Jellied Moose Nose: Pinnacles and Cali Coast Trip

For my three day weekend, I headed to Pinnacles after work on Thursday. this gave me all day Friday, Saturday and half the day Sunday. Scott took the same time off so we could go do something. What? We didn't know. I just told him I wanted a rock for a pillow and the hard ground for a bed. He of course wanted to see El Mar, the sea, but the thought of cold salty water up my nose didn't appeal, so we weren't getting in it. Well, I wasn't. He agreed. I rolled in about midnight, we caught up for a few and off to bed. Friday while Scott slept in a bit, I grabbed my camera and went out to photograph a small flock of turkeys that were scratching in the front yard. Scott woke up, grabbed some coffee and we headed for King City. In King City, we grabbed some mexican food, a tongue torta for me, at one of the dozen or so mexican joints downtown. Our next stop was Fort Hunter Liggett. FHL is a small Army base in Monterrey county with some of the best pig hunting and the only elk hunting in CA. We actually saw a herd of cows on the distant hills chilling in the abundant sun. The day was gorgeous, in the 70's light breeze, just beautiful. I stopped by the FMWR office, but no one was home so we headed for the coast. Once we hit Highway 1, we turned north and headed to Big Sur. The drive was awesome as we wound our way along the coast talking shop and shit. We drove for a bit until we found a pull off and we cracked one of the 3 bottle of red I had brought as we looked out at the sea and sat in the sun. Before we got too far in the bottle, we hit the road north again. We stopped here and there along the way to walk a bit and see how the waves were rolling. Eventually, we made it to Santa Cruz, broke out the long boards and skated along the bike paths looking at breaks and beach. We did this until we decided to grab some grub, Sushi in Santa Cruz. After dinner, we headed further north to look for a campground, we had passed several that were either full or closed. We knew the accommodations for the evening were a crap shoot. We hit a spot Scott knew about, but it was for horse packers, so we headed further north and the next campground was closed as well. So we headed south to use the potti, but all of them were locked, so we stopped at the new Highway 1 brew pub and lucked out to find an open restroom, cold beers, and a cute girl to talk to. After a couple pints, we decided a pull off in the Big Basin Redwood Park would make a great guerrilla campground. We emptied the bed of Moonie's truck, made our beds and crawled into our sleeping bags. There was lots of room in the back but the sleep could be described as fitful at best. I'd find a comfortable spot for about 15 minutes then even the soft pad wasn't enough to keep the smarting of my hip at bay. I tossed and turned as Scott snored away. I woke three times throughout the night to pee as well on a giant Redwood and its two giant burl trunks. Only one vehicle passed along the road all night. I was able to sleep off and on until almost 8am though which made up for the bumpiness of my rest. We rose and headed to Half Moon Bay. HMB is the home of Mavericks, the giant surf break that some say in reality is right at the top of the pecking order for waves in the world. Of course, it was not going off on this day. We grabbed breakfast at the county airport at the 3 Zeros Cafe. We did our after meal 1000 steps by finding Mavericks. Even at the level we say it, it looked scary, I can't imagine it going off! We then headed back down to Ano Nuevo to check it out before heading home. We stopped outside of Hollister at a place we ending up terming either 'Ranch Prius' or 'Rockabilly Gourmet' for some great burgers and brews. Before heading back into Pinnacles we hit the grocery and grabbed grub for the kids for the rest of the week. Sunday, we got up and headed to the ranch to look for pigs and turkeys. We found a serious flock of birds but no little piggies. Oh well. It was still a gorgeous relaxing morning of 1000 steps after breakfast. I finally decided to hit the road after a losing game of cribbage, I got skunked bad. Five hours later I was home and on the couch just in time to catch the Walking Dead.

The total list for wild animals are the following: 8' hog crossing the road, flock of 10 turkeys, 3 deer, 12 elk, sea otter, bobcat, more deer and turkeys and a final flock of gobblers all in strut. Not a bad weekend for someone that loves fauna.