Chapter 31 - Anza Boreggo and North
Dave and Helen Damouth
www.damouth.org
January 5, 1999
12/9/98 The drive east from San Diego into the desert has become familiar, but not yet boring. Interstate 8 climbs steadily from sea level to our turnoff at about 3400 feet, in the middle of the Cleveland National Forest. We find the "national forest" designation somewhat amusing, since one has to look long and hard to find a tree anywhere in this portion of the "forest". We turned north on SR 79, and continued climbing, topping out at 5000 feet just before Cuyamaca Reservoir. At this altitude, we're back into real forest. At Julian, we turn east on SR 78, and almost immediately begin the steep and twisty descent into the desert. In the first few miles, we drop about 1200 feet, and often drop below 20 mph to negotiate the tight switchback turns. In this short distance, we go from green forests to real desert, where the sparse plants are mostly mesquite, creosote bush, ocotillo, and cholla. After that, the grade lessens, the road straightens and we drop gradually into the huge Anza Boreggo State park. We turn north through the park on highway S3, and check into the Palm Canyon campground, about a 3-hour drive from San Diego. I babied the new trailer brakes all the way, trying to break them in gradually. They seem to be working ok.
The campground is one of our favorites. We're in a campsite on the north edge of the section of full-hookup sites. The campground is on the alluvial fan at the mouth of Palm Canyon, just high enough so we have clear view over the desert to the east. To the north, we see high mountains, a few miles away, and to the west and northwest, the mountain slope begins abruptly, a short walk from our trailer. With the exception of one tall feathery ocotillo plant, our view northeast is completely unobstructed for miles. The campground, surprisingly, is nearly empty.
We're far away from airports, highways, and industry, and the silence here is wonderfully peaceful, after spending weeks in big cities. There is a California Fan Palm near us, and when a gust of wind rustles its fronds, the sound is startlingly loud. As we get used to the quiet, we begin to notice tiny sounds. One morning, I was sitting quietly outside, reading, when I heard a faint whirring sound, looked up, and found a hummingbird hanging a few feet in front of me, trying to decide if my brightly-colored T-shirt indicated something good to eat. Numerous other bird species are making characteristic sounds - distinctive chirps, or sometimes just another variety of wingbeat.
The campground has become an oasis that attracts a great many birds. Many trees have been planted - mostly the California Fan Palm, Washingtonia Filifera, but also occasional other native species. The palms can't live without a steady water supply (a grove of them forms an oasis around a year-around spring in Palm Canyon, a couple of miles from our campsite), so a drip irrigation system provides a slow ooze of water under each tree in the campground. This, together with the occasional leaking faucet at a campsite, provides a valuable source of water. Our own water spigot has a slow drip, and I've seen a dozen or more birds of many species perched around it, waiting their turn for a drink. This morning, a pair of Western Bluebirds provided a splash of welcome color.
Several times at night we've heard packs of coyotes yipping and howling out in the desert. It's hard to judge their distance from us.
The Geminid meteor shower is underway, and each evening, we spend some time looking at the sky - which is very dark here. On one occasion we woke up in the middle of the night and went out for more meteor-spotting (2 AM was supposed to be the optimal time to watch). We've seen lots of short, faint, meteors, and a few long, bright, impressive ones. And after some tutoring from Helen, Dave can now reliably identify the Gemini constellation.
One day, we tried to drive the jeep trail up Coyote Canyon, but got stopped after a few miles. After recent rains, the creek was running briskly, and fording it looked chancy, without 4-wheel drive. Too bad - this is one of the more isolated portions of the park, and has a palm oasis, natural springs, and Indian ruins. On the way to the Canyon, we passed a small fruit stand in the middle of an orange grove. They were selling local, early, oranges, which were tiny. We bought a few, and found they were delicious - rich, intense, flavor. This reinforces my theory that nature provides a fixed amount of flavor per item. Small fruits are much more intensely flavored than big ones of the same kind - for oranges as well as strawberries, blueberries, etc.
