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Published: September 1st 2010
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Phil's scientific enquiry
How close could he get to the baby seagull before it either flew away or charged him an onlooker's fee? August 20-21: Heading south along the Pacific coast, we tried to get good shots of the ocean front, but were hampered by - FOG.
THE fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
--by Carl Sandburg
This was one of the few poems I remember from 4th grade—maybe, in fact, there were only a few.
I just didn't get it. For one thing, it didn't rhyme--like "Twas the Night Before Christmas". Secondly, having grown up on the North Atlantic coast, I knew about fog, and in my mind it wasn't silent at all because it was always accompanied by the baleful sound of the fog horn. When it was there, it was all around us—we didn't see it as a finite thing but a nebulous visitation. But this Pacific fog stalked us down the coast, as you can see from the pictures.
We decided to “put in” at MacKerricher State Park, just outside the town of Cleone, north of Fort Bragg. As soon as we'd settled the van in the site, we headed out along the dune trail and onward to the
Pacific Coast at last
And the FOG stalked us along the water's edge. ocean where, to our delight, we found sea lions on rocks just off the beach. Standing alone at the water's edge, we felt like they were our personal discovery and were quite thrilled. Later, of course, we read the schedule and saw that the park ranger did regular sea lion talks for groups.
That evening while we were on a call with Sky, the FOG enveloped us in its icy shroud and Phil because so cold he was visibly shaking. So the intrepid campers left the wilds and headed to town where we warmed up with hot soup at a chain eatery called Denny's. Phil was so taken with the prices there that we went back the next morning for a hot breakfast!
We passed through Mendocino, looking left and right and wondering where our friend Tim from Arlington Street had lived, but we didn't have that address book with us. (I have different address books going back through the strata of our lives, but we were only travelling with two, which went back merely as far as 2002).
Suddenly we saw hills and hills of grapes. We had passed a couple of wineries before we agreed
Moving south along Highway 1
Every time we looked back, the FOG was there, looking around and whistling nervously. to stop and ended up at Greenwood Ridge, which had great wine (in my opinion) and lots of prize ribbons on display and which was run by a Greek photographic artist who was heading off in January to do an exhibition in Melbourne.
Many wineries later, and disappointment at not being able to get into China Camp State Park on the north end of San Francisco Bay, we were eating lunch by a pond filled with Canadian geese when we were informed by two passing women that the astounding long blue, many-windowed building behind us was the San Rafael Civic Center, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I thought we'd go back there the next day and have a look, but that never happened. Although our travels are a little more organized than Brownian motion, focus continues to be problematic for us.
We ended up in Olema at the Point Reyes National Seashore, in a large private campground which had wifi throughout the outdoors!! “We must be getting close to Silicon Valley,” we thought, as we happily downloaded and emailed from the picnic table, as the FOG hovered behind the trees and then moved in.
I've written an
MacKerricher State Park
We headed out across the dunes to see what we could see... update on the fog poem:
Guest (AKA Couch Surfer)
The fog comes in on Nike feet,
checks its email
and won't move on.
Next day we decided to be optomistic that the fog would lift and took the long snaky road out to the Point Reyes Lighthouse, where we hiked down the steps equivalent to a 30 story building to check it out, and read about the lonely, fogbound life of the lighthouse keepers over many decades. It turns out the lighthouse was built way down low on the cliff so it would usually be BELOW the fog, and could get its beam out to the passing ships. You video folk might be interested that the lighthouse used Fresnel lenses in front of kerosene lamps, which had to have their wicks trimmed and chimneys cleaned very frequently so the brightest light possible could be sent out to sea.
On the return trip, Phil noticed on the map a place called Earthquake Trail, which went along the San Andreas Fault line. In the visitor center we found out that Point Reyes had once been near Los Angeles (some millions of years ago) and that it had been
Sturdy succulents everywhere
These plants can resist the drying effects of the salt spray and flourish in the dunes. Are the same ones on the east coast, too, anyone? slowly moving northward as the colliding continental plates shifted over the millenia, so it's now north of San Francisco!!
Guess what we did next?
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Michelle Cavanagh
non-member comment
Nearing San Fran
From the look of all your pics this appears to be a wildlife trip you're on. But I was wondering if you are continuing another 200 miles south of San Fran - if so do drop in to see Hearst Castle at San Simeon - off the South Cabrillo Highway. It's well worth a visit. M xx.