow going and they only averaged 2 miles an hour on their journey. At one point they decided to take a “shortcut” from the accepted route and this seems to have been their fatal mistake. They got to the valley where Reno is now and could have safely stayed there until spring, but chose to push forward and try and get through the mountains before the snows came. They were only a couple of weeks’ walk from their destination in the central valley and were desperate to start their new lives. The snows came early that winter and didn’t let up for months, stranding them just a week’s walk from safety in either direction. They dug in and did their best and rescue parties eventually came to get them out. It wasn’t until after the first groups had been rescued that they came to the decision to eat their dead comrades. 87 people walked into the mountains with the Donners that winter and only 48 came out alive. The whole story is obviously a sad one, but it is interesting to learn about.
As I was leaving the park on my way up into the mountains, I stepped on the brakes and my foot went down to the floor with the ABS and Parking Brake lights coming on at the same time. Brakes are obviously not to be messed with, especially when I had mountains to cross. I immediately texted my friend Mike who I had met with the day before and he called his local mechanic shop and connected me with them. I headed over there and they said they could get to it the next day. Then I called my friend J.D. who I had been staying with in Tahoe City and he came up immediately and picked me up and brought me back to his place…
Hello Everyone! It’s been another great week out here on the road in California. I’ve spent most of the week in the Lake Tahoe Basin, visiting with friends and taking it easy in the lead-up to my impending tour season. It’s been cold up here and has snowed almost every day since I arrived, but it’s been beautiful and relaxing and a lot of fun to be here. I know that spring is quickly turning to summer just down the mountain from here, so I’m going to enjoy the cool weather while I can.
I left you last week in Gardnerville and when I finished this post I headed up through Carson City and on to Virginia City. Virginia City was ground zero for the Comstock Lode mining boom which took over 700 million dollars’ worth of gold and silver out of the surrounding hills. In its heyday it grew to a city of 25,000 people and had 36 schools and over a hundred saloons. Money from the mining going on in Virginia City helped build San Francisco into the city it became (and was until the fire of 1906) and hastened the separation of Nevada from the Utah Territory as its own state (The Silver State!). When the gold and silver played out, the town’s population dropped significantly but after the TV show Bonanza debuted in 1959, interest in the town grew and tourism became its main industry. It’s one of the better “old west” towns that I’ve visited and maintains a lot of its frontier character. I enjoyed wandering up and down the main street through town and taking photos and stopped in for a beer at the Bucket of Blood Saloon. It turned out that the bartender there was from Washington D.C. and three of the patrons were from just outside the city and south of Annapolis. I chatted with them for a while and enjoyed their million dollar view from the huge picture window at the end of the bar. The sun was going down as I left, so I wandered down the street to the Red Dog Saloon which was doing an open mic night. While others were welcome to perform, it was really some of the locals jamming out on stage and they were really good. I stayed the night just down the hill and it was extremely quiet out there.
I woke up early on Thursday and took another stroll through town and got some more photos with the sun lighting the other side of the street. I stopped in and had a coffee at The Roasting House, which had a great view out towards the valley, and then headed back down the hill to Carson City. I stopped into Bob’s Shell downtown to get my emissions test done. They were surprised that I could use a Nevada emissions test to pass my DC inspection but I promised them it was true. There are a few benefits to coming from such a transient city. I decided to fax it in because that seemed more likely to reach its final destination than if I dropped it in the mail and FedEx was happy to help me make that happen. Once that was signed, sealed and delivered, I headed on out of town. It was snowing which was a shame because I wanted to make a stop in Genoa, Nevada’s oldest town, but it was just too wet out there so I kept moving. I headed up and over the Kingsbury Grade, which is the back way to South Lake Tahoe, and my preferred road up and over the mountains. It’s a pretty steep road, but it was cold up there so we did just fine on the climb. It was really snowing hard up at the top of the hill, but it lightened up as I came down the other side and was barely a flurry when I pulled up at my friends’ house just outside of town.
I walked in to find my friend, Rob, with a huge batch of lemon marmalade on the stove. Rob and I were roommates way back in 1999 and have been good friends ever since. Since he moved to California I get to see him more often than most of our friends from back home and it’s always good to catch up with him.
Hello Everyone!
