Californication

The last few weeks have flyin by and we are finally mixing it up tomorrow!  I can't believe I have been here for 6 months already.  CRAZY.  I find it weird how normal it has become to go camping every week for work and then go home and sleep on what can barely pass for a bed.  I love it (although after watching a movie involving a bed I have been craving that luxury.)  My final hitches with Crew No Love have been pretty enjoyable and I am actually sad to be splitting up.  We had a week of illegal road decommissioning, a week of fixing a cemented trail for the handicapped at Desert National Wildlife Refuge, and a week of boating around Lake Mead and pulling invasive species.  It was fun to be boating and staying in Arizona (even with the confusing time difference) but pulling weeds can get prettay tedious.  It's starting to get warmer here - mid 70's during the day, and I am getting very nervous for the summer heat.  Ooh also, I started rock climbing more at Red Rock with the help of some friends, and it is the greatest thing ever.  I could hang out there every day and never get tired of it.

Finally tried out the poo bag method

Old corral we slept in on hitch

Red Rock

Seals covering the beach

This weekend we had 4 days off because of the holiday (which holiday?) so we decided to take a roadtrip to Big Sur in Central California.  It is BEAUtiful.  The air was fresh and smelled like pine trees and the ocean and it was SO GREEN EVERYWHERE.  Oh how I miss the color green and moss and the woods.  Due to our lack of planning every campsite was booked but we were able to find a place that camping was allowed up this windy road in the forest overlooking the ocean the first night.  The next day we went to this beach with purple sand and cliffs all around and apparently we were the only crazy enough people to go swimming in the freezing water.  I still think it was warmer than the ocean in New Hampshire, even in February.  After searching again for campsites and them still all being booked we decided our best bet was a 10 mile hike to a river and hot springs where camping was allowed.  With our late start we had to hike the last 5 miles in the dark and then since we were unable to find a path due to our lack of vision we crossed the river at least 5 times to get around cliffs and find a flat spot to sleep.  We eventually found a tiny spot to squish in which wasn't too far of a scramble from the hot springs.  Apparently it is a thing for people to travel all over going to hot springs and I think I will add that to my list of things to do.  The next morning we hiked the 10 miles out and struggled back to the car.  On our way home driving down Highway 1 there were a bunch of places where sea lions and elephant seals were all beached and lounging around.  They are the strangest and most adorable creatures.  We ended up getting home around 4am this morning but it was definitely an amazing trip and it was super refreshing to get out of the desert.  

Sunset over Pacific Ocean

 

 

 

Hike to hot springs at Sykes