On another morning, I took a long rambling walk out across the desert to the north and east. I finally saw a jackrabbit - the kind with the huge ears - I don't remember ever seeing one before.
12/15 The wind started howling late yesterday. It blew hard all night and is still at it this morning. We didn't sleep well, with the noise and the trailer rocking on its springs. I can see a dust storm, a few miles down the valley, east of us. Up here on the alluvial fan, the soil is a very coarse-grained sand that isn't blowing much. Heavy clouds have filled in from the Northeast. It's raining - in the desert. Actually, quite a hard rain.
We took a drive in the truck to scout Highway S22, the short route out of here to the northwest. The total elevation gain is around 3000 feet The first few miles climb steeply and have innumerable switchbacks - but the grade is fairly uniform and the switchbacks are wide enough not to pose a problem. A sign at the top says it's a 9% grade. Shouldn't be a problem, so we'll leave this way when we head out with the trailer.
Later, we drove out to the eastern edge of the park, and started up the jeep trail to Split Mountain, where we wanted to do a hike to the Wind Caves - sandstone formations that are reputed to be very interesting. The clouds had broken in the east, so most of the desert was in sunshine. Dark clouds were still hanging over the mountains to the west. In retrospect, driving up a narrow canyon with rain clouds hanging over the mountains above wasn't very smart. We were given a gentle reminder of this when we came around a corner and saw a wall of water moving down the trail towards us, completely covering the canyon floor in the narrow places. The wall was only an inch or two high, and was moving at a few miles per hour - just walking speed. But it would make the trail a slippery muddy mess, and larger volumes of water might be not far behind. So we turned around and drove the few miles back to the main road, stopping occasionally to watch the little wall of water chasing us. The water was carrying a heavy load of fine brown silt, and some of this silt was churned into a layer of thick brown foam. Because of this, the water flowed thickly, not splashing, but rather sort of oozing over obstructions. The leading edge was making a hissing sound as it moved. Further back from the leading edge, the water was clearer and began to splash, gurgle and generally act like real water. We never did see the Wind Caves - maybe next time.
12/16 Time to move on, if we want to get to a concert in San Francisco this weekend. Strong gusty winds are forecast - we'll go slow and take our chances. This time, we'll try to make a big detour around Los Angeles, taking 215 through Riverside San Bernadino, and then I-15 and US 395 north past Edwards Air Force Base. CA-58 will then take us west to I-5. It's longer and slower, but hopefully more pleasant, and it's country we haven't seen yet.
In fact, the drive turned out just about as hoped. Coming over I-15 across the mountains, we listened on the CB as truckers talked about high winds and that a portion of the route was closed to "high profile" vehicles. Before we figured out which area was closed and whether we were a "high profile" vehicle, we were over the pass without problem. We never even noticed the "high winds". We stopped for the evening at Orange Grove RV Park in Bakersfield. We were here last spring and found it pleasant. Some of the oranges were ripe, and we picked quite a few - tasty, but hard to peel.
12/17 The drive up the central valley was dull - with a high fog layer obscuring the sky and the distant mountains. Only when we started to climb out of the valley at Pacheco Pass did it clear up somewhat, giving us a nice view of the high ridges lined with windmills. We've read that California gets 25% of it's electrical energy from renewable sources, and when we drive through places like this, with hundreds of huge windmills whirring around us, we can believe it.
12/18 We'll be attending four concerts in the next five days. Each of the groups which interested us is giving several repeats of their concert, scattered around the Bay Area, so we've been able to put together a schedule which will allow us to attend all of them, by driving substantial distances. Tonight, we drove to the First Lutheran Church in Palo Alto to hear the San Francisco Early Music Society do an all-Buxtehude mostly-Christmas-related program. It was a small ensemble - two sopranos, a bass, two violins, two violas, cello, and a tiny box organ. Everyone played or sang superbly. We hadn't heard much Buxtehude before, and we'll never be Buxtehude fans, but this concert was a very enjoyable introduction to this unfamiliar music. One of the sopranos was a last-minute substitute, but sang with beauty, skill and authority as though she had been practicing this music for months. The church is small and intimate - perfect for this type of music. It's a good thing we arrived early. Two thirds of the seats were roped off for season ticket holders, and the rest of the seats filled quickly.
