Our last full day in Pismo before heading home for Thanksgiving got a late start. We had talked about doing Cerro Alto for the third time, plus an extension of that hike eastward to Tassajera Peak, but that 10+-mile effort would require a fair amount of elevation gain and loss that we were a little too lazy to accept. We hemmed and hawed, eventually deciding to head up the coast to the Cambria area and hike up San Simeon Creek…
Okay, it’s time to buy a bigger 4WD vehicle. Our day began with an ambitious plan to hike both Big Falls and Little Falls Canyons northeast of Lopez Lake near Arroyo Grande, an 8+-mile endeavor that would require a drive up Lopez Canyon Road – though a county road, this route crosses Lopez Creek more than a dozen times to reach the Big Falls trailhead. Chris had brought the CRV thinking we might be able to pull this off, and…
Back in October, we had intended to do this 5-mile out-and-back hike, even driving to the trailhead before deciding it was too warm a day to enjoy the steep climb. So, with the temperature forecasted to be in the 60s, we returned about noon to the Reservoir Creek trailhead just north of San Luis Obispo – it turned out that we picked a great day to come back. This is really a tale of two hikes – the first half…
A second hike we wanted to do with the boys was another boardwalk-based walk through the Elfin Forest Preserve in Baywood Park. Tucked between residential housing and the southeastern corner of Morro Bay State Park, the preserve is accessed via multiple footpaths extending from various neighborhood cul-de-sacs, each of them reaching a boardwalk constructed in a mile-long loop through the property. One of these paths, at the north end of 16th Street, was built for wheelchairs, so it was here where…
Chelsea and the boys had spent most of the week with Jane at the trailer in Pismo, and Chris drove over to join them Friday night. There are a handful of stroller-friendly hikes in the area, so we had talked about taking Jude and Ollie on a walk or two before they went back home on Sunday. One of our options was Oso Flaco Lake, a two-mile-long, level walk we had taken several years ago with Jane’s aunt and uncle,…
Day Two of our October weekend in Pismo found us again undecided about where to hike. Jane had some work to do preparing for a talk she’s giving at church, so we knew we’d get a late start. It was supposed to be warm in SLO so we originally thought we’d get out to Montana de Oro again where it would be cooler – however, fog had rolled in to Pismo Beach about 10am, so we changed our mind and…
Well, finally! After nearly seven weeks of various commitments occupying the bulk of our weekend attentions, we found ourselves with a free weekend in Pismo Beach. Among the hiking options we’ve been considering is the coastal access trail in Harmony Headlands State Park, located along Highway 1 between Cayucos and Cambria – formerly private ranch land, a local conservancy group purchased the property a few years ago and opened it for public use. The park is still in an underdeveloped…
We hadn’t spent any time at the trailer in Pismo since the end of May, so we were looking forward to a long weekend here (made a little longer now since Chris didn’t have to be back home for Sunday afternoon music obligations). So, we planned for Friday a long loop through the northern half of Montana de Oro State Park, going up and over Hazard Peak, heading east to the park boundary, then returning north and west through Hazard…
Day 2 of MorroFest 2013. We had designs of getting up early and heading into San Luis Obispo before it got hot – so much for that as we didn’t leave Pismo until 9:30, arriving at the Cerro San Luis trailhead about 10:00 after picking up some sandwiches at Subway (our traditional staple on the trail). After filling our Camelbaks, we set out under partly cloudy skies and a fairly constant breeze that kept the rising temperatures bearable. The trail…
What a difference a little conditioning makes. On our previous visit to Cerro Alto in November 2011, we had been very much challenged by the steepness of the trail – at an average gradient of 800’/mile, it has been the standard against which all our subsequent hikes have been measured (i.e., “How steep is this trail in relation to Cerro Alto?”). Back in Pismo for the weekend, we thought it was time to revisit Cerro Alto. The plan was to…