Greetings from Gardnerville, Nevada! I have popped out of California for a few minutes on my way through the Carson Valley and am overjoyed to see gas prices that start with a 3 instead of a 4 or 5 which is the hardest part about traveling in California. It’s a bit gloomy out today and the temperature is hovering just above freezing, so it’s a perfect day to hunker down and get this post written. It’s been a wonderful week out here on the road, slowly making my way up California 395 on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. I’ve driven this road dozens of times between Yosemite and Las Vegas or Death Valley, but I have usually had to make it all the way between the two in a day which doesn’t leave much time for exploring. Being able to stop off and see the sights and do some hiking and take my time is what this trip is all about and I’ve definitely enjoyed doing just that this week. In the beginning of the week, it was pretty hot out during the day, but the nights were cool and pleasant and seeing snowy mountains out my driver’s side window was been amazing. Towards the end of the week I made my way into those mountains and even saw some snow.
I left you last week in Ridgecrest, a nice little military support community near the China Lake Naval Weapons Center. After I finished this post, I ran across the street to the little Maturango Museum which had a small but wonderful collection of local artifacts. They highlighted the plentiful petroglyphs (ancient rock carvings) in the area as well as the natural history of the local desert environment. The museum had some wonderful photos on display, both recent ones from a National Geographic bird photography competition and some great old ones from the area which had been taken by naval photographers practicing for their official duties in the local community. Perhaps best of all, the museum also served as the local visitor’s center and the ladies there gave me some wonderful ideas for my trip north. When they closed up for the day I went across the street to a very nice park where I cooked up some dinner and read my book before calling it an early night.
Wednesday morning I was up and off nice and early and made my first stop at Fossil Falls. This small recreational site is in the shadow of an ancient cinder cone and there is plentiful evidence of the area’s volcanic past. During the last ice age, the snowmelt fed into a river and that river ran over Fossil Falls. There hasn’t been any water there in a very long time, but you can still see where the water flowed over the rock on its downhill trajectory. From Fossil Falls I headed on to Lone Pine and stopped in at the Museum of Western Film History on the edge of town. The nearby Alabama Hills have served as the setting for over a hundred movies in the last hundred years, with their wonderfully textured western landscape and the backdrop of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. While most of these films were made before my time, names like The Lone Ranger and Hopalong Cassidy were certainly familiar to me. In more modern times Tremors and Django Unchained were filmed in the area…
Avalon! Just hearing the name of this magical place will always make me smile. Avalon is the only town in California’s beautiful Channel Islands and is located on the easternmost island of Santa Catalina, just a short hour’s ferry ride from the mainland. It may be only an hour away, but it is a world apart and landing at the port feels like you’ve arrived in a far off land.
Catalina Island was once home to the Tongva people who used the island’s abundant soapstone to trade with other bands on the mainland and the other islands. It was purchased in its entirety by James Shatto in 1887 and Shatto built the island’s first pier and hotel hoping to attract tourists from Los Angeles. He had a tough time of it though and sold the island to the Banning Brothers just four years later. They had some level of success in developing the island’s tourism potential, but a devastating fire in 1915 and the general decline in tourism due to World War I caused them to look for a buyer themselves.
The man they found was William Wrigley Jr. of Wrigley Chewing Gum fame who purchased the island from the Bannings in 1919. Wrigley had the capital and the drive to make Avalon and Catalina Island a success. Wrigley built the Casino which is a theater, ballroom and gathering place and has never been a gambling hall. He purchased steamships to bring people to the island and built hotels to house them and restaurants to feed them. Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs and had the team hold their spring training on Catalina from 1921-1951. Tourists came in droves, including many Hollywood stars.
After William Wrigley’s death in 1932, his son Philip took over and continued to promote Avalon and Catalina Island. During World War II, the island served as a training facility for the military, but after the war tourism would continue to grow. Philip was sensible enough to think of the long-term health of the island and signed over 88% of the island’s land to the Catalina Island Conservancy in 1975 to be kept in its natural state in perpetuity.
