BACK TO CALI

In 2008, Christy and I took our first trip to California. We started out in San Francisco, where Christy competed in the annual swim race from Alcatraz Island to San Francisco. After a couple of days on the coast, we headed to Yosemite National Park. The rest of the trip was spent on the John Muir Trail with our friend Bob. Bob and I spent three weeks thru-hiking the whole trail, while Christy joined us for the first week. After that first week, Christy flew to Mexico to become a certified yoga instructor.

We returned to California in July of 2019. We had several motivations for this trip. Christy wanted to do the Alcatraz swim race again. Meanwhile, I wanted to take Christy on my favorite stretch of the John Muir Trail, through Evolution Valley and over Muir Pass in Kings Canyon National Park. We also wanted to visit some places we had missed on that first trip, including Big Sur, Pinnacles National Park, the Desolation Wilderness and Tahoe, Lassen Volcanic National Park, the Mount Shasta area, and Redwoods National Park.

This year’s Alcatraz race was on Saturday, July 27^th. We decided to put that in the middle of the trip. We would spend the first two weeks exploring new territory. After a weekend on the Big Sur coast, we would head to the mountains. We would start the second half of the trip in Yosemite National Park and finish with a week long backpacking trip in the John Muir Wilderness and Kings Canyon National Park.

This trip required a lot of advanced planning. First of all, you can’t blow your nose in California without getting a permit first. There is no shortage of red tape there. Also, it’s necessary to reserve campgrounds well in advance for popular areas like Big Sur, the Redwoods, and Yosemite. Prior to the trip, I was able to reserve permits for several backpacking trips, including short ones in the Desolation Wilderness and Yosemite, as well as the long one on the John Muir Trail. For that one, I secured a permit starting from North Lake outside of Bishop, CA. We’d hike from North Lake, over Piute Pass, and down through Humphreys Basin and Piute Canyon to the JMT. Then we would hike the JMT through Evolution Valley and over Muir Pass. We’d finish that trip by leaving the JMT to hike through Dusy Basin and over Bishop Pass before finishing at South Lake.

THE BURNING SHORE

We had planned to spend a couple of days in the Big Sur area back in 2008. Sadly, a massive wildfire started in that area a few days before our trip. That stretch of coast was inaccessible, and we were forced to change plans. Since we had missed it on that previous visit, we decided to start the 2019 trip there.

I made a few mistakes in the pre-trip planning. One was not booking a campsite in the Big Sur area months in advance. I started looking about a month before our trip, and most everything was already booked. I checked a couple of private campgrounds, and tent sites were going for over $100 a night! Eventually I stumbled upon the Ponderosa Campground – a National Forest unit in the mountains east of Big Sur. The campground is 12 miles up a windy road, but I didn’t necessarily consider that to be bad thing. There was exactly one campsite left, so I reserved it.

Our next challenge was getting to the Charlotte airport early on a Saturday morning. Charlotte doesn’t have reliable taxi companies. It is theoretically possible to schedule an Uber ride in advance, but that proved to be impossible on both our computers and phones. We decided to try Lfyt for the first time. Booking a ride in advance was a challenge on their app, but we eventually made it work. Unfortunately we had no control over what type of car would be picking us up.

Packing for a 4 week trip isn’t easy. We ended up with 2 large suitcases and 2 large duffel bags, plus our backpacking packs as carry-ons. When our ride arrived that morning, I had a moment of panic. The car was tiny. In fact, it didn’t have a trunk.

We stacked the two large suitcases on one side of the back seat. I sat next to them, with a duffel bag and my pack in my lap. Christy sat up front, also with a duffel bag and pack in her lap. It was actually kind of hilarious, in a very uncomfortable way. If we’d gotten into a wreck, luggage would’ve exploded in every direction.

We made it to the airport unscathed, and managed to get ourselves and our stuff out of the car. Fortunately, the rest of the morning was smoother. Our direct flight to San Francisco was on time. We got our luggage and picked up the rental car, a VW Jetta. We headed south from the airport and stopped at Stax for a second breakfast. Then we headed south, towards Monterey. Traffic was terrible, but that was to be expected. It was California, after all! We stopped at REI for stove fuel and last minute supplies and got groceries. Then we continued south towards Big Sur.

The weather on day 1 was highly variable. In San Francisco it was cool and cloudy. Farther south, away from the ocean, it was sunny, with temperatures in the upper 90’s. By the time we reached Monterey, it was cool and foggy again. This is normal along the northern Pacific coast in the summer. You can usually count on fog along the coast, although on some days it may clear off in the afternoon.

We drove through pockets of sunshine and fog for the next few hours. Highway 1 hugs the coast most of the way, and the scenery is stunning. The cliffs drop straight into the ocean, and the road contours around those cliffs, high above the pounding surf. We pulled off several times to enjoy the view.

We drove all the way to McWay Falls in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. It’s a famous spot, and a must-see. It was early evening and it wasn’t too crowded, so we parked on the shoulder and walked along the road into the park. We picked up the (paved) trail, which runs under the highway and traverses a cliff to a viewpoint of the falls. There, McWay Creek tumbles over a sheer cliff and spills onto a secluded beach. It’s a beautiful spot. We enjoyed the view and took a few photos before starting the short walk back to the car.

From there we drove past more thrilling scenery before reaching the junction with Nacimiento-Fergusson Rd. We turned there and headed up the mountain. This was a thrilling drive – 12 miles of hairpin curves, mostly on cliff edges. Oh, and the road is maybe a lane and a half wide. It was along this road that we were introduced to our favorite sign of the trip. “Road Narrows”. Each time we encountered this sign, we were already on a very narrow road. Early on we found this alarming. But really, the narrower road was never particularly noticeable.

