Out and About: California Central Valley

Southeastern San Luis Obispo County

Carrizo Plain National Monument

April 2, 2017

Last week The Man and I took a leisurely Sunday drive on the Suzuki V-Strom motorcycle to see the spring wildflowers in bloom.

 

From Santa Margarita we headed east on Highway 58. It wasn't long before we began to see splashes of color in the nearby hills.

From Hwy 58 we turned right onto Soda Lake Road and entered the Carrizo Plain National Monument. The Monument was established on January 17, 2001 by President Bill Clinton.

Today the Monument boasted an abundance of color - the hills, the flat lands - everywhere you looked seemed to be carpeted with flowers.

The wildflowers were attracting swarms of people.

This was unlike the other times The Man had been to the area. In the past he's usually the only visitor.

 

Soda Lake, normally a dry lake bed, shimmered blue along the wetlands. (When the lake water evaporates, white deposits of sulfates and carbonates that look like baking soda, will be left behind.)

It was a spectacular day for a 2-Up motorcycle ride. It was well worth it to see the Super (albeit a bit crowded) Bloom.

Shakedown Cruise: Part 1

The Man and I went camping. Finally. It's always been at the top of our Want-To-Do list but we had to first figure out the critter sitter situation. Although we've had many generous offers from family and friends to house-sit and pet-sit we were looking for one person we could use frequently and on the spur of the moment - whenever the travel bug bit.

Sandee recommended the pet sitter she's been using for the past several years. We gave Karen a call and she promptly made an appointment to come over and check out our situation and needs. She listened carefully to our morning and evening routine, asked questions, took notes, and didn't seem daunted by the goats, dogs, and chickens parading after us. A couple of days after her visit Karen emailed us a detailed list of everything we had discussed, it was very thorough.

• Pet Sitter: check.

The 19-ft travel trailer we found on Craigslist was outfitted and ready for traveling. We purchased it for two reasons: mobile work office for The Man (just in case) or an escape pod in the face of a wildfire evacuation (just in case). It had not gone anywhere in the two years that we've owned it. The Handy Man added a few upgrades - laminate flooring and a porcelain toilet - ahh, the comforts of home. My galley was fully operational and the RV was shipshape for traveling.

•  RV: check.

The Man loaded up his KLR 650 and fishing gear; I brought along popcorn, my Kindle, three knitting projects, and an assortment of Tom Bihn bags and accessories.

• Hobbies: check.

It took us a leisurely five-hour eastward drive to the southern Sierras plus an additional two hours of driving (and walking) the three miles of dirt road to the campground. It was a deeply rutted, narrow road and unfortunately we were committed to the process - no turnarounds - once we headed down the path.

After two miles of bumping along The Man did find a pasture he could back into so we parked and walked the last mile to make sure we could make it to the campground. If the road got any rougher we would not go any further. The Man was worried about getting stuck, I was more concerned about meeting another vehicle: Who has the right of way? Who has to back up? The road was no different than what we had already driven so we continued down to Alder Creek campground.

The campground was deserted. It seemed like no one had been camping there for quite awhile.

The Man unloaded his KLR on the new ramps he customized for transporting his motorcycle. (I found out he was taking the bike when I came home from work and found my helmet, jacket, and gear laid out.)

We took off for a late afternoon motorcycle ride and somewhere on the bumpy road I lost my pillow-stuffed laptop cover, aka my seat cushion. I tried not to wiggle around too much, sitting on the luggage rack, while The Man maneuvered the bike over the rutted and rocky road. We found my seat again on the way back to the campsite and The Man tied it down securely. (It's quite comfy by the way. Really.)

In the early evening another person showed up. He drove by while we were sitting by the campfire. He didn't make eye contact or wave at us until I waved first. The next morning flickering light woke me up. I peeked out the window and saw the neighbor standing next to a mini bonfire, wearing shorts only, pouring a bucket of water over his head. Soon thereafter we heard him leave. We didn't see a tent so he must have slept in his truck.

• Creepy Campground Neighbor: check.

Rather than spend another night we decided to leave. The dirt road was marginal at best, if it rained, we'd be stuck and stranded. 

Road Less Traveled: check.

It was a slow drive out and I sighed with relief when we touched the blacktop road.

To be continued . . . .

Out and About: Coastal Coolness

 Cambria
Pines by the Sea
July 26, 2015

Last Sunday we spent the afternoon at the beach. It was forecasted to be another scorcher of a day so we decided to beat the heat by chillin' at the coast.

While I made a lunch The Man readied his motorcycle. The KLR doesn't really like packing a passenger so The Man needs to sweet talk the bike and adjust a few doohickeys here and there. (I'm just stiffening up the shocks, not a big deal, he reassures the bike.)

