Coastal days - Posted from Phoenix, Arizona

Driving down the Pacific coasts, with all the freedom to take my time and spend some time surfing when I wanted to: not a bad thing to look forward to, not at all.

The first day included all I had expected, and a little extra: I took off from the Morro Bay motel, after the usual motel morning ritual: blog posts, pics and movies... the road offered beautiful views, and after a few miles the first surprise: I had to get fuel at Cambria, and there were big signs on the road saying that it would be closed later in the day. I checked with the attendant what would happen exactly: I wouldn't want to have to go on the #101 highway instead of the #1 coastal road. He informed me that there was a bike race going on: all the way from Monterrey (which would be my end goal for the day) to Cambria. The closing of the road would be with a moving gate however, so no reason not to head on North.

After this first surprise the second turned up after a few more miles: an elephant seal colony! The stink came first, but then the view... there must be a few thousand elephant seals here!

I spend a little time looking at these creatures. On the beach they look quite lazy: dozing in the sun, using their flippers to throw some sandsunscreen on their backs, fighting now and then. There's actually a back to back line of seals directly against the surf. I don't know if this is if they're too lazy to move up onto the beach proper, or if its to be as close as possible to the water to cool off. Compared to their behavior on the beach it makes a lot of difference when they're in the water: fast, playful, fluid. I would have loved to dive with these creatures. However, I didn't investigate my options, didn't have much time, little money, and no experience dry suit diving (the water is too cold here). So I guess I'll have to come back here some time (the whole Monterey bay area is a huge, huge marine reserve, with lots and lots of beautiful wildlife).

After driving through some more beautiful scenery the first stop due to the race came up: a portal across the road, which was apparently a timing or finish gate. Major respect for the cyclists on the road: I had been zig-zagging, climbing and descending again on this road... all in my airconditioned glass bubble of course. Doing this on a bike, in the blazing sun outside is a demanding task! 

I had thought that this stop was it, but it turned out further down the road there would be another stop.

I stopped to take a shot of this beautiful rock, and maybe check out if there were any rare birds on it. There was an elderly couple with binoculars nearby so I asked them what they were seeing. This was the start of a very nice conversation: they had been watching whales actually and offered me to take a look as well with one of their binoculars. These were very good binoculars, offering a beautiful view of what was most likely a blue fin whale, feeding a mile out of the coast. We spotted their breathing clouds for a while, and also checked out what other wildlife was around: seals, cormorants and pelicans. It turned out that the lady of the couple had been working as a volunteer at a local marine reserve association for 20 years already, so she had wonderful stories of the growth of the wildlife in the area. The elephant seal colony had grown from a few hundred individuals to some 2400 now. 

The couple was actually there to watch the bike race: I was suprised, because I thought I had already passed it. It turned out it was a full on tour with professional cyclists, just like the Tour de France. They showed me the participant list, which also had a lot of Dutch people on it (I'm not into cycling, but only recognized a few names). Some googling afterwards turned up the url of the event (http://www.amgentourofcalifornia.com).

After spending half an hour or so with the couple I decided to try to move up a little, before the platoon would hit our spot: I did want to do some surfing as well today! Well, I only made it half a mile down the road before a motor officer directed me to the side of the road: the race was coming near! It is always a big circus to see such an event pass, and this was no exception. A fun thing to come across however, and quite good to be forced to stand still and just to take in the scenery for a change. All this driving makes you miss a lot of stuff which requires longer or closer inspection.

The leaders

The platoon coming down the hill

The rest of the circus

When the circus has passed I could move on again. A few miles down the road was one of the surf beaches I had marked down. However, from the roadside I could only see a National Forest campsite, and a parking lot for daytime access to the beach (paid). I wanted to make some miles, instead of spending time and money, so I passed it. However, a mile down was a Volkswagen van parked on the roadside, near a fence. I decided to check it out, as it might offer a good view of the beach.

This view was so enticing to me that I decided to turn around and call it a day with regards to driving. The campground host had a spot for me for one night, there were no showers, but there was beach access and flush toilets... so value for money for a change! I spent the rest of the day surfing. An impression in the video's below.

Youtube: http://youtu.be/rG5UroFyEWw

Of course I could post video's of ten of these rides, but that would be boring for you. Instead, take a look at one of my fails: I nearly lost my camera here!

Youtube: http://youtu.be/E4KZKmmftOY

How do you end such a day? Like this:

Having spent half the day surfing yesterday, today would mean a lot of driving to make up for that lost time. Monterey was the goal. The drive was pretty much the same: great views, but a lot less stories because I had miles to make, so just an impression in pictures below.

