Rincon Winter Swells, Day2

Surf is still SWELL on the Rincon! I had a peek at 7am and many surfers were already taking advantage of the early winter swells. Early some of the waves were definitely over the head. This set of photos is from the noon-hour.

You can see that the action is good and the participation plenty!

Even below the 'river mouth' the action is busy.

West of the point, above the 'river mouth'.

More action on the point.

The great conditions have brought out watchers, too - in fact at noon, BOTH the upper and lower parking lots on the Rincon looked very, very full.

They wait for the next great set.

Rincon is SWELL!! (from the SW)

And they marched in - with a sudden set of swells upon Rincon.

By 3:30pm there were at least 70 surfers in the water, and more arriving... as it was still before 5pm, they could have been arriving as Patagonia employees, who can always take off work for good surf - for others maybe there was a case of "Surfer's Flu"? An odd anomaly that comes upon people as the swells come upon the Rincon!

By 5pm, there were more than 100 in the water - or at least tooo many to count. I saw surfers, wetsuit on, but the top flapping around the waist - RUNNING with their board to get into the water. You go, guys!

While the 'river mouth' was a smooth and popular entry, surfers put-in among the rocks nearest the point as well.

Dozens of new arrivals paddling out.

People gathered on the shore to watch their 'faves' try the new swells.

Crowded conditions between the 'river mouth' and the point.

And also crowded at the point!

Two up.

Best swells yet this season?

If not the best so far, at least they put grins on lots of faces!

Mendocino & Ft. Bragg, Northern California

Twisted Chimneys, Cloverdale, CA

I have been without work since I resigned my job in Santa Barbara effective 23Mar07 - just over six months ago. Our journey to find our next adventure has taken us several places - most recently to northern California (NorCal) and the Mendocino Coast area. Located about a three hour's drive north of San Francisco through some great wine country, redwoods and ocean views, the Mendocino area has charm and natural beauty. We spent 2-5Oct07 on a trip for me to interview in Mendocino. We overnighted on the road north of San Francisco in Cloverdale - where we turn off "the 101" onto CA 128 toward the coast. However, we stayed in the Cloverdale Super 8 (very nice one, too!) and NOT the interesting building above with the twin twisted chimneys.

Traveling through the Anderson Valley west of Cloverdale, vineyards begin to come into view, and with them, Central California's 'fall color'. Other varieties of grape vines turn red, orange and purple.

Passing from the open valley, the road runs through previously logged redwoods. These trees have all grown up from a time when originally logged around the 1880's to the early 1900's. The roadway is quite dark even in broad daylight.

As large as these trees are, you can still see the original stump among the very large re-sprouts. Me next to one of the large, original stumps. So, you want to go into the "stump-grindin' business"???

Passing through about fifteen miles of redwoods, the road opens very quickly to the Pacific and the PCH or Pacific Coast Highway, CA1. This area is typified by very rugged coastlines

and protected inlets that are actually the 'mouths' of creeks and rivers.

This is the town of Mendocino, and in the foreground the mouth of the Big River. Mendocino is situated on a short and broad peninsula and lists a population of less than a thousand.

Continuing northward just a couple miles from Mendocino is the Point Cabrillo Lighthouse and the very small town of Caspar. These are the support buildings for the lighthouse - and the effects of the strong ocean winds can be seen on these Monterey Cypress trees.

The lighthouse itself is a simple building, much shorter than I had anticipated, having seen the much taller lighthouses in North Carolina.

Weller House, 1886

Fort Bragg, CA is only about ten miles north of Mendocino - and yes, I was confused with the name of the town, too. Having lived in NC from 1993 - 2005, I was very much aware of another Ft. Bragg. However both were named for the same Confederate States Army officer Braxton Bragg. The fort in California was very short-lived as there was no true threat to the coastline.

We stayed two nights in the Weller House, a completely remodeled B&B in Fort Bragg, the only building in town to be on the National Register.

The water tower of the Weller House is the tallest structure in Fort Bragg! Now that municipal water has long been available, onsite water storage in town is no longer needed - so there are now two bedrooms, a hot tub room and a roof-top deck in the tower.

From the tower you can see across town

and in the other direction across a couple blocks and then to the open ocean.

The town of Fort Bragg has about 7,000 residents and while a three+ hour drive to an airport (Oakland or San Francisco), there is just about anything one would need right in town - except for Trader Joe's. For that a drive into Santa Rosa is required: about two hours away, back down the beach, through the redwoods, past the vineyards, turn in Cloverdale, then down "the 101" for about a half-hour. Fort Bragg lists three basic attractions: Glass Beach, the Skunk Train and the Garden.

