Posted by Karen on 06-Mar-2010
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Lori and I headed to the coast for the maiden voyage of my new-to-me Aliner trailer. We camped at Half Moon Bay State Beach, which is camping right next to the ocean. Setting up the trailer was a breeze, even in the ocean breeze. After relaxing a bit, we headed north a few miles to enjoy sunset at the Point Montara Light Station, which was established in 1900. Back at camp, we just hung out and enjoyed a lovely spring weather evening and sounds of the ocean next to us. After breaking down the trailer Sunday morning, we did some tidepooling at the James Fitzgerald Marine Reserve in Moss Beach. Tidepooling is fun because you’ll never know what the ocean will reveal trapped in the rocks during low tide; I found one large starfish, several anemones, and pretty rocks. We enjoyed fresh fish and chips over at Princeton Seafood Company on Pillar Point Harbor and then we headed home feeling rested and refreshed.
Posted by Karen on 03-Jun-2006
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Day 2 in the Channel Islands National Park. What a nice way to wake up, it’s daybreak, birds are chirping, the perfect temperature and the glow of a sunrise that hasn’t popped over the ridge yet. All is quiet, not another camper is stirring, so I grab my camera and plan to walk up the road just a bit and see what the other campground looks like and hope to maybe see the little foxes again while it’s quiet. I get to the other camp and see the sign for the Potato Harbor Road and head towards it. I get to the start of the trail and a boy is giving me the “shhh” sign… there’s a little fox on the trail between us and we both quietly watch it for awhile as it figures out how to avoid both of us. The boy was ecstatic, he’d been up since 5am looking for the foxes and was delighted to see one. I start walking up the trail, thinking I’ll be able to see the ocean from the top. Well, I get to the top and can’t see the ocean, but I do see the trail spread out before me and decide, what the heck I must be half way to Potato Harbor, let’s go check it out. It was a gorgeous walk to the end of the trail, the dawn light was just gorgeous and the temperature was darn near perfect. Potato Harbor is a beach and cove surrounded by cliffs and there is no way to get down from the trail I was on. I thought I heard seals barking down there, but I couldn’t see any. As I’m heading back to camp, I realize the non-wisdom of heading out on a hike totally unprepared. By now the sun has come up over the ridge and I am walking directly into it. I have no hat, no water, no sunscreen and am wearing plastic sandals; thankfully it was only a couple of miles back to camp. When I got back to camp, the others were awake and were deciding what hike to do that day. I bowed out; they headed towards Smuggler’s Cove and I spent the day chasing shade to keep my sunburnt arms out of the sun as much as possible. I did a little tide-pooling while they were gone and saw some starfish and pretty green sea anemones. The rest of the crew came back from hiking and we all just hung out and relaxed. David found a garter snake near his tent and he displayed his snake charmer skills by adeptly handling and calming the snake. Paige won the dice game and did the appropriate funky winner’s dance. After dark we went looking for the phosphorous fish again, but tonight, it was large fish running and jumping out of the water when the light was shone on them–very cool to watch.
