California Mission Trail 2012

After a comfy night at cousin Keith and Catherine's along with a hearty breakfast, I continued along the path leading into Monterey. Lots was happening with festival preparations for this weekend starting tonight. I passed through the Veterans Park, the default camping area about 6 miles before the mission. My route carried me through beautiful forests and eventually down through the famous 17-mile drive and on to Carmel's Scenic Drive (just had to have someone take a picture of me).

In all, about 12 miles to Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo, my 8th mission so far. It served as the headquarters for the other 20! A huge complex. Noteworthy is that Padre Serra is also buried here (just to the left of the altar), at the second mission he founded. The Basilica is undergoing a massive earthquake stabilization retrofit project, but it's still open for visitors. The complex is quite huge with exhibits giving a good flavor of mission life.

18 miles of walking through agricultural fields makes you appreciate the hard work that goes into the veggies that end up on the dinner table. So much that we take for granted! Once I hit the coast again, the path paralleled the Pacific Coast Highway on the left and the large sand dunes on the right. Ice plants seem to survive, even thrive in nature's harshness showing hues of red among the green. The picture is better than words. Like the San Francisco Presidio, Ford Ord has undergone massive transformation since the post was closed in1994. Parts of it now serve the community through the CSUMB, Cal State Univ at Monterey Bay, a state park, while other parts surprisingly are under the Monterey Presidio (that sounds like a "just kidding" closure) with a large housing area with commissary and PX and other services. The pic says it all. Last but not least, I get to stay with Rose's cousin Keith and wife, Catherine, and their two lovely children, James and Libby. Libby has already posed in her Halloween outfit, a black cat complete with scary claws. Looking forward to seeing Mission Carmel tomorrow.

Had a nice cushy 16-mile day with great walking weather. The route out of San Juan Bautista led into the famous Juan Bautista de Anza Trail (see pic). Really steep up and down and it made me think how difficult his 250 to 300 some travelers had it back in 1775/6. To add to the spirit of the Spanish times I ate at a Taqueria while I did laundry and ordered a huarache pastor--now I realize that's all not pure Spanish, but Indian influence. Then again, de Anza couldn't have made it without his Indian guide from Mission San Gabriel. It took a team. Here is a pic of my huarache and two buddies--a goal of this adventure is to meet the locals along the way and touch each other's lives, both learning from each other then moving on! Even a wave to a farm hand or a tractor driver counts. BTW at the start of de Anza Trail I met a local reporter who had interviewed the horsemen who are doing about half the route; their daytime job precludes them from finishing the trek in one swoop. And, I spotted their road apples--pic included to snow the steepness of the trail!

Perfect day for walking 23 miles--weather has turned cool with the marine layer covering the fields from noon on. My walk was heightened by seeing all the agricultural activities. Everywhere you looked you could see fields being prepared, harvested, sprayed, or just irrigated.

My routing was in error, so I found myself facing a crossing of 101. But even worse, once on the other side I would have had to walk along the freeway some 3 miles. I was squirming. Turns out, the Iranian gas station owner drove me to the RV park I had planned for. No room at the inn! This RV park helped me get room at anther one closer to San Juan Bautista, but at another 5 miles. I should have taken the bike route (129).

The folks here are wonderful--even invited me in for a pasta meal (a first). Here are a few pics of the mission and one of the RV park.

Walked only 17 miles, but because of the near-90 deg heat, I felt little accomplishment. Every hour I stopped somewhere to buy a cold drink of sorts. Tonight is my first stay ever at a KOA--nothing but good reports. After pitching my tent, I walked down to the hot tub--it felt great! Who says an 800-mile walk has to be all work and no relaxation?

Had a wonderful downhill walk through dense redwoods (not our giant ones) from Redwood Estate to Scott's Valley. Then for the last half (after Scott's Valley) the path was on old roads that paralleled the State 17. Santa Cruz greeted me with some pretty warm weather!

The mission, founded in1791 as the 12th, has a colorful and violent history--much too lengthy to even touch on here. The original mission stood where today's Holy Cross Catholic Church stands. In 1931, a Gladys Doyle proposed and funded a half-size replica of the original mission--see the pics below.

