Mar. 22, 2005: San Luis Obispo and Los Padres National Forest

For the first half of our spring break, between visits from Phil Matchett and my brother Reid, Sarah, Huck, and I set off on a multi-day trek down the coast. After weeks of sunny weather, nature decided to play a cruel joke on us by enveloping the entire western United States in rain for our vacation. Resigning ourselves to camping in the rain, we abandoned our plan to visit the Lost Coast of northern California and instead headed south toward warmer climes. We stayed our first night in San Luis Obispo in a motel, as we were not quite ready to brave the storm, and it rained heavily that night. We had a noteworthy dinner at Golden China, where for $10, we got an all-you-can-eat buffet of crab legs, sushi, and other delicacies. I intend to go back. In the morning we stopped in at Luisa's Restaurant for breakfast, and loved the guacamole omelets so much that we detoured to visit it again on our way home some days later. After being weenies the first night, we decided to go ahead and brave the rain the next night. We continued south on 101 and 1 and set a beach camp at El Capitan, outside of Santa Barbara. That evening we hiked in Gaviota State Park. After a pleasant 6 mile hike, we found a natural hot springs, where we spent the remainder of the evening. We got back to our campsite after dark, cooked up some pasta, and went to bed. It drizzled a little bit, but not enough to soak through our tent. The next day we walk along State Street in Santa Barbara, caught a glimpse of the famous mission there, and then headed up past Los Olivos into Los Padres National Forest. We set up camp in Figueroa Campground--the prowling ground of a friendly dog we nicknamed Rosco. Rosco had no apparent owner, but wore several tags indicating that he was from Solvang (a town not too far away), so we assumed he wasn't too lost. I thought 'Solvang' sounded a lot like "Soul Fang"--a dog name to strike terror in the hearts of enemies--but Rosco couldn't have scared a mouse, so we were forced to invent a more prosaic moniker. The wildflowers in Los Padres were in full bloom, and entire hillsides were coated in lupine purple. Unfortunately, my camera broke, so I scoured the web for pictures of Mt. Figueroa & Santa Barbara Wildflowers to find the ones you see. After hiking up Mt. Figueroa for the sunset, we turned in, and had the first dry night of spring break. The next day we delved deeper into the park and started a 10 mile hike from Nira Campground up the Lower Manzana Creek Trail. The creek was flooding, and we had to wade back and forth across the stream during the hike. Huck seemed to be faring well, so we strapped some saddlebags on him and forced him to carry his fair share of the food. He bore his burden amicably. The scenery was beautiful, and the trail kept going, although we had to turn back. We may come back here to do a multi-day backpacking trip. That night we headed back toward San Luis Obispo and stayed in a motel again. It poured hard that night. Overall, we seemed to have had impeccable instincts when it came to avoiding the rain. We stopped at two wineries the next day, carefully choosing those which seemed least pretentious. Our first visit was to a winery featuring a family of 5 German Shepherds. Huck was nervous at first when this pack rounded the bend, but soon they were all getting along like old friends. Our next visit was to a winery bearing a Grey wolf on the label. After a pleasant afternoon tasting wine while it rained outside, we decided to head home, rather than camp that night (it rained again) or spend the money for another motel. Overall, it was an excellent trip.