Camping in October! I love California!

A couple of weeks ago, Derek and I went camping at New Brighton State Beach in Capitola. Initially I'd been worried about the weather, thinking the nights would be chilly on the coast during mid-October. But I was proved wrong- we were walking around in swimsuits and even got in the water without much fuss. (In fact, we even got in the water in Santa Cruz this past weekend- October 25. This state ROCKS!)

The campsites were nice. The ones along the bluff overlooking the beach are absolutely gorgeous, and for that reason need to be reserved months in advance. Since we booked our site about two days before our arrival, we had a non-beach view. We were in site #7, a partially shaded area with pine trees and blackberries, much to Derek's delight, though we never got around to eating any.

A few sites down was the camp host, where firewood was for sale. After setting up our tent we took a walk over there to buy some wood. As we were paying, our neighbor across the way came bicycling over to us, all out of breath.

"Hey, are you guys in site number 7?" We nodded.

"Well, just wanted to let you know that a branch fell on your tent." We thanked him for letting us know. In my head I'm thinking, OK, so a branch fell on the tent. No big deal. We'll pick it up and move it, no problem. We walked back to our campsite relatively unconcerned.

Upon arrival, though, we realized that a very BIG branch had fallen on our tent. In fact, it was an entire TREE. An old pine, long dead and stripped of its needles, finally decided to keel over on top of our tent. The tent was still standing, just slightly indented where the weight of the tree fell across it. We thanked our lucky stars that neither one of us had actually been inside the tent at the time the tree croaked.

With the help of our neighbors, we were able to pull the tent out from under the tree and move it to another area of the campsite (where no dead trees were looming above). The tree itself was more or less unmovable, so we left it where it was. The ranger did offer to come over and remove it if it was in the way, or relocate us to another campsite, but by that time we'd already settled in and were eating dinner (Gardenburgers, baked potatoes and Top Ramen, in case you were wondering). The tree wasn't bothering us so we figured it was easier to leave it where it was.

Incidentally, the tent in question was purchased at Wal-Mart several years ago for about $25 and has proven to be quite sturdy and easy to put up. I'm not normally a fan of Wal-Mart, but they done good this time. The tent only suffered a few negligible tears.

The next morning we awoke to find the shore enshrouded in fog so thick that we could barely see past the breakers. The outline of a lone stand-up paddler was barely visible in the mist, a ghostly figure moving silently across the water. The tide was coming in so high that it became difficult to walk along the beach without getting wet. We spied the top half of a sea lion washed up on the shore, its bottom half lost to some predator. (Insert "Jaws" soundtrack here.)

Since we'd already paid for one state park and could be admitted to any other state park for the rest of the day, we also checked out Big Basin (always a favorite of mine) and Seacliff State Beach. At Big Basin I answered the caws of a raven in a tree and Derek finally spotted the elusive banana slug. The trip to Seacliff was my first and I enjoyed it very much- a long expanse of pristine beach with a nice boardwalk, and the old cement ship which now seems to be inhabited by birds. The beach also has a very nice gift shop- great place to pick up marine field guides and coloring books.

I'm trying to get in all the beach time I can before surgery on November 4. I'm not sure how well crutches work in the sand. I have a feeling I'm going to find out.