I had a great time in Avalon. I enjoyed some beach time at Descano Beach under the palm trees where I also tried the island’s signature cocktail: Buffalo Milk. I toured the Casino and saw the world’s largest circular uninterrupted dance floor. Our guide told us stories about the heard of bison which was brought to the island for the filming of Zane Grey’s The Vanishing American in the 1920s. They were left on the island and now roam free in a herd of over 150. We learned how Norma Jean Dougherty moved to the island when she was 16 and married a naval enlisted man. She worked pulling taffy at Lloyd’s Candy Shop (which is still there) and her husband was a projectionist at the Casino. Years later the world would meet her as Marilyn Monroe, but the island still remembers her as Norma Jean. An exotic bird park on the island was used to record the sounds used for the flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. The stories went on and on, one more interesting than the next. I learned more island stories at Avalon’s wonderful history museum and enjoyed a wonderful fresh fish dinner at the Lobster Trap and delicious strawberry pancakes at the Pancake Cottage the next morning. I climbed up the hill to the beautiful Chime Tower which chimes the quarter hour and provides amazing views over the town. I was only there for a day and a half, but I felt like it was much longer. I will always remember my time on beautiful Catalina Island and will definitely return in the future. I hope you enjoy these photos from Avalon, the jewel of Catalina Island.
Hello Everyone!
It’s been a busy week out here on the road in Southern California. This week has taken me from the desert to the mountains to the city and back again. I got some skiing in, went to a local fair, drove down Route 66 and went to the original Renaissance Festival in Irwindale. As the week is ending, I’m making my way up the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and enjoying seeing all the snowy peaks out my driver’s side window. I’m getting closer and closer to starting my tour season and trying to get as much in before I do as I can.
After I finished writing this post last week, it was late in the day so I spent the night there in Twentynine Palms. I went out for a surprisingly excellent salad at the Cactus Grill and then headed out to the Tortoise Rock Casino for the night. This casino is run by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians and they were incredibly welcoming of overnighters so long as you checked in with security. I enjoyed a little blackjack and walked out $10 up which is definitely a win.
I was up and out early on Thursday as I needed to grab some groceries and a few other things in the morning before I got started with my day’s travels. Once I was all stocked up, I headed out to the Big Morongo Canyon Preserve just off Highway 62 in the Morongo Valley and I’m really glad that I did. This preserve is located in Sand to Snow National Monument and is run jointly by San Bernardino County and the Bureau of Land Management. It’s not a huge place, but it offers several miles of trails and boardwalks in very different environments. The wildflowers were in full bloom and there were plenty of birds out there to keep me company (and apparently a few rattlesnakes, but I didn’t see any). It was a wonderful place to spend the morning, get some fresh air and stretch my legs. From there, I jumped on Route 38 in Yucaipa and started making my way up into the San Bernardino Mountains. The road was pretty steep and we struggled a bit with the heat as I didn’t know we would travel up to almost 9000’ on our way to Big Bear Lake. Thankfully it got considerably cooler the higher we went and right when I thought we were going to have to pull over to avoid overheating, we crested the pass and started dropping down the other side. I got to Big Bear Lake with enough time to wander around the beautiful namesake mountain lake for a bit before the sun went down. From the north side of the lake I could see Snow Summit Ski Resort and was impressed by how much snow was on the mountain. The Village at Big Bear Lake is a cute little mountain town which I would really enjoy for the next two nights.
I was up early the next morning and stopped in to a shop called GetBoards right there in town to rent my ski equipment for the day. The people working there were great and my equipment was considerably cheaper than it would have been at the resort. Once I was all outfitted I went up and hit the slopes for the first time since I was in Western North Carolina five years ago. The snow was remarkably good and most of the lifts and slopes were open. I loved the west side of the mountain which is full of long, easy trails for “skill development”…
Hello Everyone!
This week has definitely brought a dramatic change in scenery as I have transitioned from the coast to the desert. It was nice to spend as long as I did cruising down the California coast, but there isn’t a whole lot of the country left south of San Diego so after one last walk on the beach I turned my headlights east. I enjoyed a few days in the Palm Springs area and finished my week in incredible Joshua Tree National Park. It’s been a really good week and I’ve been looking forward to telling you all about it.
