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Yesterday I got up at 1:30 am after going to bed two hours earlier. Met my brother and drove 4 hours one-way towards the tiny fishing town of Point Arena up along the rugged and relatively remote Mendocino Coast. Most pull-outs along coastal Highway 1 were packed and when we got to the parking lot it was packed too, with more people showing up. Once we arrived we still had a 40 minute hike in, over cliffs and had to wade, stumble through 200+ yards of 2-4+ feet of heavy, dense and slippery kelp with gear (think real soft and deep powder snow). We were in around 6:45 am, we were there to meet the low tide (-2.1) at 7:14 am for some abalone diving.
We found a great spot last month and was expecting to get some really big "abs." Unfortunately the waves were up and breaking on the exact "spot"... I could've gone surfing, so much for surf forecasting. The surf had churned up the water and reduced visibility. It also didn't dawn to my half-a-sleep brain that it hadn't "dawned" yet over the coastal mountains and we were still in the twilight zone.
It was rough going. When you're in the water the kelp is thickly swirling around you and visibility can at times be only be a couple of feet to none. You're constantly trying to get the stuff out of your face. We hastily got our limits without being to picky over size and got out of there. By then a cold wind had kicked up, it was almost warmer in the water. The trip back to the car was painfully slow and was epic. It's harsher conditions like these that attributed to 5 deaths in two weeks last year and a couple so far this year. Heart attack, falling of cliffs, drowning, and rare visits from Jaws will do you in. We miraculously made it back to the car unscathed.
After tagging the abs as required by the new regulations, we cleaned up, changed and went looking for some hot breakfast. The small restaurant by the pier had closed so we settled for some hot chocolate and coffee at a tiny general store. In town, the movie marque had Ironman proudly displayed. Yet we couldn't find one damn place that served breakfast. So we drove the twisty, 20 miles down to Gualala. We skipped the one place we had eaten before (mediocre) and found the other places were closed. @$#%!! This area is sleepy and only wakes up for the weekend tourist crowd. We kept driving. Along the coast there are some scattered Inns and BBs. We pulled into the Timber Cove Inn/Restaurant, 30 minutes later. A place I had past a number of times over the last 25 years but never actually gone into. It's one of those romantic get-away spots set on a bluff overlooking a very dramatic Pacific Ocean. The inside was an impressive lodge style with large timber frames, a great fireplace and large inviting leather sofas. Breakfast came out over cooked but filled our stomachs. The men's room, WTF... the biggest **** hole I have ever seen in my life. I've seen stairwells in public garages, nicer than this.
Any ways we still had 3 hours of sleepy driving ahead. We stopped in San Francisco for a restroom break and a bite at KFC. Yeah... all the great places in the city and we stop at the Colonel's. After ordering we find out they have no @#$&ing! restroom. Then looking out the window while eating I see a cop eating sunflower seeds and spitting the shells out on the street. I wanted to go out and give him **** about littering, but thought the better of it since there were 3 of them and I still had to pee.
We made it to my house a hour later and rushed the bathrooms. Ahh.... .... ....
After icing the abs and cleaning the gear I had to take my daughter to a leadership awards banquet. I let her drive on her two-day old drivers license. She is late and halfway there she realizes she forgot something. We nearly get into an accident going back home. I fear her driving more than sharks, falling of cliffs, drowning or getting my ass kicked by a bunch of cops. I came home afterwards and spent a hour cleaning the abalone. The I find what looked like some packaged vinyl from Meggy(?) the return address was ripped off. I excitedly open it up and find two rare albums, one from Grace Slick another from Donna Summer that I have never heard of, very cool... woohoo! I put them aside for later and took a hour coma break. Then... I went to the climbing gym to work out and more specifically to sit in the sauna. Met some friends I haven't seen in ages and then there was leggy Linda in her tiny outfit... that's another story. Came home from the gym around 11:30 pm, made some abalone in a ginger/red pepper/soy sauce for my wife who was working late and proceeded to crash a little after midnight.
It was a long, but good day.
Get out and explore!
We found a great spot last month and was expecting to get some really big "abs." Unfortunately the waves were up and breaking on the exact "spot"... I could've gone surfing, so much for surf forecasting. The surf had churned up the water and reduced visibility. It also didn't dawn to my half-a-sleep brain that it hadn't "dawned" yet over the coastal mountains and we were still in the twilight zone.
It was rough going. When you're in the water the kelp is thickly swirling around you and visibility can at times be only be a couple of feet to none. You're constantly trying to get the stuff out of your face. We hastily got our limits without being to picky over size and got out of there. By then a cold wind had kicked up, it was almost warmer in the water. The trip back to the car was painfully slow and was epic. It's harsher conditions like these that attributed to 5 deaths in two weeks last year and a couple so far this year. Heart attack, falling of cliffs, drowning, and rare visits from Jaws will do you in. We miraculously made it back to the car unscathed.
After tagging the abs as required by the new regulations, we cleaned up, changed and went looking for some hot breakfast. The small restaurant by the pier had closed so we settled for some hot chocolate and coffee at a tiny general store. In town, the movie marque had Ironman proudly displayed. Yet we couldn't find one damn place that served breakfast. So we drove the twisty, 20 miles down to Gualala. We skipped the one place we had eaten before (mediocre) and found the other places were closed. @$#%!! This area is sleepy and only wakes up for the weekend tourist crowd. We kept driving. Along the coast there are some scattered Inns and BBs. We pulled into the Timber Cove Inn/Restaurant, 30 minutes later. A place I had past a number of times over the last 25 years but never actually gone into. It's one of those romantic get-away spots set on a bluff overlooking a very dramatic Pacific Ocean. The inside was an impressive lodge style with large timber frames, a great fireplace and large inviting leather sofas. Breakfast came out over cooked but filled our stomachs. The men's room, WTF... the biggest **** hole I have ever seen in my life. I've seen stairwells in public garages, nicer than this.
Any ways we still had 3 hours of sleepy driving ahead. We stopped in San Francisco for a restroom break and a bite at KFC. Yeah... all the great places in the city and we stop at the Colonel's. After ordering we find out they have no @#$&ing! restroom. Then looking out the window while eating I see a cop eating sunflower seeds and spitting the shells out on the street. I wanted to go out and give him **** about littering, but thought the better of it since there were 3 of them and I still had to pee.
We made it to my house a hour later and rushed the bathrooms. Ahh.... .... ....
After icing the abs and cleaning the gear I had to take my daughter to a leadership awards banquet. I let her drive on her two-day old drivers license. She is late and halfway there she realizes she forgot something. We nearly get into an accident going back home. I fear her driving more than sharks, falling of cliffs, drowning or getting my ass kicked by a bunch of cops. I came home afterwards and spent a hour cleaning the abalone. The I find what looked like some packaged vinyl from Meggy(?) the return address was ripped off. I excitedly open it up and find two rare albums, one from Grace Slick another from Donna Summer that I have never heard of, very cool... woohoo! I put them aside for later and took a hour coma break. Then... I went to the climbing gym to work out and more specifically to sit in the sauna. Met some friends I haven't seen in ages and then there was leggy Linda in her tiny outfit... that's another story. Came home from the gym around 11:30 pm, made some abalone in a ginger/red pepper/soy sauce for my wife who was working late and proceeded to crash a little after midnight.
It was a long, but good day.
Get out and explore!