22 miles first along the Los Gatos Creek Trail, over nine miles of opportunities for walkers, cyclists, jobbers, and you name it (even saw a unicycle) to huff and puff. There were hundreds, maybe more. Then came the uphill part crossing over the Santa Cruz Mountains, part of our coastal range. I huffed and puffed up 2200 ft--grueling but amazingly beautiful scenery. After 12 hours on the road, I got permission from some tenants on a Christmas tree farm to pitch my tent. It was a balmy, starry , and full-moon lit night near 12-foot tall trees ready to adorn some spacious living rooms--it was magical. Although mountain lions share this habitat with humans, none came to visit. My last line of defense was a high-powered night light I intended to move quickly from side to side and make lots of noise--surely that would have so confused the animal, it would have gone after a less confounding meal!

Here's the pic of Mission Santa Clara:

Arrived at Mission Santa Clara at a bit after 3:00pm (17 mi). Beautiful mission and on top of that they had a wedding going on. After spending some time in he mission thinking of its beauty, I read about its history. First mission to be named after a woman! And this mission became Jesuit later on promising to found a school and thus it sits in the middle of Santa Clara University today.

Am staying with Claudia's cousin, Kevin , and his wife Diane--lovely family. A big BBQ is scheduled.

Day 6 led me to the departure from the Camino Real in Mountain View where I stayed at a cozy motel just across 101 from Moffett Field. It was all familiar from our days at Lockheed Martin and living in Sunnyvale.

Day 7, according to Siri, was only going to be 12 miles, but turned out to be another 20, just like day 6. Today and parts of yesterday took me past companies rooted in the lore of Silicon Valley: Google, AMD, Dell, Juniper Systems, Lockheed Martin, on and on.

At 2:00 pm Claudia joined me to tour Mission San Jose--nice museum, but little there from the original mission founded in1797. This 14th mission was totally destroyed by the great earthquake of 1868. The photos of the current church are of a reconstruction in the 1970s.

Although only 10 miles into the day and while resting at a Starbucks, I am recharging along the way with all the humor I see-it's everywhere! A shoe in the middle of the Camino Real, obviously it had try to flee its owner's dastardly tortures, gets hit by a car; a front door to an office suite marked Magrittelike, "This is not an entrance"; and then there's the whole thing about the "moral compass app," whose existence is being denied on signs on top of taxis. Oh, it's a great world we live in--humor--the ultimate natural additiction!

How thrilling to walk the king's road itself! I picked up THE Camino Real as I left San Bruno, but seem to have gotten caught between motel clumps. They aren't uniformly distributed, meaning that I had to walk more than 25 miles to get to the next "clump."

My two favorite sites along the way are on these pics (the bust of Fra Serra is at St Mathews Church in San Mateo).

After a good visit with the daughters and their families, I rode the ferry back to Sausalito to continue the walk through historic Fort Baker. After a climb up to the Golden Gate Bridge (which celebrated its 75th BD), I crossed it in the early morning fog (see photo) and passed through historic Presidio. Lots of memories (e.g., in a hospital here as a teenager and commissioned in the US Army by the Presidio). Mission Dolores is the only one standing as it originally did--rather incredible! Several pics are of Presidio.

Great walk, but because of a few routing issues, I walked about 5 miles extra needlessly. So when I arrived in Sausalito I had already clocked over 20 miles, and ended up taking the ferry to San Francisco, now staying with Chris/Douglas for the night. Much of the walk was on roads with narrow shoulders-the pic below says it all.

Cushy day; only 14.6 miles to the mission and a Starbucks just down the street. Still need to find a motel--there are lots within a mile. I found Mission San Rafael hustling and bustling with Sunday mass and many baptisms. Nothing stands of the old mission--it was torn down in 1861. The mission replica was built in 1949 with Hearst money.

Today's church:

Grueling but great day. I walked over 20 miles, and on top of that, a fellow gave me a ride for a mile and a half. Had to accept, I was starting to melt down.

All motels are booked because of the car races! I'm camping out within the shadow of the motel, but not on their property.

Lovely mission, grape picking is at its peak, limos by the hundreds are on the highway with their clients, and very warm for the first day of fall. Check out the pics.

Check out this card--yes, I consider myself encouraged and believed in!

More adventures on the training route: a stop at our local mushroom factory.

Only four more training days left. On my walk this morning I spotted the Ventura Keys BBQ--still early and not too much action. Check out this photo.