Kit and Carol on the Road

We arrived home on the 4:15 ferry yesterday and are busy unpacking and cleaning and resettling. It's beautiful and sunny outside but the temperature feels like winter. We had a hurried trip through Oregon--one night on the coast, one night in Eugene, two nights in Sweet Home--and a bonus night at Champoeg because Thursday was gorgeous and warm and this is a favorite place to bike.

I plan to get back and see if I can add pictures to previous blogs. (sometime in the next few days) So check back. We're back!

We spent 4 nights in Calistoga--our favorite wine country town. It's also the only place we know where you can stay near the middle of town--an easy walk to shops, restaurants, and CalMart (the ultimate grocery store)--and an easy bike ride through vines and past wineries. We had gotten burned on the wine touring thing but had 3 really good wine experiences this trip--all on our bikes. Discovered Twomey where you can taste $65/bottle wines for a $5 tasting fee and you get to keep the glass--plus we learned a LOT from the knowledgeable staff. A new favorite place is Vincent Arroyo where you can taste wine right from the barrels. You can't buy bottles--only futures. (and the tasting is free). Our 3rd lucky stop was at the Frank Family Winery. The bartenders sons were visiting when we were there so we got to taste some of the reserve wines--including an amazing $100+ cab. (for free) Plus we had a great time buying a case at the Wine Garage.

We are now in Benbow on our way up 101, on our way home. This was probably our last warm sunny day.

From Jalama we skipped over PasoRobles and came up 101 to San Lorenzo County Park in Monterey Country. This is a very nice public campground with a laundry (which we needed) and an internet kiosk. We had planned to head to Monterey (Laguna Seca) today to do some bike riding but couldn’t resist another National What not far from here—Pinnacles National Monument. This has got to make our list of great national hikes. We climbed 1000 feet up through the rock formations—including some tricky rock steps and a tunnel. “Pinnacles” was made a National Monument in 1908 and most of the trail work was done by CCC. The wildflowers were spectacular. All in all it was a perfect day for this hike. The weather report says rain tomorrow so I think we will skip Monterey and head to Calistoga tomorrow.

From the desert to the coast with a night over on the way.
We didn’t want to arrive at the beach on a weekend so stopped at a freeway-side RV park with a hot tub and WiFi. There were lots of clubs there for the weekend. My favorite thing was a loud party in a house next door which bugged most folks but the music was AWESOME. Latin music is such a thrill after months of bad country/western.

Carpenteria State Beach (3/11)
After this I vowed never to stay in another California state park. Arriving midday Sunday was really zooey in this popular park. The sites were just assigned bits of parking lot—a challenge to back into. But the town was really cute and we had nice exploratory bike ride. And the beach was great. I got so excited to see all the tiny tots playing on the beach after months of seeing only old people.

Refugio State Beach (3/12-13)
Up the road less than an hour this park couldn’t have been more different. Everything was really laid back. We even got to pick our own spot. We chose shade as it was to be one of the hottest days so far. We had a large shady site with lots of privacy. The beach was only a very short walk. It’s a wonderful beach with palm trees –a “tropical resort”. Half of the campground was closed so lots of people crowded in—almost more tenters than RVs. There is a 2 1/2 mile bike trail (up and down and up and down) south to El Capitan State Beach The campground there was closed so we nearly had the whole place to ourselves for our brief visit. WE ended up staying an extra day at Refugio.

Jalama Beach Campground (3/14 - 3/18)
This country park is a long ways off the beaten path. We had a $22 dollar campsite with a $200 dollar view. The fog hung around most of the day. It didn’t clear up until 4pm. Luckily we got here in time for lunch and the famous Jalama burgers at the camp store. This beach is wonderful for walking but barefooted you pick up globs of oil. We planned to spend one night here but when we found out Pasa Robles was booked because of a wine festival, we decided to stay here through the week end. Friday we went inland to warmer place—Solvang, a very touristy fake Danish town. But we had a nice bike ride in wine country and even found ONE fun winery.

Joshua Tree
Leaving Salton City we decided to take a “short cut” through Joshua Tree NP. We hardly got into the park and we decided to camp at Cottonwood Campground. Nice afternoon hike. The next day we went all of 30 some miles to Jumbo Rocks Campground—stopping at all the “exhibits” (aka signs) along the way. Jumbo Rocks was really cool. I love these big boulders. Besides a regulation hike we climbed to the top of the “mountain” above our camp.

Mojave National Preserve.
This is a huge place but we only explored the part near our campground. We did the “rings trail” which means you go down into a slot canyon climbing on rings embedded in rock. Then we spent a morning searching for petroglyphs. I knew how to find them from someone I met but we looked at every rock on the mountain before we found the “right” set. Awesome. I forgot to mention that before we started the truck to drive the little ways to the place we needed to go—Kit decided to check the oil—and found a CAT in our engine. It came so close to being mincemeat. The park hosts came to help us capture it. It turned out to have come from some other campers up the way. Friday we went on another hike in search of the “birthing rock” which we found with no sweat. It was a sacred ceremonial site. I think we must have offended the spirits because when we continued our hike a gust of wind came up and blew off Kit’s hat and fancy sunglasses. We looked for an hour and could not find those sunglasses.

We are now on our way to the central coast.

Yesterday we went hiking up to a calcite mine site --up a jeep trail through the badlands. Because it was a very pleasant Saturday there were lots of 4wd's on the trail but they have to go so slow there was no dust problem. The view from the top was amazing. We also walked up a slot canyon which was pretty amazing too. And had dinner with some old friends and met some new people too. Today is do nothing but work (laundry, cleaning, etc) day and tomorrow we head off to the Mojave. Who knows when I'll have op to blog again.

We are on a new trek--looking for rock art sites. Visited a site and museum near Cave Creek before we left there. Then moved camp and spent one night at a BLM campground near an amazing site off I8--west of Gila Bend. We are now on our way to the Mojave to look for more petroglyphs. Last night we stopped in Wellton to visit a friend of mine. As for now--we have returned to Salton City. Going hiking in Anza Borrego and meeting some other friends for dinner.