“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth”
~Buddha
The Central Coast is relatively unspoiled….
Although it’s been travelled and lived in for thousands of years…. it still seems very rural
But you can count on the fact that you’re not likely to go anywhere that no one else has ever been….
Unless you’re an extreme climber or diver.
‘Second Hand’
~Bachman-Turner Overdrive~
No reason to get excited
But I feel a change blowin’ in the wind
Everythin’s filled with confusion
So let’s start the world over again
And get it second hand, slightly used, soiled
Get it second hand, carelessly abused, spoiled
I see you’re looking to find new horizons
But there are footsteps everywhere you go
And somebody else has been asunder
The sunshine has wilted and crawls?
I’ll get it second hand, I’m dazed and confused
Turn back the second hand, I pay all my dues
I got rid of my dues and I’m all fixed up
Watch me talk about it,
Second hand, yeah used, second hand
I got it second hand, all used up
The rain has kept the creeks and ephemeral streams running. The water level in the ground has probably gone up… this is very important in a low-rainfall area such as ours.
Tao Teh Ching
Chapter 8
The highest goodness is like water.
Water effortlessly benefits all things without struggling.
It is content to flow to the low places that people scorn.
In this way water is in accordance with the Tao.
Therefore:
In dwelling, live close to the Earth.
For the mind, depth should be sought.
In conflict, be fair and righteous.
In government, self-mastery, competence and timing is preferred.
The sage does not strive,
Therefore no one can strive against him.
The local tarantulas come out of their burrows every fall….
There are a couple of roads known for waves of tarantulas roaming across and down the road… one local surf-spot is called ‘Tarantula Point’ due to the number of spiders seen there.
We know they are males in search of a mate. They time their searches with the coming of rain, so that the eggs have the proper humidity levels.
I’ve held many tarantulas through the years…. some of them will walk from hand to hand, and can be shown to other people to show them they really have nothing to fear from these VERY interesting little creatures. Tarantulas do you no harm, there is no need to fear or to kill them. Only once have I been bitten by one.. and it was a hurt spider that had one leg stuck forever pointing at the sky…. our cats found it and were using the stuck leg as a handle with which to pick the spider up and run with him until he grabbed at them and scared them enough that they’d drop him… then they’d run back and pick him up again and toss him. I took him from the cats to rescue him…. he sat on my hand… that one leg pointing at the sky… his big fangs came out (they are surprisingly large and a shocking violet hue)…. his fangs gently stroked backwards along my skin three times, then he rared his head back, and brought down his head driving the fangs into my skin…. the entire time I was transfixed watching his actions… and when the fangs began their journey into my skin I shook him off… I suffered no injury other than two pinholes which each exuded one drop of blood apiece, like a miniature vampire bite.
The California Coast can often build up a huge bank of fog… this fog will roll inland until the heat of the day dissipates it. In our case it finds entry into the canyon through the narrow mouth…. one can awaken in the morning in the canyon to a beautiful blue sky with a bright sun, unimpaired by fog… then a short drive to the mouth of the canyon and you are presented with a hundred foot high fog-bank…. it’s lights-on for the next few hours along the coast!
“My thoughts expand and flourish on this most barren hill…” ~Thoreau
In the summertime we get a regular weather phenomenon known as a ‘marine layer’ that appears in the later afternoon. This brings in a layer of moist wet foggy low-clouds that roll in from the sea. By late afternoon the fog has reached inland enough to blot out the sun. While this might seem a disadvantage… actually, when other places are broiling in the summertime, our coastal areas can have very nice and cool temperatures. And in wintertime, we often have much sunnier weather than we do in the summertime…. go figure!
At any rate…. the spread of this fog layer normally extends only to the first row of hills that are a prominent feature of the landscape along much of the California coast. The relatively flat areas between the hills and the sea are known as a ‘Coastal Plain’. The Coastal Plain is heavily influenced by the moderating of the sea. In the winter time, the relatively warm waters keep the coastal plain a bit warmer than the hill areas and inland deserts. In the summertime, the relatively cool waters will keep the coastal plain area from being too hot.
