2015-06-16 Fort Ross to King City

I gathered the images displayed here during my drive from Fort Ross to King City. I got an early start out of Timber Cove and made my way down the coast to Bodega Bay, the town where Alfred Hitchcock made the 1963 classic “The Birds”. I decided to try a harbor view, and if found a somewhat

upscale joint that did not disappoint. The low tide was just starting to ebb. The clam diggers in the mudflats were winding up their morning harvest. The rafts of White Pelicans were just beginning theirs.

Continuing south I wanted to see Point Reyes and Tomales Bay. The coast highway heads inland from Bodega Bay only to loop back at Hamlet and Nick’s Cove. South of Point Reyes my GPS guidance system kept insisting I head inland, but I was my intent to hug the coastline as much as I could. The guidance system knew I was on my way to Santa Cruz and was pushing a faster agenda than I wanted, so I stuck to my guns. Eventually, when I begin to cross the Golden Gate I would have no more choice in the matter.

On my radar in the bay area was a pilgrimage to Maverick’s Beach near Half Moon Bay. This place became legendary in 1975 when a 17-year-old Jeff Clark began an affair with this place, where winter surf routinely reaches 25 feet, but can reach 80 foot crests. On his first venture into these waves Jeff’s buddy refused to go with him. Instead he offered to stay on shore and tell the authorities where to find his body.  No one would believe that California could produce big waves and in because of this Jeff had the place pretty much to himself until 1990 when surfers from Santa Cruz agreed to join him. Pictures began to leak out and then
surfers from all over the world wanted to find out about this place for themselves. On the day that I visited this place the waves were quite tame, perhaps 3 or 4 feet. Ah well, it wasn’t the right time.

Further south, the highlight for me this day was watching the kite surfers a few miles north of Santa Cruz ripping it up in the wind and waves. It looked most fun to me. I had to stop for a while and capture some of the fun in images.

The rest of the drive to King City was a grind with snarled bumper-to-bumper freeway torture.