Last Thursday I said goodbye to my friend Molly, and headed out to Old Town San Diego. I had been to Old Town before but it’s been a while so I thought maybe I could stop in and take a few photos. When I arrived I realized that my memory wasn’t as clear as I thought it was. There was a lot to see there and I ended up staying for a good chunk of the day. Old Town has a stretch of commercial street which ends at Old Town State Park and the State Park has a ton of historic buildings and plenty of shops as well. There was a woman singing and playing her guitar at the entrance to the State Park and it was beautiful music with a wonderful message of peace and love and I enjoyed sitting and listening to her play for a while. Then I made my way down into the parj, poking my head into places and taking some photos. I think my favorite spot was the old tobacco store which looks amazing inside right down to the proprietor who was dressed in period clothes. In his younger days he had been stationed at Quantico for a few years so we chatted about the East Coast a little bit and he let me take a photo of him which I really like. Breaking a bit from the spirit of Old Town I had a fantastic Nepalese lunch at a place called Bhojan Griha a couple of blocks up from the park and it was the most flavorful meal I’ve had in a long time. After lunch I meandered a bit more and took a few more photos. The only bad part about my afternoon was that the sky was so grey. I learned that the locals call the coming time of year the “May Grey” which is followed by the “June Gloom” and that grey skies are not at all uncommon, but it was still a shame that I couldn’t get the photos I wanted with blue skies behind them.
In the late afternoon I headed down to the San Diego waterfront to pay a quick visit to the Maritime Museum there. I had been to this museum a few times, but wanted to revisit one of my favorite ships there, the Star of India. My attention was first called to this ship during my very first season as a tour guide when my two passengers from the Isle of Man (both of whom I saw this past January) told me that this ship had been built on their island. It was built on the Isle of Man in 1863, has circumnavigated the globe 21 times and is considered the world’s oldest active sailing ship. After visiting the Isle of Man this winter, I thought it was appropriate to stop and have another quick look at this beautiful tall ship. From there, I made my way over the amazingly high bridge to Coronado, right across from downtown San Diego but considered a whole different city. I wanted to go and see the Hotel Coronado, the area’s most famous hotel and certainly a San Diego area landmark. Built in 1888, it was the largest wooden structure in the United States until 1944 and it is a stunning building. The general public is more than welcome to visit the lobby, shops, bars, restaurants and beach and I may have taken a quick peak upstairs as well. I enjoyed a quick beer at the old mahogany bar and a lovely stroll along the beach as the sun went down. From there I wandered a few blocks down to the Village Theater and caught the last showing of Air of the day. This is an entertaining movie about the origins of Nike’s Air Jordans and I would have never guessed that a movie about a shoe could be so good. The theater itself was adorable with lit murals on the walls depicting the grand hotel up the street and reasonably priced popcorn to boot. I enjoyed the show and settled in nearby for the night…
When I told my Californian friends that I was heading to Bakersfield for a long weekend, the overwhelming response was “why?”. How about the fact that the Bakersfield Sound redefined country music and the city’s musical roots run deep with live music everywhere. There is a tradition of Basque food in Bakersfield that runs back to the gold rush and there are still a handful of old Basque restaurants around serving up quite a feast. Beyond that, the race tracks, public art, a great history museum and friendly people everywhere you go make Bakersfield a great destination. Why go to Bakersfield? Why wouldn’t you want to go?
The area around Bakersfield was once Yowlumne Indian land and they called their village here Woilu. In 1776, the intrepid Spanish missionary Francisco Garcés passed through the area on his travels. It wasn’t really until the Gold Rush that people of European decent really started making their way into this part of the San Juaquin Valley, and they came in droves. One of these new settlers was an Ohioan named Thomas Baker who built a farm on the Kern River and Baker’s Field became a stopover for travelers. Bakersfield was incorporated in 1873 and became the county seat the following year.
During the Dust Bowl era, thousands of Texans and Oklahomans flooded into the area and brought their brand of country music with them. In the 1950s, when the Nashville Sound was doing its best to bring a pop sound to country music and appeal to the masses, it was in the honkytonks of Bakersfield that musicians started to push back. The “Bakersfield Sound” is what we call this response today and Buck Owens and Merle Haggard brought that sound to the world.
I had a great time in Bakersfield. I liked the cool bars downtown like Guthrie’s Alley, where a diverse crowd always seemed on hand to drink and shoot pool. I loved the live music everywhere I went. The Kern County History Museum was phenomenal, having brought old buildings from all over the county and assembled and restored them at a central site. The Bakersfield speedway was a great experience and my stomach is still full when I think of the delicious Basque food I enjoyed in town. I had an absolute blast and can’t wait to return to Bakersfield in the future. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Bakersfield, California.