We live inland beyond the coastal range of hills. So while we have clear skies in general, we can often look at the hills along the coast and see the fog backed up on the coastal side.. trying to reach over the hills. When it does, it slides down the low spots (saddles) and drifts down like a stream… slowly the warmer drier inland environment will break up the mist and vaporize it… you can watch as it slowly dissipates and turns into a vapor and drifts off into the air…. vaporizing and disappearing as it drifts….
They say that each Hydrogen and each Nitrogen, and each Oxygen molecule has been around the world a number of times…. been breathed into and out of the lungs of great numbers of people and animals in the last billion or so years….. each of these molecules is something that is, was, and will be. Eternal as matter can be.
The fog creeps in from the sea, behind the grassy knoll
Big Sky
Fog
Panorama from the Rivenrock Cactus Plantation
Fog creeps over the Coastal Hills in California
The importance of this fog layer cannot be discounted. The fog keeps the local dry environment cool enough so plants transpire less, it reduces soil moisture loss, and as a great bonus, the fog often leaves the plants wet with dew by morning. This dew and fog being caught by the plants and dropping to the ground gives the local environment a bit of moisture in the heart of an otherwise dry summer.
The Scorpion is as black as soot,
He dearly loves to bite;
He is a most unpleasant brute
To find in bed at night.
I found this fellow running across my desk in the house today.
Luckily I had my mug to trap him, so I could take him outside.
Scorpion
Paruroctonus silvestrii …. These are the common little scorpions here in California.
They are not terribly poisonous… I’ve been stung by one once….
It feels like a nail has been driven into your skin. It really hurts….
The local site of my strike suffered a necrosis…
in ten days I had a small half pea-sized chunk of skin and meat slough off, leaving a half-healed crater in my finger. But it grew back in OK.
I got stung while digging a hole and not wearing gloves..
always wear your protective gear… if I’d had strong gloves on, I’d not have been stung….
just like when the tarantula or the Black Widow bit me… gloves would have been nice then too! LOL
Scorpion
Click to embiggen,
you can see the hairs on this dude.
A Scorpion, Paruroctonus silvestrii
I let him go in the front yard… which is just a weed-whacked wilderness really.
We have deer and quail wandering daily in the front yard….
We see tarantulas and scorpions and rattlesnakes here often enough….
there’s no need to run this guy a mile away to ‘release’ him….
but when I got close to take his picture… he got shy and curled up, all scared
when I backed the camera off he’d jump up and start to run away.
A Scorpion
Yeah, he’s a pretty nice looking little animal.
He reminds me of a lobster
Our lobsters here in California don’t have big claws….
These guys hold their prey with their claws.. and their stinging tail comes up and over their head… they will push the spike into their prey… it pushes in and holds there… you can see they will often make several little pushes to fully embed the stinger.
When I got stung, it happened very quickly….
I think in my case it just wanted to give me a ‘short, sharp shock’ so I’d know I was crushing it while digging bare-handed in the soil. In the case of a bug that it captures, it has the ability to hold and restrain the prey animal while it very deliberately injects its poison to maximum effect.
Dinosaur Caves is a small little section of beach-cliff in the Shell Beach/Pismo Beach area of the Central Coast of California.
If you’ve ever been to Lagos Portugal… you’ll recognize similar features… but Portugal has warmer and clearer water.
The rock strata and the waves have created an ever-changing landscape of eroded cliffs and caves and holes underneath them.
Caves and arches can be seen aplenty.. but since it is so difficult and precarious to navigate on the rocks, one does not see the full beauty of the cliffs from above them, looking down.
We rented some kayaks from Central Coat Kayaks in Shell Beach. They have a full range of various types and sizes of kayaks and paddleboards. They like to get people started early in the mornings to avoid the wind. We tend to get very windy in the afternoons.
The caves are interesting, beautiful. It seems like you’re in another world… one of National Geographic explorers, and strange exotic animals….. it’s really pretty cool to just drift like a piece of wood, right up near nesting colonies of birds, seeing seals and sea otters.