12/19 This evening was the San Francisco Choral Artists concert, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Berkeley. The beautiful old Spanish-style church is on the south edge of the U.C. Berkeley campus, so we went a little early and wandered around. There was a street fair underway, so we were able to do plenty of people-watching. This campus and the surrounding community is still weird and colorful, but not as far-out as when we were here in the early 1970's. The concert was all German, ranging from the 14th to the early 20th century. The a cappella group lived up to our high expectations (We heard their Christmas concert a year ago, and had wanted to hear them again). The audience was small, spread sparsely through the fairly large church.
12/20 Today's concert was Chanticleer, at Mission Santa Clara - yet another long drive. We've raved about this group before, so won't do it again here. The program was their usual eclectic mix of styles and eras. We particularly liked the Arvo Pärt Magnificat. The program was only about an hour, performed without intermission, and we felt cheated, wanting more.
12/21 The cold weather pattern is also creating an unusually clear atmosphere. We can see two of the Farralon Islands - about 25 miles off shore. Walking through the RV Park, we found patches of ice on the pavement. In mid-morning, we had a brief hailstorm. Snow fell in downtown San Francisco, and the mountains on the horizon have white tops. Skyline drive, on the Ridge above us, was closed because of snow and ice. Southern California may lose its orange crop. For the past few days, we've had frequent periods of high wind. We had removed both canoes from the top of the truck, to enable parking in the city. On our exposed cliff, it's been difficult to secure them so that the wind wouldn't blow them away. My first attempt didn't work very well, and I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the big canoe trying to beat itself to death on the pavement. We finally lashed it to the awning supports on the side of the trailer. The small canoe is crosswise at the back of the trailer, one end lashed to the fence at the top of the cliff, and the other end jammed firmly under the bumper of the trailer. Both survived, but with quite a few scratches. This weather isn't fun - we should be elsewhere!
12/22 American Bach Soloists, at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. We chose this concert partly because we haven't heard a good Messiah in a long time, and partly because we wanted to see Grace Cathedral. The Cathedral is indeed worth seeing - a huge showpiece - one of the larger such places in the country. It is enhanced by its location on top of Nob Hill. The concert was excellent. Interestingly, the soprano soloist was sick, and the last-minute substitute was the same lady that we heard as a substitute with the Early Music Society a few days ago. The soloists, orchestra, and choir were all excellent. The 23-voice choir was arranged unconventionally in a single semicircle around the orchestra, alternating bass and soprano voices in the left half of the line and alternating tenor and alto on the right half. The conducting was also unusual. Tempos ranged from among the slowest I've heard in some sections to among the fastest in others. Vocal ornamentation was frequent and somewhat unusual, but musically pleasing. Some repeats were cut, but otherwise, the work was done in its complete form, roughly in agreement with Handel's earliest score. Some sections were done in a form probably never heard by Handel, since he made revisions before the first performance. We approve of his revisions. The earlier version should have been left in obscurity, where it belongs.
12/25 On Christmas Day, the San Francisco airport seemed much more peaceful than usual, with relatively few scheduled flights. Leata arrived from the east just half an hour before Dan arrived from San Diego, making the logistics easy. Hertz had closed all of its rental desks in the terminals, directing everyone to the single office out at the periphery of the airport. This office was mobbed with customers, and minimally staffed, so the car rental process, along with the logistics of shuttle rides and getting the rental car back to where our truck was parked in the huge short-term parking structure, took a long time. We didn't drive out of the airport until a little over two hours after the flights arrived. Helen's niece Linda and her husband Brian had all four of us for Christmas dinner. Also present were Brian's parents Carol and Kent, so the small house was quite full. We gathered in late afternoon and had an exciting conversation-filled afternoon and evening.
