Advertisement
Published: January 25th 2013
Our time in the States has almost come to an end, we have just 5 days left. When we booked to come for the months of December and January we had no idea really what kind of weather we were going to experience all we knew was that we wanted to get away from our terrible weather in England for a while.
Well we certainly did that, although we have had a few days when the temperature dipped and we needed to wear coats (even a scarf one day which is usually unheard of here!) in general it has been mild or even hot.
We have spent a lot of time exploring the many mountain trails here, almost to the point that we recognise all the peaks now and can honestly say that we’ve conquered most of them.
The highest of all in the area is La Cumbre over 4000ft high. There is a road that takes you right to the top, Sharon drove us up there one day along steep twisty narrow roads with huge drops to the side at times. We were blown away by the views, usually as we
had walked the many trails the view down was of the coastal area or looking up at higher mountain peaks. From the road that took us to La Cumbre, however, we got views either side the range, coastal one way but looking the other way we could see more rocky mountain ranges stretching as far as the eye could, the air was so clear that the view didn’t look real, more like a back drop to a movie film. The vegetation changed too at the summit, huge fir trees grew all around with the biggest pinecones on that I’d ever seen.
The following day we decided to try and climb to the top ourselves, the map showed a trail, Tunnel Trail, leading up to the summit from behind the Mission in Santa Barbara.
The trail itself was good, although very steep in parts, and we got amazing views as we climbed. The whole hike took 7 hours and we covered a distance of 12miles, it felt good to know that we had conquered the highest peak in the area.
A few days before we had attempted to get there following a
different trail on the map but had had to turn back, the map showed a trail going up to Arlington Peak then what looked like a ridge walk up to La Cumbre Peak, the map had called the trail an ‘off route trail’. We soon realised why, it consisted mainly of rock scrambling sometimes so high I couldn’t get up without the aid of Stan hauling me up. All I could think was that there was no way I would be coming down this way. Stan assured me that we could get to the road then pick up the Tunnel Trail to come back down. At times my knees were wobbling like jelly but carried on up in order to get to the top and find the easier way down.
By the time we got to the peak of Arlington however the time was 1.45pm. We explored the summit for a while, there seemed no other path. I spotted another couple up there (the only other people we’d seen the whole time we were climbing) and asked them if they knew the way to the ridge trail to take us to La Cumbre Peak. He said he
lived locally and that there was no other way down and even if there was it would take too long as it would be dark in two and a half hours. At that point I was quite concerned about actually getting down without falling hundreds of feet to my death!! We decided to head back down and joined forces with the other couple to look for the path back down, although we’d just come up it, it wasn’t evident as it was so rocky and all the rocks looked the similar.
At times we found ourselves on the edge of a steep drop with no way to proceed and had to retrace our steps and start again. With four of us on the search we finally made it to the bottom. The skin on our fingers was virtually rubbed off from grabbing hold of the rocks and very sore but at least we’d made it down!
By the time we reached our car darkness was falling, we’d definitely made the right decision to come down when we did, the thoughts of being stuck up there in the dark made shivers run down my spine.
In addition to the many hikes we did we also spent a lot of time at the pool and jacussi at Tom and Wanda’s. It worked wonders easing tired muscles, even on cooler days, because the sun was usually shining, it was possible to swim in the heated pool punctuated by jumping in the hot jaccusi.
For the last five days we have been experiencing a heatwave so we were able to enjoy days on the beach and even got six month old Kyla in the jaccusi at Sharon’s place. It had been faulty for a while and not getting up to temperature but turned out to be perfect for Kyla, so this week she had two firsts – getting her feet in the sand for the first time and playing in the jacussi.
Well, we leave for home in a few days and I am really am going to miss our little granddaughter she really has changed in the two months we’ve been here, she now sits independently and is almost crawling. She loves people fussing over her and understands the word smile, she is so used to
having a camera pointed at her she poses when she hears the word ‘smile’! Maybe when we are home she will smile at the computer screen when we skype.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.09s; Tpl: 0.018s; cc: 14; qc: 22; dbt: 0.0546s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dave Davies
non-member comment
California
Hi to you both, Yes we are very envious looking out from my 'office' there is 4/5 inches of snow and more expected this evening then it should start to thaw. Joan & I will be visiting Venice,California later this year. Joan's son's wife is due to give birth in May. That will be an experience for them. Gavin is 52 and was hoping to retire and play some golf now he may have his own caddy! Stan our first Laverda meeting is on Sunday 27th but I look forward to hearing more about your travels later in the year. Really enjoyed your blog. Dave Davies