It was a scenic drive, though rather tedious. When I booked this campground, 12 miles didn’t seem like a big deal. But on that road, it took 30 minutes every time.

We passed a campground after about 10 miles. It looked cramped and crowded. A few minutes later we pulled into the Ponderosa Campground on the banks of the Nacimiento “River”. The river is only a few feet wide, but at least it had water in it.

We had reserved campsite 2, which was lousy. It’s right in front of a fairly large parking area that serves campsites 1-3. Those campsites are packed tightly together. Our site didn’t have any trees, so sleeping in the hammocks wouldn’t be an option. Campsite 1 had a large group of college-aged kids. Later we found out that they had all gone to Duke University. Campsite 3 had an even larger group of college-aged hippie kids. Good Lord, what had we gotten ourselves into?

We set up the tent and made dinner before heading to bed early. We were tired after a long day. Unfortunately, sleeping was a challenge. The Duke kids were LOUD. The hippie kids were quieter, but there were a lot of them, and they were just a few feet away. At least the hippie kids were entertaining. Before I crawled into the tent, I saw one of the hippie girls twirling fire.

Luckily, I can sleep through pretty much anything. Unfortunately, Christy doesn’t have that gift. She was pretty groggy the next morning. Fortunately, our plans weren’t overly ambitious. After breakfast we drove back down to the coast. The last few miles of the drive were spectacular. We found ourselves high above a sea of clouds, as the coast was socked in with fog.

We drove down into the murk and headed north a couple of miles on highway 1. Our first stop was at Limekiln State Park. We paid the standard $10 entrance fee and parked in the day use area. From there, we hiked up through the campground, which was much nicer than our spot in the Ponderosa Campground. Then we headed upstream along Limekiln Creek through a lovely Redwood forest. The trail features three short spurs: one along Hare Creek, one to Limekiln Falls, and one to the actual Lime Kilns. We decided to hike to the waterfall first.

Hiking to the falls requires several creek crossings, but we were able to rock hop all of them. Limekiln Falls is impressive. It’s around 100’ high, and has a unique feature. The waterfall has a "twist" in it. About 1/3 of the way down, one stream a water projects out and wraps around the rest of the waterfall. There is a good view of the falls from the end of the trail, but I scrambled up a lower cascade to get a closer perspective. Incredibly, we had the falls to ourselves for several minutes before another group arrived.

We backtracked down to the main trail and then hiked over to the lime kilns, which are on a tributary of Limekiln Creek. These large structures are still in remarkably good condition, and some of the nicest redwoods we encountered were in that area.

We headed back, but took the spur trail up Hare Creek. This trail is in rough shape, as one section of trail has been destroyed by a fallen tree. I found a way around, but Christy decided to stop. I regained the trail, but then it seemed to end above a small cascade. It looked like it would be possible to continue on the other side, but getting over there would require an awkward descent, a wade, and a scramble back up. The other option would be a sketchy crossing on a log high above the water. I decided to turn back.

We returned through the campground and then took a short trail under the highway and out to the beach. We had lunch there in the fog, listening to the pounding surf.

From there, we drove north along the coast to Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park in the heart of Big Sur. Our goal was to visit Pfeiffer Beach, which is famous for its sea arch. Sunday afternoon in July is not the optimal time to visit Pfeiffer Beach. When we arrived, the parking lot was full, and rangers were turning everyone around at the beginning of the access road. We considered finding something else to do in the immediate area so we could try again later. After debating our options we decide to head in a different direction. We got a couple of gallons of gas (for $5 a gallon) and then headed back south. So basically we drove a couple of hours to get overpriced gas. At least it was a very scenic drive!

Next up was a visit to Sand Dollar Beach. We paid the $10 parking fee, which was a mistake. I have a National Parks pass, which would have given us free access. Unfortunately I completely forgot about it, so I guess we made a $10 donation.

Sand Dollar Beach is famous for its jade. We found a lot of pretty green stones, but I don’t think any of them were actually jade. We walked the whole beach, which is the largest in the Big Sur area. We saw lots of beautiful wildflowers, and the fog finally began breaking up shortly before we left. Sand Dollar Beach also features a natural arch, and it was far less crowded than Pfeiffer Beach. We made a good choice.

Our last hike of the day was a short one, to the Pacific Valley Bluffs a short distance north of Sand Dollar Beach. We hiked through an overgrown meadow that was loaded with ticks. We discovered that after the fact. Gah! At least the views were fantastic. Our timing was perfect, as the last of the fog had dissipated. The views of cliffs, sea stacks, and pounding surf were fantastic. I guess it was worth having to remove a few ticks.

It was well into the evening, but still a couple of hours until sunset. I wanted to find a good place for sunset, but we were exhausted. Instead, we headed back to camp. The Ponderosa campground was a much different place Sunday evening. It was almost completely deserted. Unfortunately, when were arrived I discovered that someone had stolen our solar-powered camping light. I’d left it on the picnic table to charge that morning, but then forgot to put it in the car before we left.

The campground was much quieter, but our particular campsite still sucked. Christy suggested looking for a better one. Technically we had paid for campsite #2, but there wasn’t really anyone around to object if we moved. We drove around the campground and found several vacant sites that were much nicer. We set up the hammocks at one of them, and I left Christy there to work on dinner. I returned to campsite 2 and took down the tent. We slept much better that night, thanks to the quiet and our comfy hammocks.

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