When I reached monterey it was already evening, so after getting groceries it was time to start looking for a place to stay the night. None of the couchsurfing hosts I had written had replied, and I didn't really feel like spending more money, so nerding time! Freecampgrounds.net didn't offer any solutions, so I marked down a few spots via google maps satellite view (yes I am Dutch and stingy ;-)). The cheapest campground option would be a National Forest campground on a racing ground.. quite a strange combination. 

I first drove up to the sites I had marked down just west of Monterey, but these turned out to be a crowded and fenced forest entrance, and a private rich people's area. Annoyed I turned back on the road towards the Grand Prix campground. Instead of finding your usual self registration envelopes and box there was a manned fence, and race posters everywhere... oh oh. The woman at the gate told me that it was a race weekend and that there was no National Forest Campground this weekend: camping tickets were sold together with entrance to the races. It was near sunset though, and I told her I was just there for the night, asking for the Grand Prix campground (the one furthest away from the raceway, without showers and facilities). She was in a good mood, and just let me through! I couldn't find any place to pay either, so that was $30 saved! The campsite itself turned out to offer an amazing view too! Sometimes you gotta love serendipity and friendly people! 

The next day at breakfast the first engines started running and I saw motorbikes and Indiecars on the track. 

I took a last look at the beautiful views and had to move on to do more driving. However, like on the first day, I was surprised by wildlife, on a beach that should actually be a surf beach (but no waves to be found!). The wildlife consisted of:

A sea lion colony

A family of sea otters

Pelicans

White herons

A seal

And pièce de résistance: 

A snake: it was on the road, but it was fast, fast fast and very difficult to photograph

Googling and comparing the pattern on its back should make this out as a California red-sided garter snake. Pfew, not venomous to humans, so I didn't do anything stupid.... or is that the wrong conclusion ;-).

All this wildlife was at Moss' Landing... guess what was the backdrop?

Yup, sometimes 'ugly' industry results in a perfect habitat for lots of wildlife! Next up: driving! Tonight I would have to be in San Mateo, to meet up with Couchsurfing host Eli. He would have to work though, so I would meet him after 19:00. This meant that I wouldn't have to hurry, and could surf another day.

This time it was on Manresa beach, where I got a lot of comments on my van, so lots of small conversations on the parking lot: fun. On the water I met another beginner surfer, he was from Colorado and traveling with his dad. The conversation with the locals on the water didn't go much further than grunts and growls... we didn't get in their way though, so at the end of the day at the parking lot we did share a bit of smalltalk.

Pretty endless surfing beach right there...

The road to San Mateo that Garmin sent me to had me a little worried as it was a very small provincial road winding up hill tops trough dense forest, but I did end up where I needed to be. Driving into civilization again after days of ocean roads was strange, especially seeing all the familiar names on the (road) signs: Palo Alto, Google, Menlo Park, Cupertino, Stanford, Los Altos... almost surreal. At the same time the sky and sunset also made a grand display: I'm gonna make a really corny reference here, but it reminded me of the Pocahontas line 'can you paint with all the colors of the sky'.

The day ended by meeting up with Eli and heading for a drink in San Francisco. However, these stories will have to wait until another blog post. I will end with Picasa links:

Day 55: Coastal roads

Day 56: Coastal roads

Day 57: Coastal roads

Three parks in three days (3/3) - Posted from Phoenix, Arizona

First off: let's close the loop: a final update to the road trip route map. When editing the picasa folder of king's canyon pictures I was wondering about my campsites, they somehow didn't make sense. I investigated a little and it turns out I made a mistake on marking them down on the map. This means I also cheated on this post's title: it was actually three parks in four days... but well... Fresno doesn't really count as a park now does it? Like mentioned in the last post: the loop below consists of 7614 miles or 12250 km. Crazy!

The plan for the last day of national parks during this road trip: drive around in Sequoia National Park, see some big trees, and climb Moro rock: a viewpoint at the east of the park. I had booked a motel on the coast for the evening, so that I could spend the rest of the day driving without having to worry about finding a campsite in the dark while being tired (and also to get a shower!).

First on the list: the general Sherman tree. It featured on my beer of the evening before, so of course I would have to see it in real life as well. It is apparently the largest tree in the world (by volume), redwood trees are much higher. The parking lot that leads to the tree is actually a little off from it (due to peak season tourist traffic being very high), but they have used this for an interesting effect: the height of the tree is marked on the path when you descend it, giving some sense of scale. It's too bad that no where in this parks is there a way to get to the canopy of these trees (or I missed it), it'd be interesting to see what they look like there, and also get a sense of scale for how huge they are up there.

The driving in the park consisted of a lot of zig zagging as the parks are very high up in the mountains (that's where Sequoia's grow). An impression of the scale of the trees, and the winding roads in the video below. 

