Kathy and I took Whitecloud down 41 west stopping for avocados at the ranch just outside of Morro Bay. $1 each and humongous, I love rain!
We drove up 1 past Cayucos, Abalones was breaking right out front of Boradori's Garage but we stopped at Killers which had 6' set waves and watched Animals, a wonky right which breaks just south of Killers.
Back on the road we stopped for gas in West Cambria, headed to Moonstone Grill for fish-n-chips and liquid refreshments. Whales were moving north and spouting as they swam, so cool to watch.
After lunch we headed on up 1 past San Simeon and Hearst Castle, past Piedras Blancas Lighthouse (you know why the rocks are white) and marveled at the 3 bridges Cal Trans has built to move the highway 100 yards east, away from the ocean which at high tides and large swells, washes across the road!
Our (my) ultimate goal was San Carpoforo, the gateway to Big Sur. I've fished the lagoon there many times and caught and released a few pissed-off steelhead. Nostalgia and yearning for my lost youth is inextricably tied into Big Sur and this long, swooping downhill curve, crossing the bridge and then ascending the Santa Lucia Range is for me, the real beginning of the Big Sur.
As a youth, of age in the late '60's, my friends and I often hitch-hiked up the coast from our homes in S.L.O. to Big Sur. The memories are sweet, the times were ripe with expectation, full of music, camping, swimming, romance and John Steinbeck books.
We parked Whitecloud off the road and walked down to the beach where the recent rains (deluges of biblical proportions) have opened the creek to the Pacific. The beautiful silver fish left this creek 2 or 3 years ago and swam thousands of miles eating and growing before returning to this, the exact creek they left as juveniles.
We saw movement in the shaded water the bluff protects from wind and waves but knew we'd not see any fish since the sun was high overhead (we were there around 2 pm).
We skipped rocks, Kathy collected "special" rocks and waded in the creek, it was a sublime pleasure to spend the day in such a beautiful area with such a beautiful girl, blessed am I.