Hello Everyone!
I’m writing to you this week from grey and chilly San Diego. I began this week with a trip to Catalina Island and have spent the rest of it moving down the coast and catching up with friends along the way. It’s been great to see so many familiar faces and catch up on what they’ve been up to, but I haven’t gotten any photos edited or published this week as a result. I do have some great photo posts lined up though and I will definitely get to a few of them this week. I’ve had some fun adventures this week but it’s also been fairly quiet.
I was up early on Wednesday and off to Catalina Island from Long Beach. Parking at the terminal wasn’t cheap, but it was quick and easy and very convenient to the boat. The Catalina Express is huge and very comfortable and stable. It was a beautiful sunny morning, so I nabbed a seat on the top deck and got a little bit of sun on the way out to the island. When we arrived in Avalon (the main town on Catalina), I was a bit overwhelmed with how crowded it was. There was a cruise ship in that day so there were hundreds of people going here and there and everywhere but the crowds would die down as the day progressed. I had a room booked at the Catalina Island Inn, so I popped in to see if I could leave my bag there for the day. They couldn’t have been nicer or more accommodating and even took my number so they could call me when my room was ready. I left my bag, took my camera and headed out into the day.
I very quickly started to feel the charms of Avalon despite the hustle and bustle of a busy day. Catalina is known for its glazed clay tiles and they adorned buildings, benches and fountains in colorful mosaics. I wandered down the waterfront and past the Tuna Club and the Yacht Club, both open to members only but both housed in beautiful old buildings that I enjoyed looking at. Then I came to the Casino which towers above the town of Avalon like the Coliseum in Ancient Rome, visible from almost everywhere you go. Built almost a hundred years ago, the Casino has never been a place for gambling, but rather takes its name from an old Italian word for a small house, but which generally meant a place to socialize and dance. I took a tour of the Casino which, while it cost more than my visit to the Hearst Castle, was excellent. Downstairs is home to a grand theater which was the first theater in the country built specifically to show “talkies” or movies with sound. It’s still used as a theater today, showing movies on Friday and Saturday nights. My tour also included the dressing rooms and the incredible upstairs ballroom – the largest circular, free standing ballroom in the world which has a 180 foot diameter dancefloor and can accommodate 3,000 dancers (which it does on New Year’s Eve and other special occasions).
The Casino was built by William Wrigley Jr. who had purchased almost all of Catalina Island back in 1919 with money made from his chewing gum empire. Wrigley was responsible for most of what we see on Catalina today, including the 85% of the island controlled by the Catalina Conservancy which will remain undeveloped in perpetuity. Wrigley owned the Chicago Cubs who played (and still play) at Wrigley Field and for many years they had their Spring Training on Catalina Island…
Hello Everyone!
This week started and ended in L.A. but I spent the weekend out in Bakersfield. All of my California friends raised an eyebrow when I talked about going out to Bakersfield, but I really enjoyed it and was surprised at how much it had to offer. It was definitely a little rough around the edges, but the people were friendly and it was a beautiful, cool, sunny weekend to be there. I’m going to get this post done a day early this week because I’m headed out to Catalina Island first thing tomorrow morning and I’m leaving my computer behind. Catalina is in the same island group as Channel Islands National Park, but it is developed and has a year-round population of over 4,000 people. You guys know how much I love islands, so I’m really looking forward to it. The campground was full, so I’m staying in a hotel out there which also means I’ll only be there for a day, but I’m going to make the most of it. It hasn’t been the busiest of weeks, but I’m sure you’ll see that I’ve gotten a couple of bigger photo posts up this week. Let me tell you what else I’ve gotten into this week.
After I finished up this post last week I took a long drive through L.A. and up to Hollywood. I followed my GPS and it took me on a pleasantly winding route and down streets I’d never been down before. L.A. is a sprawling place and I could probably spend an entire month just exploring around here, but it’s also a challenging place for the van life so it was just about time for me to move on. Before I went, there were three places I wanted to visit in Hollywood. The first is a tiny hole-in-the-wall spot called Tiki Ti. The whole tiki phenomenon in the U.S. began in 1933 by a guy called Don the Beachcomber right there in Hollywood. While that tiki bar is long gone, Tiki Ti remains. Tiki Ti was founded in 1961 by Ray Buhen who had been one of the early bartenders at Don the Beachcomber. He built his bar in an old violin repair shop so you can imagine how small it is. Today, it is one of the country’s most venerable tiki bars and a must-see for any tiki aficionado. I had been by it before, but never had the chance to stop in and I’m sure glad I did this time through. I enjoyed the atmosphere and the people and a couple of tropical cocktails but mostly I was just happy to soak up the history of the place.
