[Bill Menke’s Journal; 2016 California Trip, December 11-20, 2016].

[December 18, 2016; Old Coast Trail, north] The Old Coast Road is a ten mile loop off of the Route 1, the main highway that parallels the Pacific coast. We arrived at the north end, at Milepost 0.0, at about 9:AM on a sunny. The parking lot is opposite the overlook by the Bixby Bridge. It is wide and decently maintained one land road that snakes up into the hilly country west of Route 1. Most of these hills are have only grass or scrubby vegetation, except for the valleys, which are wet enough to support trees, including Coast Redwood.

The road climbs steeply for the first mile, following the north side of the valley, and offers good views of the Pacific Ocean, the high arch of the Bixby Bridge and Bixby Creek. The view down into the valley is also interesting, for unlike the scrubby hills by the road it is full of trees and tall bushes (as well as people’s houses). We examined many wild flowers growing along the roadside. They occur only sparsely along the road but are colorful and beautiful. The road then descended sown into the valley, crosses the creek via a steel bridge, and then ascended up the other side. Like many of the valleys of Big Sur, the more shaded north side has the more luxuriant vegetation. We soon encountered Coast Redwoods, many with old trunks that bore the scars of past fire, and some with broken or wind-shaped crowns. We walked among them, in the shade, for more than a mile, as the road wound slowly uphill following a small creek. We crossed into the El Sur ranch about halfway up. The road has right of way through the ranch, and “Private - Keep Out, Trespassing and Loitering Forbidden by Law, El Sur Ranch” told us (rather too often) not to stray off it. The redwoods thinned as we approached the crest of the hill and were replaced first by Aspen and Oak and then by scrub. The view from of the top of the hill, looking west down the valley of the Little Sur River towards the brilliantly-blue sea, was extraordinary. We then began a long descent as the road made many tight switchbacks. The same local resident as we had met yesterday drove by in his pickup, and we chatted with him for a few minutes.

We had lunch by the same rocks as yesterday, at milepost 5.3. I made tea on my MSR PocketRocket stove and then fried eggs in a tiny aluminum pan. The sun was brighter than yesterday, but the air a bit colder; nevertheless our spot against the road cut was comfortably warm. We headed back north after finishing up. A group of mountain bicyclists passed us just as we reached the summit. Both they and we began the long downhill trek, though of course they soon outpaced us.

The grade road turned uphill once we crossed Bixby Creek. I found this last mile and a half rather wearying and was glad when we finally reached the car. About six hours.