After Easter and so on...

Stardate: 04.11.2010

Monday April 5th dawned sunny and mostly clear, with only wispy clouds between the Lighthouse point we started walking from and the sun. Walking away from the Hostel we all felt renewed, clean, and triumphant. Beforte we even made it out to the HWY-1 I smelled onions, looked over and saw that the Hispanic pickers in the field at the side of the road were harvesting leeks. Visions of leek soup floated across my tastebuds and I importuned the closest migrant with a smile and a wave, “Como esta amigo,” I said, “Un Leek para mi?”

“Bien...si.” he replied, handing me one enormous green onion and smiling that patented smile that is reserved for crazy gringos.

“Gracias man, muchas gracias.” I ended and swung on down the road whistling and using the leek like a conductors baton. We were heading for a little tyown called Pescadero because it had the nearest market and we were almost out of food and cigarettes, and Pescadero was four miles up the coast and two miles inland according to the old hippie guy who ran the hostel and was either stoned or just very laid back at all times dude. We found a connecting road that cut off a bit and we also saw many beautiful things on the way (including a pile of abandoned, but fresh, leeks and a fennel bulb which we promptly added to our load) and we made the distance in about two and a half hours over hill and dale.

Pescadero is a nice, friendly, small town that intends to stay that way. They have one gas station/taqueria, and two Deli-markets next door to each other, none of which take food stamps so I shopped cheap. The legs and thighs of a chicken, a couple potatoes, some jalapenos and some frosty Mountain Dew for the road. Susanne got some Cranberry-Pomegranite juice and a couple other little things, and J.C. And Nick pretty much sat outside and enjoyed the break.


Then we set off down Stage road towards the town of San Gregorio seven miles to the North and back on the 1 (or so we thought). By then it was about three in the afternoon and we were looking for a campsite from the moment we cleared the outskirts of Pescadero, but we were entering horse and ccow country and the road was either bordered by poison oak among the eucalyptus trees, or by inhospitable barbed wire fences. We found what appeared to be a good site, up a dirt road, after about three miles, but it also turned out to be infested with poison oak, so on we trekked getting more tired and cranky by the yard. Finally we found an unfenced property with no “No Trespassing” signs that had been planted with cyprus and pine at some point. Poison oak does not like pines, so we were safe.

Susanne had a brief freak out and wanted to go by herself to beach, but was talked out of it and settled down to cut vegetables for dinner while Nick and the two Jameses set up camp. Later she attacked her tent, but the thing about Susanne is that she is so consientious about the feelings of others that she appologises even when she does not need to, so it is easy to just get past bursts of temper. We all figured that it had been a long days walking with heavy gear (10-12 miles), and we were hungry, so a bit of temper was par for the course. Dinner was cooked over a fire for a change to conserve propane, and because we needed several things cooking at once. Potato-leek soup, tortillas, and grilled chicken (cooked on a steel plate) was terrific and made everyone feel much better. The ground was sloped and bumpy, but we still slept well and awoke refreshed.

Tuesday we hiked another two miles into San Gregorio (which, as Susanne mentioned in her blog, I kept mispronouncing in a variet of ways) and I caught a snake on the way.

There we enjoyed the General Store's ambience (totally cool place, check it out if you are ever in the area. I bought two stickers “Art Junkie” and “Not All Who Wander Are Lost,” for my computer. Susanne and J.C. also bought stickers, and we had beverages. There turned out to be a bus stop right outside the store that we discovered would pick us up at 6:30pm, so we walked another mile down to San Gregorio State Beach where we lounged the afternoon away and waited for the bus.

There was a stop right across from the beach, so at the end of the day we caught the bus there and rode it up the coast to Half Moon Bay where we went to Safeway and were looking for a campsite when we got interrupted by a ranger. She told us where we could camp for $7.00 each. We said ok, waited for her to leave, then hiked off in the opposite direction and camped on the dunes. The next day, we caught bus up to Monterra State Beach where we spent Wednsday, and Thursday nights. Fabulous place, we enjoyed our two days there quite a bit, though it was hella windy. I'll post some photos and such from there later, but it is almost time to go find camp for tonight, and the rain has stopped for now, so I need to finish this quick.

Friday we caught another bus into Pacifica, and J.C. left us at the Linda Mar Shopping Center Starbucks to return to the world of the day to day. That night we camped on the beach right across the street...

to be continued...