Montaña de Oro (3)

This was a camping outing for the record books. My birthday coincides simultaneously with good timing and bad timing. Good because it almost always lands during Spring Break. Bad because it always precedes tax season dangerously closely. This year, we pretended that taxes are not a thing and fully embraced all of the upsides. I think that is generally really good advice because we could not have had a better time. Originally, I had made reservations for Friday and Saturday at Pinnacles National Park, but then the No Kings rally got planned for that Saturday. I really want to do those if possible, and there was not going to be any rally near Pinnacles that we could have easily joined. So, I talked Richard into shifting things so that we could skip the first stop, but tag on a weekend stay at the other end of the week. It wasn’t easy, but eventually I was able to pick up a cancellation reservation for Pfeiffer Big Sur on Easter weekend and we took that Monday off. We loved having a later departure actually because it gave us Friday and Saturday to be more chill. We are rethinking our habitual practice of launching long trips on the afternoon of a work day.

It was a long and uneventful drive down 101 to arrive in blue skies and sunny weather. Having spent an unusually long time being sick over the past month, this was a most welcome sight. We were meeting friends for this stay, but arrived before they did. After getting set up, we headed out to the bluffs to get in a nice walk before dinner. After dinner, we joined up with our Alto friends Rich and Kathy around a nice campfire and got all caught up.

Monday marked my 60th birthday, and I really could not have asked for anything more. The main event was hiking the Point Buchon Trail, which is only open to the public Thurs-Mon. Richard speed walked out to the entry gate, while I drove the 2.5 miles to the parking area. This worked well and got his morning yayas out so that he could walk like a normal person with me. It’s four miles out to the end of the trail, with nothing but ocean views, seals, otters, and the occasional whale spout the whole way. We saw a snake at the start of the hike, the second snake spotted in the park. The seals were very entertaining, as they leaped out of the water together, heading fast to some seal event that required leaping.

For dinner, we met our friends in Los Osos at Wayward Baking. We’ve been there for their breakfast pastries, which are outstanding, but enjoyed their Monday Pizza even more. They only make pizzas on Mondays, so plan accordingly. And you have to order them ahead of time. And they run out. We were joined by our other Alto friend, Linda, and shared three specialty pizzas. We got a Hobb’s Pepperoni, with Calabrian Chili Honey which was really incredible. Rich and Kathy ordered two others and I can’t remember the combination of toppings. I know there was one with feta and things you wouldn’t normally expect to find on a pizza. But everything was delicious and the crust was thin and crispy and chewy. So good. For dessert, we all went back to the campground and enjoyed a spectacular selection of pies that Kathy picked up at the farmers market. She made it a real quest and went to two different bakeries in town, where she got intel on a “pie lady” who sold whole pies and slices. There was apple, a “limequat” custardy pie, and pecan; all delicious with amazing flavors and flakey crust. We shared a Rombauer around the fire and laughed until it was quiet time. What a wonderful day!

On Tuesday, Richard started his day by going up to the top of Valencia Peak, while I lounged in bed, showered, and enjoyed my new hobby: crocheting. I have now completed several “amigurumi” animals, but I am the most proud of a dragon I made for our daughter’s birthday present. His name is Java and he is super cute, with sparkly little puppy dog eyes. The scales down his back were hard, and I learned a couple of new stitches to make the points on his wings. The nice thing about this hobby is that it is very portable and well suited to camping. I just have a bag with yarn and needles and things that can go anywhere. I finished “Momo the Cat” while Richard was on his morning hike.

Later, we drove to San Luis Obispo to meet up with our friends. Our first stop was Michael’s because now I need yarn fixes. They happened to be having a big yarn sale, so this is my new joy. Following that, we went to SloDoCo, which had almost as impressive an array of doughnuts as Pinkbox in Las Vegas. We went with kind of normal flavors, lemon and chocolate cake, for comparison sake. The chocolate ranked high and Richard says it’s one of the best he’s had.

From there, we walked to the downtown area and just looked around. We met back up for dinner at a place called Gold Land BBQ. The meat was super tender and the onion rings were dark and crispy. We lost the battle of resisting the ice cream place next door – Nite Creamery. It was a tactical error, because we got intense coffee flavored ice cream which made sleeping difficult, but they do a flash freeze thing using some kind of nitrogen machine. It’s quite dramatic, so we weren’t going to pass that by. Then it was back to Dory for one more night.

I can definitely say that if one has the good fortune to turn 60, camping with friends is the way to do that. This birthday was so good, Richard is pre-jealous for his 60th birthday coming up in November. We have pretty much decided to just to an exact redo of this trip so he can have Wayward pizza on Monday. One thing I noticed for sure is that having a busy fingers hobby makes staying at campgrounds with no cell service a non issue. I used to get bored and antsy, but this seems to be the antidote for that. It keeps my brain and hands occupied and saves me from doomscrolling. I do end up with things I need to give away, but they’re pretty cute things and there appear to be infinite patterns out there for projects I can do. I now have my own little neck light, so I can point it at my hands and see stitches, plus I am now the proud owner of a yarn ball winder. I don’t know how I have made it this long without one, but now I have the ability to make super tight yarn cakes. Might even have to get a swift in case I get any hanks. You guys. This is a super fun world I have stumbled into.

Total miles: 244.3, 17.7 mpg, 5 hours 38 min. Site 38 no hookups. No cell, no dump, great solar. Wifi at the Spooner Ranch visitor center and good cell service out on the bluffs or up the trail to Valencia Peak.

Activism Afterward

Alert! The administration is in the process of effectively dismantling the US Forest Service. This will have a devastating impact on our natural lands. For extensive information on what is happening, as well as which outdoor companies are taking a stand against this, please visit the site put together by Alt National Park Service.

SAVE USFS: https://saveusfs.org

There are links on this page for how to take action and who to contact to voice your opinion.