From there I made my way back down the Sunset Strip to the Comedy Store to see Comedians You Should Know upstairs in the Belly Room. The Comedy Store is another well-known venue and another place I had never been before. The show was pretty good and some of the comedians were great (and one was downright terrible) and I was happy to have finally made it in to see a show. When it finished, I strolled down the street to Mel’s Drive-In for dinner which wasn’t great but it was fun to be there. It started to rain while I was eating my dinner, so I decided to just call it a night right there in Hollywood.
Thursday morning I was up and off to Bakersfield. I hit some rain and even about 10 seconds worth of snow on the drive, but it was sunny and perfect when I arrived. It was so nice to be in a quiet, open city again where parking was free and plentiful and I could walk wherever I wanted to go. I spent the afternoon wandering the streets and taking photos and then ended up at an old bar called Guthrie’s for happy hour. It’s a great old spot with a beautiful sign out front and a juke box and pool table in the back. From there I caught an acoustic set at The Padre Hotel and then went to The Pyrenees Café for dinner. Bakersfield has a Basque community which dates back to the gold rush. The Basque came to look for gold but found that herding sheep was more profitable because all of those prospectors needed food and clothing. There are still a handful of Basque restaurants in Bakersfield and they put out quite a spread. I had a lamb shank, and it came with soup and salad, marinated tongue, bread, pasta, vegetables and fries. The place was packed, but my dinner was really good. Full to the brim, I headed back downtown to check out Tiki-Ko, Bakersfield’s own tiki bar. It is an excellent spot – subdued but festive and with a good drink menu. I enjoyed a cocktail there before heading off to bed…
Hello Everyone,
It’s been another busy week here in Southern California. I spent half of the week out on Santa Cruz Island in Channel Islands National Park which was an absolutely wonderful experience. When I returned to the mainland, I made my way south to Los Angeles and have been here since, catching up with old friends and visiting some old haunts and some new places as well. I haven’t traveled far this week, so this probably won’t be a particularly long post, but it’s been nice to get some hiking in and the sun is finally shining again.
Last Wednesday, I packed up my backpack and hopped on The Islander in Ventura for the one our crossing to Scorpion Ranch on Santa Cruz Island. The water was rough, but it wasn’t too bad and thankfully it wasn’t a long voyage. When we arrived, we met briefly with the ranger and then headed off to set up camp. It had been raining all night and most of the morning, but the sun was out and it’s always easier to set up a tent in the sun than in the rain. The campground was pretty soggy and we had been warned about branches falling from the eucalyptus trees, so choosing a good spot to set up was essential. After getting my tent up and ready, I decided to use whatever sunshine was left to hike up to the Potato Harbor overlook. This was only about a 4 mile round-trip hike, but it was really muddy on the trail. The mud had a high clay content too, so it stuck to my shoes and it caked on so thick that it looked like I was wearing snowshoes. I made it to the overlook which was absolutely stunning and on the way there I saw several endemic Santa Cruz grey foxes. These foxes have evolved to be much smaller than their mainland cousins, and growing up on an island with no predators, they’re also very friendly. I loved watching them wander around the island and found they made me smile every time I saw them.
