The coast is nice after Labor Day

Wednesday (Sep 7)

After a relatively uninhabited stretch of coast, things get pretty busy for the next 40 or so miles, the towns of Mendocino, Caspar and Fort Bragg come right after one another.

I have coffee plans for Mendocino. I went to the big, busy place last time, I want to try the little place tucked into the path between streets I walked past afterwards. But I get there and it is emphatically not open for business. So, back to the big, busy place, sigh… I ate inside this time and the check-in dude kinda took care of me, so I liked it quite a bit better this time.

The next plan is to find a motel room Fort Bragg tonight. After I cross the bridge into town I pull over on the main drag and shop around by phone. I enjoyed the Motel 6 last time, but their quoted price was about $30 more than the internet said it would be, so I kept calling. The Baymont is a few blocks away. It is about the same price (i.e. too much), and it gets even worse reviews so I decided today was the day I would head down to the harbor and try the Anchor Lodge.

It was a little cheaper, and a LOT cooler the Motel 6, so I’m glad I did. Down in the harbor you’re in a whole different world.

The Lodge seems to be associated with the restaurant across the parking lot, Silver’s at The Wharf. Silver’s looked pretty cool when I was up there registering, so after I settled into my very pleasant room I went back there for a happy hor beer that turned into tow happy hour beers. 

Back to the room for a while, but I’m very excited to be in the harbor for the night! I head out walking along the edge to check out all the spots. The last one on my walking tour is the first one you see driving down to the harbor, the Noyo Fish Company. Another beer there.

A fellow at Silver’s told me the harbor road continues around the edge of the basin to go under the bridge to a little beach access lot, and a path to the top. So after another pit stop at the motel, I HAD to check that out. So I did, then back home, then that fatal, regrettable last beer.

Sensible me would’ve called it a night right now, but drunk and stupid me went back to Silver’s for one more beer. Coulda done without that. Ideal beer intake for me is one or two, three is a big night. Four is too much, but four is what I (for no good reason!) had tonight.

Thursday

So, I’m a little hungie this morning, but nothing serious. My go to morning thing pretty much every time I’ve ever visited Fort Bragg has been coffee and a pastry at the Headlands Coffeehouse. But my hangover is asking for real breakfast today, so I try Eggheads Cafe, a little hole in the wall diner around the corner from Headlands. It was pretty good. Not really memorable, but good enough this morning.

I took a loop around the long downtown block. On the main drag I noticed an un-busy dispensary that ws enticing but I kept on walking. Then I drove north to discover MacKerricher State Park.

It seems that the check-in protocol for State beaches is for you to drive on in and pick a site then come back and book it. First noticed at Van Damme where I waited patiently while whiny Californians discussed their issues with the ranger, then when it was my turn she said go pick a spot and come back and get in line again. I’m kinda ADD, and hate waiting around when I want to get on with things, and that stuff sets me off quite a bit more than it should. 

So today, while standing in line at the kiosk I remembered that and headed off to tour the campgrounds. This time the unthinkable happened, the nice people there when I got back were taking my site! I did have a couple of backups, but I hadn’t spent much time thinking about them so I made a bad choice. I took stupid site 71 instead of nice, private site 64. Oh well.

I made the best of it and it was not a big deal, but I sure was annoyed with myself. Hung out for the rest of the mid-afternoon, then headed back to Fort Bragg. I had a vague notion of watching the first Thursday Night Football game somewhere, but the notion of a Fort Bragg sports bar seemed pretty depressing, so I just watched for a while on my phone in the Trestles parking lot. Youtube TV is pretty cool for traveling.

Got takeout from Denny’s of all places. It was about what you’d expect. They packed three forks, 8 ketchups, 6 mustards, and other stupid plastic stuff, and I wish I had just left it all on the counter, because I felt bad putting it all in the trash/recycling.

Back at stupid site 71 I angled the van away from my neighbors and risked back strain by wrestling my picnic table a few yards closer to my site than my neighbor’a, and endeavored to enjoy my Denny’s sandwich.

It is almost full moon, so 9:30-ish I headed out for a moonlight walk to the beach. It was a solid but not spectacular moonlight experience. The basic surreality of being out in an open space lit entirely by moonlight really appeals to me. That’s really why I do it.

Friday

Back to town for my Headlands Coffehouse hit, a coffee and refill and a delightful slice of cheesecake. Then I returned to the dispensary that caught my eye yesterday, to get some gummies for the show I think I will go to next Saturday (a week from tomorrow). Stay tuned for more on that!

I’ve run out of things to do in town, so … time to go. Drive back north past MacKerricher for the final time, on my way (I thought) to Richardson Grove.

North of Fort Bragg Route 1 winds through another 30-40 miles of relatively undeveloped coast, then it heads up and over the first set of mountains to merge onto Route 101. I was puttering along towards the end of that coastal run when I saw a sign for Abalone Point.

Researching this trip I remember seeing that name on the mapping app as a state park. The Google machine had nothing on it. The closest was a place in northern Oregon, so didn’t give it another thought.

But here I am, bopping along up the coast highway planning to stop an hour from now, and there was a sign for Abalone Point! With my lightning reflexes, I took a quick left and found myself entering a standard Pacific Coast coastal mesa like many others from Baja to Eureka. It was cleared off and fenced in, with the usual campground information board and payment kiosk, a couple of pit toilets and a few RVs scattered around the edges. Because of the utter lack of amenities it was $35/33 instead of the usual $45/43.

The decision to go no further and just plant myself here was pretty easy. I have food for the night and there is a sweet little corner spot right there waiting for me, so Point Abalone it is!

Turns out the old coast road, very old from the looks of things, runs along the west side of the campground. There’s an aging fence, a little ditch, then overgrown asphalt stretching off in both directions.

I eventually walked both directions. My excellent little spot is in the southwest corner, so after settling in I followed it south as far as I could. That turned out to be just a few hundred yards. After about 1/3 of a mile, the weeds on both sides were higher than my head when a ravine cut the road in two. The road/trail continued on the other side just like nothing happened, but there was no obvious way to get there.The weeds were very thick, and the ravine ran up the hill out of sight.

It was a bright, sunny, hot day, so I did my trick of parking the with van the big door facing east to have shade in the afternoon. Later, when the heat and glare have abated I reverse the orientation to face west for the perfect sunset view.

Later on I go through the same hole on the fence and little bridge over the ditch and take a right this time to explore the road going north. Since I’m camped at the south end, that means I first walk along the length of the campground, which was interesting in itself. For some reason all the big rigs were camped at the north end. I walked another half mile or so. I ran out of daylight and motivation, but I got the feeling that this road actually went somewhere. There were no eight foot tall weeds, so there were great views into cove ahead.

Full moon is supposedly tonight, but in fact moonrise here was a little after sunset. It was a creepy looking red. Must be wildfire smoke out there somewhere. Later, in the middle of the night, the moon was higher and not red. It was so bright out there that it was like black and white daylight. Loved it!