When planning a weekend's activities, my first task is to check the weather forecast. It is still early enough in the year that there are still some chilly days and nights out in the valleys and foothills, and to my mind, if it is gonna be cold out there, there is no reason to head that way. The coast is almost always cold, and this weekend, it wasn't really warm anywhere, so it was no loss to spend the weekend out along the coast - something I really don't do very often.
One of my long-standing tasks in the state of California is to drive the entire length of the Pacific Coast Highway. I have most of it done already, but there was the stretch between the city of Mendocino and the town of Jenner (where the Russian River runs into the sea) up north that I hadn't done yet. Since there was sun forecast for the coast, I decided to finally - after lo these many years - to get that stretch of the PCH checked off. I didn't really know much about what was up there, but it is the PCH, so by-and-large, there really isn't anything out there that isn't completely spectacular.
There really ain't too much for me to throw at ya on this trip; it was simple, quick, and largely uneventful. Since the stretch I intended to hit was quite far north, I went north the night before to Ukiah so I would have plenty of time to roll back south. The ride up through Napa and Sonoma was as beautiful as it always is. Being spring, there were flowers busting out almost everywhere one looked - one of the best parts about life here in California. I am partial to the poppy for reasons other than the fact that it is the state flower of Cali, but seeing the vivid riot of orange all over makes love for that flower a pretty easy sell. They were out in force so there really was no portion of the ride that didn't offer something awesome.
Come morning, I took a small county road out to the coast rather than a state highway. I did this primarily to get virgin mileage in. It meant that when I got to the coast I would be seeing some of the road twice, but that is hardly something I am going to complain about. All the more, this little road out to the PCH was spectacular viewing. At several points, the road was almost above the clouds left over from the morning fog - something I find up along the north coast from time to time. I imagine that it was situations like this where humanity had its only chance to see what existed above the clouds before the airplane existed. Since there were plenty of native tribes out this way, they likely saw that quite often, but for the rest of humanity, going all the way back in time, places like this offered something we - who fly often - take for granted. Seeing it outside of the context of the airplane actually is much more striking. Sadly, I didn't make it out while the crests were totally above the clouds so I could catch a shot of it for ya's.
So eventually I made it up to the top of the coastal mountains above Ukiah and began about an hour's worth of switchback driving up and down the valleys. There were a few stands of near-champion redwoods out along the little creeks and rivers in the pass. There was a state park (something with Springs in the name I think - I should go look but I am too lazy) which looked quite promising for a return visit, and there was lots of beautiful canyons and crests. Being a tiny little road, especially when gas is $4, there was really no one out on the road, so I literally had all of that beauty almost all to myself. Literally a perfect Sunday morning drive.
Eventually I made it to the coast. Most of my ride was on Mendocino County coast line, which I think is second only to Monterrey & Big Sur's portion of the PCH. What can I say, it was awesome and breathtaking and all the things everyone hears that it is. I don't get a hard on from driving, and usually seeing car commercials on the PCH make me want to puke. To be in those places and be concentrating on how awesome YOUR CAR is?!? How disturbed can one be? Ugh.
Speaking of "ugh", I made a very dumb mistake in choosing this weekend to go out for a ride on the PCH. I didn't even think of just how physically taxing it is to drive for long stretches in the mountains and PCH, and that is under normal conditions. With the shape my shoulder is in, the decision was all but a disaster. I was really in pretty severe pain by the time I got through the Sonoma County portion of the PCH (also spectacular), and was cursing my own stupidity. I just wasn't thinking, and once it dawns on you how physical the driving is, there is no easy way to get out of the situation. Indeed, this is what happened to me...it got to a point where it was just as easy to finish the drive as go back, so finish it I did! And with that, I now only have one little stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway left to see way way down in SoCal. Without a doubt, I will get to that stretch sometime this summer, and thereby finally be able to mark a big notch on Black Bart's bumper.
For now, however, I am chomping at the bit for the mountain roads to finally open! I haven't checked to see which passes are open yet because even though a few might be open, they are still surrounded by tons of snow. Literally, all you would see on both sides of the car is 10-15 ft. high drifts through which a path was cut. It is kinda fun to see once, but I ain't out there to look at snow baby! I want Sequoias! I want massive pine cones! I want avian exotica! I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait! And the waitin' ain't long now.
Happy days are always around somewhere in Californi-ay, but soon, they are literally gonna be busting out all over!
Posted by rudayday at May 07, 2008 05:29 PM