Doran Beach (3)

Site 76 in Doran Beach is officially  our most visited campsite now and it did not fail to impress. This is winter break for me and I was able to finish out December with zero reports to write! Full relaxation mode. Sweet.

I don’t have a whole lot to add to previous posts about this location. We did, however, venture out on two new trails that were each pretty spectacular. One was a loop trail and an out and back to a viewpoint at Bodega Head. Those are both very nice trails, with only a few vertigo spots along the overlook trail. There is a place where you can see the spot designated for a nuclear reactor site. Now all that remains is an idyllic little pond, but it was the focus of an effective protest effort back in the 60s.

The other trail we tried out starts a bit north, from Wright’s Beach. It is called the Kortum Trail, and it runs along some of the most beautiful parts of the California coastline. It’s a long out and back if you do the whole thing and we got back to the car just in time for the sunset. Richard had fun standing right on the San Andreas fault line, and you can even see the difference in the types of rock where the plates meet. Along the trail, we think we spotted a Red Shouldered Hawk. Not sure. It was some kind of raptor anyway, with a tan chest and a very owl like face. Later, in the campground, we spotted a Great Blue Heron looking picture perfect as it stalked something on the ground.

Dinners were standbys of Omnia Oven pizza, Shuttle Chef curry, and fajitas. Breakfast this time was “Egg McMuffin with No Upsetness,” which sounds like an item on a badly translated Chinese take out menu. This was far preferable to our previous dish of, “Egg McMuffin with Great Upsetness and Spatula Flavor.” New silicone spatula is working out well so far.

It was pretty cold this weekend, with temperatures even getting below freezing! (31 to be exact). We went through a lot of propane keeping Dory all toasty warm and didn’t use any of our outside things (chairs, awning, bikes) even once. I did a lot of pondering around whether kayaking would be fun when cold. Then I saw a guy who was out in the bay fall completely out of his boat and into the water. That would definitely be the point at which it would no longer be fun, so we hiked instead.

We got to make it a three night stay, which worked fine in terms of battery power because we had solar and turned the fridge off at night (it would probably have had to work to heat things up considering how cold it got). The grey water tank was full after three nights, so that appears to be our upper limit without having to dump. On our way home, I swear I spotted a couple of pheasants hanging out on the side of Highway 37. Richard didn’t see those and probably thinks I’m making it up. He also did not see the coyote that I 100% saw on our drive out. We both saw a whole bunch of deer on our hike around Bodega Head, so that was a lot of wildlife for one weekend!

Total miles: 86.2, 2 hours 30 min, 15.0 mpg (windy). Site 76 (again). I had spotty service with ATT, but Richard had pretty consistent LTE with Verizon.