First stop, Jack Creek Farms, off of Hwy 46 West.

 

The small store was stocked with yummy Made in SLO products, and cool refreshments but we made our way back outdoors to check out their goats. Last September we read that a mountain lion had killed three goats and four geese. What a sad day that must have been. We fed the remaining three goats newly fallen apples we picked off the ground.

The heat of the day gave me prickly sensations on my back. Very prickly. Then lower than my back. Um, biting. The Man and I made our way to a nearby (clean!) Porta-Potty. Sure enough, ants in my pants. Time to move on.

Next we took a scenic back road called Santa Rosa Creek Road. Last month we traveled this same road in the opposite direction and met author and adventure travel writer, Linda Ballou. We were enjoying the vista view and our Tootsie Pop and she pulled off the road to join us for a lollipop break.

This is what she wrote about her trip: If a drive along a shady creek and farms festooned in bright blooms appeals, you would enjoy a Sunday drive up Santa Rosa Creek Road out of Cambria. It gets a bit daunting as it rises to meet Highway 46 back to SLO, but it is well worth the butterflies to get to the vistas.

6/26/15

I gotta say going down from the vista is equally daunting thrilling. After several miles of hairpin (switchback) turns on rough road we ended up in Cambria. Driving slowly through the crowded downtown, we made a U-turn to take a closer look at a vehicle we had just passed.

It was a MAN, an off-road camper . . . an expedition vehicle . . . an RV on steroids for a traveling family of four from Switzerland. At least that's the little I gathered from their website, which is written in German. And, get this, before they pulled away they raised the back end of their vehicle. Yes, the camper got even taller than the picture I took.

MAN and The Man

We left downtown Cambria and traveled north along Moonstone Beach Drive. We stopped at Leffingwell Landing, a day-use park, part of Hearst San Simeon State Park. We found a picnic table out of the wind. The breezy marine air was chilly enough to encourage us to keep our motorcycle jackets on. After lunch we made our way down to the small beach.

There were only a handful of people on the beach and they were all busy searching in the sand. A woman visiting from New Mexico showed us her small baggie of polished pebbles and pointed out the tiny moonstones she had found.

The Man and I found a spot out of the wind and started our own treasure hunt. The small rocks sparkled in the sun, smooth and beautiful, worn down to a shiny gleam. We sat on the warm "sand" and selected a few handfuls of our own polished pebbles to take home.

Later,  I googled "moonstone" and found out they are a true gemstone. I don't think we found any real moonstones, just pretty white rocks and quartz chips.

The next time a heat wave is in our forecast we'll be heading back to the coast to find shimmery moonstones. It's only a 35-minute drive to the coast, though it takes much longer with a motorcycle that follows the road-less-traveled.

Riding Two Up

Last summer, The Man bought himself a KLR650 motorcycle and seven months later I have finally gotten a ride.

As The Man rode solo along the back roads of SLO County he made frequent comments about what I was missing and how we needed to figure out a way for me to come along. But first he needed to get comfortable handling the new-to-him bike. As a dual-sport motorcycle (one tire on the paved road and one tire on the dirt trail) it was unlike the cruiser-style HD Sportster he owned in Hawaii. It would take some getting used to.

Last month while we were visiting Santa Margarita's Wildflower Festival on a sunny Saturday afternoon we watched motorcycle after motorcycle drive by. He commented on the fact that bikers come from all over to ride through the Central Coast. I asked him if he was itching to go for a ride and he said, "Yup. You want to come?"

It took us about 15 minutes to get home from Santa Margarita and while he got the bike ready I packed us a late lunch.

The trip lasted less than five minutes: he drove down our steep driveway, made a perfect slow, controlled U-turn at the bottom, and then headed back up the driveway.

Between the gas tank in the front and the hard storage case attached to the luggage rack in the back we were wedged in like sardines. I didn't even have to hold onto him, I couldn't move an inch. Yeah, well, this wasn't going to work.

When he got back into the garage he transferred his tools (just in case), first aid kit (just in case), my little backpack, and my bag of knitting (just in case) into a canvas bag. It took him only a few moments to unbolt the hard case from the rear of the bike and exchange it for the soft-sided bag. When we headed out again with the new arrangement I had some breathing room, literally.

We headed to Santa Margarita Lake. The Lake is part of the SLO County Park system and requires a $10 entrance fee but the Rangers are usually pretty good about waving us through for a quickie visit to the Marina store for a cold drink.

Santa Margarita Lake

Launch Ramp - high and dry.

Later, on the way home, we headed back through the town of Santa Margarita for the second time that day.

Since then we've made a few more trips exploring the back roads of North County - long winding roads, beautiful scenery, hardly any cars.

Or, as The Man calls it, "Motorcycle Heaven".