Youtube: http://youtu.be/a2cBn_t9D58

There are some very nice hikes in the area where you can walk for hours amongst the big trees. Sadly I didn't have time for this, and actually, after the forest hike in King's Canyon I was actually looking for grand views again more. Moro rock turned out to offer those in an awesome way!

It really is a rock too: the moment you get on the trail you hit a staircase cut out from the granite. This winds itself up the rock along the cliff face, zig-zagging through cracks and below overhangs back and forth to the other side of the rock: an exhilarating (small) hike! The rock also offered a view that went quite far back into the valley (although you of course couldn't see the coast, which was still 200 miles away). This would also be the first part of my drive: zig zagging down into the valley, and then following the river up to that lake you can see in the distance.

The drive was intense once again: hairpins all over the place as the grade down was quite steep. It was fun to see Moro rock in the mirror or in front every once of a while: the rock overlooking the valley dominates the view from almost everywhere in it.

Except for the hairpins the drive was quite uneventful until I entered the California valley proper: the whole piece of flat land between the mountain ranges and the coast. This is farming land, lots of farming land, very flat, and very dry. Kinda looks like the 'flevopolder' but then a lot less green. Here the wind picked up a lot of speed, resulting in whirlwinds and skewed cargo.

Driving behind this last truck was kinda sketchy actually: occasionally smoke smelling of rubber would blow out of it: I was waiting for one of the tires to blow so I kept my distance. This didn't happen in reality though. What attracted attention in the valley is that you saw signs about the water crisis almost everywhere: farmers telling drivers that this was a politically invented problem and that they should get their water for their jobs and to feed America. I don't know the details of the story, but I do know that I saw lots of dried out lakes and rivers that were once might reduced to streams... 

The last section of road was really windy again, but I ended up safely in Morro Bay to my Motel. It was really really hot on the coast again, compared to the heights of Sequoia, and a nasty surprise: there was no air conditioning in the (cheap!) motel. The room was cool compared to the outside temperatures though, and with the fan on full power I did get a good night's rest. The usual motel recipe was of course also ran: trimming my hair, shower and shave, selecting pictures and editing movies for the blog...

The plan for the next days: drive up the coast, do some surfing, slowly make my way to San Mateo to visit Maker Faire! 

Picasa links:

Day 54: Sequoia National Park

Three parks in three days (2/3) - Posted from Venice Beach, Los Angeles

The trip is nearly coming to an end: the circle is as good as closed on the route update:

If you're wondering how many miles are in that loop: the end mileage for my rental van was 7614 or 12253.5 km. That's quite a ridiculous amount for two months of driving. For instance: it's the distance when you draw a line from Amsterdam to Bali, or from Alaska to Rio de Janeiro. By now I no longer have the van : it's public transportation and backpacks again. It feels really strange without my glass bubble :-( . I'll have a few busy days coming up with lots of traveling, but I hope to catch up with the blog before I am in Florida. So let's start: back to Mothers day just outside of Yosemite.

First of all: it was mother's day, for which I had been planning something with my sister: a skype videocall with my mother.  This took quite some setting up: about a week before i had used teamviewer to control my sisters laptop, install skype, video drivers and teach her how to make a video call. Furthermore we tested bandwidth: in my motel at the time it worked perfectly, at starbucks not so much, so I decided to get to a big town on the day itself to go to an internet cafe.

So first mission this morning: drive to Fresno and find an internet cafe before my parents would be at my sisters for coffee after having dinner at a restaurant. This would be around 11:00 in the US, so with getting up at 07:00 I would have ample time. Just outside of Fresno I got the directory with internet cafes out and started marking them down. At the same time my sister messaged me that they had just finished dessert and were heading for her place. I had to hurry! What followed was a frantic race to various internet cafes all the while keeping my sister up to date and waiting.
The first one did not obey its posted opening hours, nor answered the phone, the second didnt exist anymore and the third turned out to be a cafe. The fourth was the one I had originally thought most probable, but this one would only open at 12:00. About an hour of waiting for my parents who had already finished their coffee by now. I parked my van right in front of the internet cafe and waited for it to open. At 11:55 a big fat girl turned up and opened the door. I told her that I wanted to hook up my laptop to skype with my mother and she was all difficult about it: they had only gaming software on pre-installed computers which didnt have skype, they didnt allow to hookup laptops, etc. I persisted and she gave in, pointing to network cable and telling that i could hook up there... Really strange that she was difficult while the infrastructure was right there!
It was good to see my parents again and talk with them a little. Turns out they had a surprise for me too: they would fly over to Florida to join me there for a week or two! That was something I hadn't expected at all: very nice surprise! This would mean some extra planning the coming days, but great to see that my parents have caught the travel bug!

