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The Old Salt Sea
It had been
a long time since we had seen the ocean. It was time to return. It was calling
us. In the early years of our marriage we celebrated our wedding anniversary
with an annual trip to the California coast. These trips had been as far south
as Cambria and Hearsts Castle and as far north as Mendocino and Fort Bragg.
When did those trips stop and why? Busy lives must have gotten in the way. The
memories still work their magic.
Trips to the
coast still continued but not on a regular basis. We know when it is time to
return and smell the salt spray and hear the surf and the cries of the gulls.
It calls to us. Maybe it’s in our bones.
With the
lack of snow in the Sierra, other plans for the MLK weekend evaporated and the
3 day was free. We were going to the coast. The camper is kept ready for
travel. Packing is easy; throw a few things together, a trip to the store for
food. We didn’t even make solid plans. We would just let the road, the
adventure take us.
That busy
life did not allow a late Friday launch. We were off before dawn Saturday. The
highways were quiet, our coffee good. We were in Point Reyes Station by 7:30 am
and wandered about the quiet town waiting for the Station Inn Restaurant to
open at 8:00 am. The Lady enjoys her first breakfast out. The food was good as
was the service but the waitress was far too young to be telling us about her
illnesses. That’s an old person’s habit. We grabbed a cinnamon roll for the
road from the bakery up the street and headed north on highway 1.
We had no
destination. We stopped at several places. We were surrounded by memories of
past trips. We stood on bluffs and smelled the sea and took in the sights and
sounds. We walked along the beach at the Navarro River and decided not to stay
at the primitive campsites. We noticed how many other state park campgrounds
were closed as we continued north.
After
passing through Fort Bragg, we pulled into MacKerricher State Park. Only one
campground was partially open, but the setting in the trees and the short walk
to the edge of the ocean sold us on staying.
Laguna Point
is set up with viewing platforms for sightings of migrating whales. We braved
the cold wind on the point and scanned the sea with our binoculars. Birds and
harbor seals were all we saw.
But just
being back on the coast was more than enough.
The
campground was mostly quiet, I’d guess only a third full on this holiday
weekend. It is way too expensive compared to facilities managed by other
agencies - $35 a night. It was a standard campground except the addition of
coin operated hot showers. At least those were cheap and 50 cents worth did a
good clean up.
We love our
night walks. We get away from lights and give the eyes time to adjust. Although
we have headlamps along, we try not to use them. We become part of the night
and our senses become much more alert. We found a log in a cove to sit on above
the surf. We sat and watched and listened until the cold slowly seeping deeper
into our bones told us to move again. It was a glorious night. We were glad the
ocean had called us here.
The wind was
up in the morning, blowing hard as we carried our coffee mugs down to the sea
at dawn. After breakfast we dropped the top and headed off to re-explore and
rediscover some of our old favorite places. Our first stop was Mendocino and we
spent a couple of hours wandering the headlands.
You have to
love Mendocino. It has held on to its independence and its uniqueness. Go
somewhere else for franchise food, big box motels, and the related sprawl that
is making everyplace look and feel the same. Come to Mendocino for Mendocino.
We wandered
north stopping often, Russian Gulch then the walk down to Point Cabrillo Light
House.
We continued
on to Jug Handle and Caspar, walking every chance we had. The wind was blowing
in from the northwest, cold and hard. The sea was covered with white caps and
heavy swells. At Jug Handle it was difficult to stand upright against the wind
but so good to feel the brute force of nature. We stopped at Noyo Harbor in
Fort Bragg and then up to Glass Beach.
To soon the
day was ending. We had done so much doing nothing but wandering. We returned to
our campsite at MacKerricher, had hot coffee, a shower, and dinner and then our
night walk. We wandered through the closed campgrounds, made our way around and
through the dunes, walked through groups of deer, undisturbed by our quiet
presence.
In the
morning we headed inland on the road to Ukiah, climbing then dropping into
small valleys white with the morning’s frost. We met only one other vehicle. It
was 24° when we stopped for a couple of hours to walk through the redwood
groves of Montgomery Woods. We were alone.
We
remembered hearing about Orr Hot Springs. A soak sounded so good after our cold
walk among the giants. Orr Springs was packed as we drove by, too crowded for
us. They were having a great holiday weekend.
We took
highway 20 east and then 16, Clear Lake, Cache Creek, Capay Valley, and into
Woodland. We stopped in Sacramento and said hi to the guys at All Terrain Campers. We figured
these hard working guys would not be on holiday. Campers were being built.
Our weekend
was over. The road had taken us to places that touched us and refreshed us and
make us want to return. The camper is ready.
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