Late in the evening, we drove back from Santa Clara, Helen, Dan and Dave to the trailer in Pacifica, and Leata in the rental car to her small hotel in the Marina District of San Francisco, a few blocks from a large number of the unique San Francisco sights.
12/26 A long drive down the peninsula with Dan and Leata. Since moving back east in 1974, Leata had not seen our ex-home in Menlo Park nor Peninsula School, directly across the street, a shaggy counter-culture private school where both children attended preschool and Kindergarten, and Dan attended first grade. Both kids have artificial memories of both home and school, from photographs and family stories, and Dan had been here once, about 15 years ago, traveling with Dave when Dave came to Palo Alto on a business trip.
Both also remembered the school building and the campus from the movie "Escape from Witch Mountain", which was filmed here, the year before we moved away, with both children watching the filming. Many of the school's students appeared in the film as informal extras, playing games in the schoolyard as background for major scenes. But we never found Dan and Leata in any scenes, in many viewings of the movie. Leata and Dan spent a long time wandering around the deserted campus, looking in the windows of the classrooms (small, very old, free-standing buildings) where they attended classes in the early '70's.
Afterward, we drove the few miles to the Stanford campus, where we wandered around for a while and browsed the bookstore - a neat place, and just about the only building open during the holiday. Then, we drove across the coastal mountains to San Gregorio State Beach, walked the beach, enjoyed the surf and the cliffs, and then headed north. We stopped for a pleasant Thai dinner in Half Moon Bay and got back to the trailer quite late.
12/27 We drove in to Fisherman's Wharf early, to see the sights before the holiday crowds arrived, then had a big IHOP brunch before driving across the Golden Gate Bridge to Muir Woods to walk through the big Redwoods. After that, we drove back to Chinatown, wandered the streets until we were starved, and picked a random Chinese restaurant to stuff ourselves with Cantonese food.
12/28 I just realized that there is no longer any ambiguity about the word "home". When we're out sightseeing for a day, one of us will say "I'm tired, let's go home and relax", and it feels completely natural to refer to the trailer that way.
We've been doing the standard tourist things with our visiting family. Today was Alcatraz, the four of us along with Linda, Brian, Kent, and Carol - we haven't written about it in the past, but I'll leave the details to someone else, since we couldn't get excited about a crumbling old jail surrounded by burned-out buildings and rusty barbed wire fences. After lunch, the rest of the group headed off to Ghiridelli Square and the Cannery, Chinatown, all tied together with all-day passes on the cable cars ( they stood in line for an hour to get the cable car tickets). Helen and I had enough sightseeing. We poked around Fisherman's Wharf a little longer and headed back to the trailer to relax.
12/29 More sightseeing - Golden Gate overlooks, Sausalito, China Beach, Palace of the Legion of Honor, ending with Dave crashing at the trailer and Helen, Dan and Leata driving down to the Moonraker for late desert. They had a front-row table, looking out on illuminated surf, vigorously pounding the breakwall, 30 feet away
12/30 I got up early to deliver Leata to her 8 a.m. plane, which required being at the airport very early - what with the airport still recovering from being closed down by dense fog for two days, and greatly enhanced security because of the Iraqi bombing. Later in the day, Dan took over the rental car and headed down to stay with Linda and Brian for a few days.
1/1/1999 Helen drove down to spend the day in Santa Clara with Linda and Dan. Dave puttered around the trailer all day.
1/2 Dan flew out at 10 a.m., and we can settle back into our more relaxed old-timer's pace.
1/3 Helen drove to Palo Alto to go on a guided hike through artifacts of the 1906 earthquake.
1/4 After a couple of days of finishing up loose ends and relaxing, we packed up to tow the trailer down the scenic coast highway. When you hear from us next (assuming we survive), we will have completed driving the fearsome California Route 1. In November, we drove this route from from the Oregon Border to Pacifica. Now, we'll do the rest, all the way to its end, just south of Los Angeles.