It's important to always face the ocean while collecting, as the shoreline is rugged and the surf can surprise you at any time. When a large wave comes ashore, and is channeled between the rocks, it can make a wave into a BIG WAVE!

Glass ON the Glass Beach! Once the site of the official Town Dump (1949-1967) tumbled glass remains long after the original cleanup some forty years ago.

This is some of our 'loot' from Glass Beach.

The Skunk Train at a crossing very near the Weller House. For me, this adds a dimension of entertainment, history and transportation. The train can travel as far as the 40 miles east to the town of Willits on "the 101".

The Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden began as a commercial nursery and garden in the early sixties, and was purchased by the California Coastal Conservancy in the early '90s. The garden leases the 47 acres for $1/year from the Mendocino Coast Recreation and Park District. In spite of the land connections, the garden has NO operating connections with any governmental agencies and is not supported by tax dollars. There are about 20 staff, 150 volunteers and the highest attendance of any North Coast facility - 60,000++/year!
Heaths and heathers - require full sun and cool temps all year long - NOT what I could grow when I worked in Oklahoma, Florida, Bermuda or North Carolina!

A path to the ocean - MCBG is the only botanical garden in the USA to have ocean frontage.



On the drive home, we were treated to some very special Central California Skies. Enjoy them here and perhaps later in a painting by Jeanne Miller!

An Amaryllis for DRY Summers!

The Southern California dry summers, so typical of a Mediterranean climate place special constrictions on living organisms. Like plants dropping leaves in the very cold winters of the more northerly portions of our hemisphere, plants have also adapted through dormancy to avoid the rigors of annual droughts in Mediterranean climates. This year in Santa Barbara, there has been no rain since early March - now six months ago! And it may not rain for another six to eight more weeks. This is NOT 'global warming'. This is simply one of our planet's oddest climates.

Growing up in the Tampa Bay area of the central Gulf Coast of Florida, it is weird for me not to feel raindrops, hear thunder, smell the rain nor see the lightning for so many months at a time. However, the plants and animals native to this region (and many other Mediterranean climates) have it all sorted out.

A plant native to the western Cape in South Africa, another Mediterranean climate provides a showy blast of color each mid-summer. Amaryllis belladonna begins growing foliage just after the onset of the rains in the fall. With the drying spring and summer, the foliage begins to brown and die off, neatly matching the available rainfall (none).

With the foliage 'missing', the plant disappears from sight - until the bloom spikes start appearing like erect tenacles from a buried octopus in mid-summer. In full bloom with flowers in shades of pink and white, they earn their amusingly genteel name 'Naked Ladies'. [In the Carolinas if they were up to no good, they would be 'Nekked Ladies'.]

Santa Barbara is treated every summer to a huge blast of pink from the Clark Estate - a mysterious ocean-front estate at the end of East Beach. Gardeners there have supported mass plantings of Naked Ladies that slow traffic.

Once the blooms have dried and fallen, the bulbs lie dormant until the fall rains begin again. Clever, eh?

Naked ladies can tolerate some frost - however appreciate good drainage and very little (if any!) water in the summer. They are available in many shades of pink and white - just look around as these great old landscape plants qualify as 'pass-a-long' plants as the bulbs are easily shared once the blooms drop off. Randy Baldwin and San Marcos Growers here in Santa Barbara offer a great selection.

Zaca Fire Now Contained, NOT Controlled!

The Zaca Fire was started on 4July by two ranch workers repairing a water line in a remote area of the Santa Ynez Valley. Sparks from a grinder got away from them and 240,207 acres and two months later, the fire is contained - encircled and not likely to expand. The photo above was taken in August during a flare-up. At 375 square miles, it is the second-largest fire in California fire-fighting history. Amazingly, the Zaca Fire burned in an area TOTALLY UNPOPULATED!

Imagine - in the country's most populous state, a fire burns for two months and chars 375 square miles (5.5 times the size of Washington, DC) and only burns one storage shed! Yes some hard-working firefighters were hurt, none too severly and no one died in the fire. Based on my earlier analogy relating to the size of the fire, at 375 square miles, it would equal an area of 15mi x 25 miles with a perimeter of eighty miles! Even if this were 'neighbor hood streets', it would take someone about nearly THREE HOURS to drive the perimeter! However, this area has the shape of an amoeba on acid - and is located in an area with 3,000' mountains.

However, even now, two weeks after "containment", the fire will not be "controlled" (completely out) until the rains finally arrive in our Mediterranean climate - maybe as early as the first half of October!

The two workers and the ranch they work for were charged with felonies regarding the fire's start. Best advice? Get that fire extinguisher -- and learn how to use it!