You have to be careful not to get so close that you disturb them… but they seem to be used to people drifting about in quiet boats….
The rocky cliff-side is pockmarked with caves of various sizes and depths. As you go along, you can envision how the coastline has changed through the millenia… some areas were obviously caves, but are now just narrow arches… soon to fall into the sea leaving only the posts on either side.
Kayaks in glassy water off Shell Beach
Pismo Beach @ Dinosaur Caves
Harbor Seals basking on rocks at Dinosaur Caves
The big arch at Dinosaur Caves
The big Cave at Dinosaur Caves
Kelp & Kayaks @ low tide
Kelp offshore at Dinosaur Cave, low tide
Arch at Dinosaur Cave
Kayaks inside one of the caves
Kayaks exploring Dinosaur Cave California
Kayaks on glassy water at Shell Beach
Pelicans on rocks at Dinosaur Caves California from the Kayak
Pelicans on rocks at Dinosaur Caves California
Pismo Beach from the sea
Shell Beach staircase to the sea
The Big Cave is really something to see. From shore you can see only the small hole that comes through to the land-side…
We all went through the cave…. you have to time it with the ocean swell so that the wave will pick your boat up and carry you over the rocks…. then you have to stop yourself and turn when the wave carries you through… because it crashes against the cliff on the other side…. it’s totally awesome and rad Dude!
One of the fellows even worked back against the tide through the big cave.. seemed like quite a feat to me..
We paddled into one of the caves that has two holes… most of the waves go into one hole, and with a great rushing and swirling turbulence, it rushes out the other hole…. it was really easy to get into the cave…. but getting out was a bit of a challenge…. I pushed the other fellow out, helping to guide his boat through the crashing surf…. helping to guide it in the narrow channel filled with rushing waters going every direction, and trying to carry the boat sideways to hang bow and stern on the rocks…. we got him started, and like a sluice… once he got to a certain spot, he was able to just zip right on through…. then I was next… alone.. it took three tries.. but third time’s the charm… like a dream the boat found its own way through the channel, and it looked like I knew what I was doing!
Kayaks are surprisingly easy to learn…. they are a pretty safe way to boat… much more stable than you’d imagine due to the low profile…. VERY shallow draft…. and Central Coat Kayaks will even give you lessons at their clinics and one-on-one lessons.
Get out there and have some fun.. and good clean water-sports are one of the best ways to experience life and maintain fitness.
We have Turkey Vultures in this area. They are pretty amazing animals….. they can eat dead animals felled by disease, and their systems can clean the disease out…. they are called the ‘trashmen of the wilderness’… they are a necessary component to our local eco-system.
They are also terribly pest-ridden creatures…. infested with little crawlies… and stinking really bad… really, really, really bad.
But I like them a lot…. they taste a bit like a cross between a Peregrine Falcon and a Spotted Owl! (Joke).
They are an amazing little creature to watch… they will sit high on a treetop or cliff waiting for the sun to cause the thermal updrafts that they ride so effortlessly…. a simple jump into the breeze… a short downhill glide to build air-current causing lift (the curves of the wings causes a vacuum that actually lifts the animal up), and the animal can turn into the updrafts… letting the upwelling column of air lift the bird up gradually… they must spin in circles inside this column of air….. each circle will bring them a bit higher than they were before…. all of this is done with just small ‘tweaks’ to the feathers… the birds can control some of the flight feathers giving small adjustments to balance and steering.
Amazing creatures really….
Incidentally… they have to take several running steps to build momentum for lift if starting off on the level ground. A Turkey vulture in a five foot pen cannot fly out due to this take-off restriction. I’d say a Turkey Vulture takes thirty feet horizontal-run to get six feet off the ground.
Turkey Vulture on a tree
I saw this Vulture in a tree over the creek…..
Turkey Vultures on a tree
Moments later a cousin (they nest in family groups) came to mess with him…..
They squawked for a few moments, then left off together to do some Vulture stuff I’d not understand.
