Homer's Travels: Hikius Interruptus

Friday, October 26, 2007

Hikius Interruptus

Well, I was planning to hike the Cold Spring Trail up to Montecito Peak in ... well, Montecito. I had been planning the hike all week and planned to extend the hike from 7.5 miles up to 11 or 12 miles by doing both the east and west forks of the Cold Spring trail. I left home early and got to the trailhead at 6:50 am. I got out of the car, walked up to the trail, and read this disappointing notice. The trail was closed due to the fires even though the closest active fire was over 50 miles away. I thought about ignoring the notice and hiking anyway but I'm a law abiding citizen and that idea didn't gain any traction. I drove home all dejected.

I got home and plopped down on the couch and fired up the PVR. I had a couple episodes of Journeyman, a couple Bionic Women, and a Torchwood. After watching a couple minutes of the first Journeyman episodes, I stopped it, deleted it and the other episode, and stopped recording it. After three episodes I had finally lost interest in it. It had potential but it just didn't grab me. I cued up the Bionic Woman and watched both episodes. I like how there are storylines that continue from episode to episode. It feels very similar to the new Battlestar Galactica. I think I will give this show a chance. The last was Torchwood. I like Doctor Who and Turchwood has that cheesy British Sci-Fi feel. That's probably because it is a cheesy British sci-fi show. I'm hooked.

I finished watching my shows by noon so I decided to make the best of the afternoon and went to Hueneme - Ormond Beach, did a walk on the beach, and searched for geocaches. I had walked this beach before. I didn't bring my camera figuring that the hazy marine layer wouldn't make for good pictures. I like this beach. Today, being a workday and being hazy and a little chilly, the beach was nearly deserted. I saw only three fishermen on the 3 mile long beach. The only other company I had were birds including a small flock of pelicans that flew overhead in a graceful 'V' formation. The beach is bracketed by the Pacific Ocean on one side and a sandy swampy strip on the other. The marshy pools are home to various water fowl. I heard a splash in a pool. I thought it might have been a bird diving to get something in the water but it never came up. I guess it was either a fish or the creature from the black lagoon. Not sure which.

The view along the beach was only broken by a power plant. I would complain about the rather ugly power plant but without those power plants all the gadgets that we geeks love and cherish would not exist. What would I do without my laptop, my GPS, my MP3 player - the horror!

Speaking of gadgets, I had loaded 13 geocaches in my GPS. I managed to find 10, did not find 2, and didn't even look for the last one. The caches were hidden quite a ways inland amongst the dunes and along a canal that brought water to the power plant and helped irrigate the nearby fields. I had never walked back here - it was surprisingly nice. At one cache I did a travel bug swap - swapping If I Had a Hammer for the Bear called Orse.

I also used this walk as an opportunity to break-in my new boots. I doubled my socks and my ankles felt pretty good. It was still a little sore but that was because it wasn't totally healed. The added padding of the extra sock helped a lot. I think the boots will work out great.

It was a nice day. A nice 6.72 mile walk on the beach. A nice afternoon of geocaching. It almost made up for not being able to hike.

4 comments:

  1. I feel for you, my friend, as I'm in the same boat. No hiking was planned for this weekend for me, but since the Angeles will be closed into the forseeable future, I'm sure I'll be in the Santa Monica's next weekend.

    On the plus side, at least the trail you wanted to take didn't burn. :)

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  2. GH, I have all my hikes planned out based on difficulty but I guess I'll have to do some rearranging as my next three hikes are in the Los Padres NF. I tend to over plan things at time and when something gets in the way I get all pissy. I need to learn to let go.

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  3. Heh, we're polar opposites. I sometimes don't decide which trail I'm going to take until I start driving towards the mountians!

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  4. HA! The wife and I tend to over plan. My plan for this weekend is to do a hike on Jalama Beach north of Santa Barbara. The park is a county park and I expect it won't be closed due to the fires.

    Having said this, there is something to say about spontaneity. Makes life more interesting sometimes.

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