After having my lunch at the overlook, I could see the rain coming towards me across the ocean so I started to make my way back to camp. Unfortunately the rain caught up with me before I got there, but worse it turned the clay trail into a slick downhill path. I almost made it back to camp without falling. In fact, I could see the campground from where I fell, but my feet just went out from under me and I landed pretty hard on my shoulder. While I didn’t do any damage and didn’t even get a bruise, it hurt for a few days and I didn’t have any pain killers with me in my pack. I wasn’t happy about it, but it could’ve been worse, too. I headed back to my tent and caught a nap while the rain kept pounding down. It eased up in the evening and hasn’t been back since. That night I ate the first freeze-dried meal I’ve had in many years. When I was a teenager, I spent two summers working at a Boy Scout backpacking camp in Virginia and we ate freeze dried food most of the time. It’s come a long way since I tried it last and I must admit that it was actually pretty tasty. After dinner, the sun went down and there wasn’t much to do so I slipped into my tent and called it an early night…
I had spent time in Sedona before, but never enough. I was always there for just a night, usually late in a tour where we didn’t have much time to do more than have a cursory look around. The cost and snobby attitudes of the locals with their spiritual vortex talk was always a turn-off for me. I had never had the chance to really get out there and do some hiking before, but I’m sure glad I scheduled a few days for it on this trip. I’ve been to a lot of places in this country, but few can compare to the red rock country surrounding Sedona. I don’t know about vortexes, but it is definitely a beautiful and magical place. Like most of red rock country, it’s best to hit the trail very early in the morning or just as the sun is starting to go down. While I was there, I hiked to the Birthing Cave, the Subway, Devil’s Bridge, the Courthouse and Bell and, my personal favorite, the Airport Loop. With the exception of this last one, which I had all to myself, there was no shortage of people in the area. It’s definitely not a secret place, nor is it off the beaten path, but it’s well worth it to visit and the shear number of trails in the area helps to disperse people pretty well. I had a wonderful few days in Sedona and will definitely be back. I hope you enjoy these photos from beautiful Sedona, Arizona, a true hikers’ paradise.
Hello Everyone!
It’s been a week of ups and downs here in the Central Valley/Central Coast of California. The weather has been challenging to say the least. The week started out with some pretty wild weather in the forecast and, as I mentioned last week, I wanted to put some distance between myself and the Bay before it hit. Crazy weather affects you differently when you live in a van than when you live in a house. At this altitude, they were calling for torrential downpours with strong winds and possible flooding. The biggest superpower of being in a mobile home is its mobility, but this storm was so big that there was nowhere to run, so it became about finding a safe spot and paying close attention to the forecast and the water levels. I had to see where the creeks and rivers were and try and stay as far uphill from them as I could without being too exposed to the wind and the lightning. I needed to avoid parking next to trees that might come over on me, but use bushes as a windbreak. It’s a little bit nerve-racking but we got through it.
There’s also obviously quite a bit of conflict in California with “vanlifers”. I’ve been in 26 states over the last 5 years in my van and this is definitely the most difficult place that I’ve been. In most of the states I’ve traveled through, most people are completely oblivious to the fact that people are living in their vans and those who know tend to think it’s pretty cool. It’s rarely been hard to find a place to spend the night that feels safe and I have felt like it’s usually pretty easy to fade into the background. That’s definitely not the case here in California as every day I see dozens of vans whipping here and there and everywhere. Whole counties have made it illegal to park overnight and sleep on city streets and the “last resort” truck stops and rest areas are virtually nonexistent. Those places that have tried to set up “safe parking” lots near town have had people take ridiculous advantage of them by basically moving in and refusing to leave, making them more like homeless encampments than overnight safe lots. It’s a real problem and one that my out-of-state plates don’t help me with. Thankfully I’ve been doing this for a long time and am pretty good at finding my way, but they’re not making it easy. I have spent most nights on residential streets which are safe and quiet and fine, but not ideal. I will persevere as there are things I want to see, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend it.
After I finished up this newsletter last week, I made my way to San Jose for the evening. San Jose is on the south side of the San Francisco Bay and is smaller, newer, cleaner and probably safer than its northern neighbors of San Francisco and Oakland. It seemed like a nice enough place and I enjoyed a wander around the downtown area and a few drinks at Dr. Funk’s Tiki Bar in San Pedro Square. San Jose looked like it had some nice museums, but it probably wasn’t the best place to hole up in a storm.
Thursday I headed out early and made my way south to San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist) which is a wonderful, historic little town in San Juan Benito County. The old Spanish Mission there is quite interesting with a unique-among-the-missions three-aisle church which has been in regular use since 1797. The museum shows some of the rooms as they would have been during the mission era and has some wonderful books and artifacts to look at. Across the plaza is the wonderful San Juan Bautista State Historical Park which interprets the history of the other buildings in the area which were once owned by the Castro and Breen families…