After the call I planned for some potential places to stay the night just outside of kings canyon, got my stuff together again and drove off. I had spotted a nice hill with a radio mast on it amongst all the ranch land, but alas, there was a gate closing the only road up there. Another identified road turned out to be in the middle of an orange plantation. So, then to the fall back scenario: just drive on to see if a suitable turn out would turn up. Of course serendipity did its thing and just outside the park gates, on the side of a hill a nice turn out, a little further away from the road, out of sight, with a view. Cooking, eating, selecting pictures and sleeping... you know the drill by now.

The next day started with a visit to the visitor center to learn about my options: where to go? Could I camp here on a first come, first served basis? Should I just visit Sequoia or would King's Canyon also be worth it? The ranger assured me that I should definitely go and see kings canyon: the vistas would be fantastic, the road is on a cliff hugging the longest whitewater river section in the US and there's a really nice hike at road's end. Depending on how long the hike would take I could camp near road's end, near the visitor center, or even in Sequoia. I bought a few necessary supplies at the camp store and went off on the drive to king's canyon.

First stop: the General Grant Sequoia grove. A small hike to another zen-like area of ancient trees. I'll leave you to just view the pictures on Picasa, it's not that much different from the trees at Mariposa in Yosemite. What was kind of different was the mountainside driving up to and into Kings Canyon. The ranger in the visitor center had assured me amazing views, but really it was not that impressive (I am getting spoiled, I admit it). The most spectacular part was driving into the canyon itself: you pass a few very jagged rock formations, with a near vertical cliff in the background: cool driving! In the canyon itself you drive besides a whitewater river which is pretty beautiful. At the end of the valley the landscape turns into forest (it's called cedar grove after all).

Youtube: http://youtu.be/p5-FWA1mqUg

The drive was pretty long, and the road's end was really that. I had come here for a small hike, so I got some gear together and studied the local maps (and made a picture of it with the camera: I do learn a little along the way). The hike would be a small 4 mile loop. This place is actually also the staging point for multi day hikes: all the area east of the road is dubbed 'wilderness' or the most protected status the national park service has to offer. There were lots of bear warnings and also stories about bear and cougar posted at the start of the trail. All were single incidents from more than a year ago, so I opted for just getting a big walking stick and hoping I'd scare any bears away. Hiking solo is discouraged, but I didn't really have an alternative. This was the first place in bear country where there were not many people which did make me a little nervous.

The hike started out as just your normal forest hike which I could also about 5 miles from my parent's home. After a little hiking this did not change. You'd get a glimpse of the surrounding cliffs through the trees every once in a while, but nothing really spectacular. After about 2 miles the path crossed the river and the scenery still hadn't really changed, also around the river there were no really good views. After crossing the river the country opened up a little bit, and with it my mood as well: I was on the way back. Here you could sometimes get a few good glimpses of the landscape, but I ended up being so bored that I started poking dead logs apart with my walking stick. After a good selection you actually end up with some good photos, but overall I had the feeling that hiking up the mountains would have been much nicer in this area.

When I arrived at the parking lot a couple who had passed me earlier on the road had a nice little problem: their battery had died because they had left their fridge plugged in. They had no starter cables, and neither had I, nor anyone on the parking lot at that moment. I ended up driving the girl to the nearest ranger station for her to get some help there. We had a little chat: her husband was working as a pilot in the private jet business and had been to 78 countries already: what a fun job that must be! It's not as for an airliner pilot with a busy return schedule: if a customer has a week of business you most of the time stay a week! When I dropped the girl off she handed me a twenty for the effort... I was too surprised to give it back, so this meant that I would have a little free gas to get me out of the park again :-).

The drive back offered some more nice picture ops, check Picasa for the result. I opted for another route on the way to Sequoia then the one I came in with, this time passing by Hume Lake: a nice change of scenery amongst all the forest.

As it was still pretty light and the ranger had assured me that campings do not fill up at this moment I opted to drive all the way down to lodgepole in Sequioa, to camp there. This decision resulted in a sighting of an animal that had been very, very high on my to see list:

Very cool! A bear at the roadside! After it went back into the woods I finished the little trip to the camping. Time to relax. My German neighbor came over to share some of his stuff with me: he had been on a four day hike and had to return his car early the next morning. We had a nice little chat and I shared my Sequoia beer with him. He had missed the bear, and was pretty jealous that he hadn't seen any while hiking in the wilderness for 4 days! He actually told me he had met a guy there who had seen a cougar and a bear in one day... that guys must have smelled pretty interesting! Nice to meet a fellow traveller and share stories, but I was totally knackered though, so it was off to bed pretty early. More about the final park in my third post!

Picasa:

Day 52: Roadtripping in and out of Fresno

Day 53: Exploring Kings Canyon