Day Eight: Los Padres Dam and then down US Hwy 101

I camped out on Franklin Street in Monterey, the steep road up to the Presidio of Monterey.  It was quiet until around 6:30am, when traffic rushed up the hill for morning PE with the troops.  I do not miss army PE.  It took another half hour for traffic to subside enough for me to drive up to the Presidio to shower at the gym. I got to see the sun rise from a parking lot overlooking the bay.

I didn't recognize anyone this time at the facility.  The last time (when I was here with Sadie in 2011), a woman I worked with on occasion was at the front desk of the gym.  She was there in 2000 when I left to move to New Jersey and was there in the early 2010s because she said she didn't make enough money to retire yet.   I don't know how anyone can live in California (especially along the coast) and live comfortably unless they were in software development, IT, or cyber security.

I walked around the upper PX minimall and area while Zeke stayed in the car.  The muledeer known to loiter on the presidio were grazing in the grass right off the parking lot and I didn't want him chasing them.  The Subway/ Papa John's eatery is still in the snack bar area of the PX .  Looks like more construction is going on behind the PX, and a new barracks named in honor of a soldier killed in Afghanistan is now part of new housing.  The rest of the presidio looks the same.  I drove around the presidio one last time before heading out the Taylor gate to Pacific Grove.  I wanted to have a bagel at the new Bagel Kitchen and walk around the old neighborhood.

The bagel shop had a consistent flow of customers while I sat against the side wall watching the employees and eating my blueberry bagel with strawberry cream cheese and sipping a decent cappuccino.  This little breakfast cost me $7.50.  An employee told me the Bagel Kitchen has been here for 2.5 years, buying the location when the owner of the former Bagel bakery sold his business.  The interior is roomy and brighter, the old couch in the front room replaced by a heavy wooden farm table.

I finally got on the road by noon.  I still had plenty of time to stop and take short hikes along the way.  This way I won't have to rush on Sunday.

I headed toward Carmel Valley, passing Garland Ranch park and turning south on Cachagua Road toward Los Padres Dam.  Nothing of this road looked familiar, not even Cachagua Community Park where I parked the Honda to walk the last 1.3 miles on a rutted road to the dam.

The dam is managed by the California Water agency, but hikers are allowed to go through the gate and head toward the dam where the trails begin.  There were only official vehicles parked in the trailhead parking area, but I figured people were busy working.  I would have the trail all to ourselves!

I was thus disappointed to see that the side of the dam where the trail begins was fenced off.  It looked like a landslide has completely destroyed the access road to the  Carmel River.  There was no mention of this on the Ventana Alliance website, which publishes trail updates from hikers.  The river is prone to flood and suffer repeated landslides. This is my second attempt to hike this trail in eight years.  When the river is calm, this is a beautiful lush trail to secluded backcountry.  It was one of the last hikes I did before moving from the area to New Jersey.

The dam looked to be at capacity.  Water was overflowing the spillway.  We walked down to the creek but didn't stay long.  At least we got a three-mile jaunt out of this endeavor.  The area is pretty,
but I would not want to be in the canyon during a heavy rain, as there were signs of recent landslides in the area.

I continued my drive on a county road going southeast. This is one of those narrow, scenic roads popular with bikers and cyclists.  Vineyards are hidden along this road, with stately mansions dotting hillsides.  A lot of wealth is in Carmel Valley.  This road eventually rejoins Carmel  Valley Road north of Greenfield and ends at US101. This is a small farming town and base to another pretty canyon, Arroyo Seco.  The cool weather and overcast skies did not look too promising, so I did not go to the park to see the canyon.  This will have to be on another visit in warmer weather.  I will always enjoy coming back to Monterey County.

Weather was warming up now that I was in the valley and away from the coastal area.  I stopped in King City for lunch at the Taco Bell and had to stop for a man chasing after what looked like two Maltese.  They were not his dogs.  He simply wanted to catch them and get them out of traffic.  Cars at the four-way stop sign all patiently waited for the dogs to run off the road and into the Taco Bell parking area.  I got out to help.  Both dogs looked badly matted.  I took one of Zeke's cans of wet food to lure the larger of the two dogs.  After a brief chase, the little dog collapsed, rolled over, and showed me her belly.  She let me pet her and pick her up.  She barked once in fear but didn't bite. No collar was on her and she was badly matted, with dried snot caked to the long hairs around her eyes.  The other dog ran off and the people who had been wanting to round the dogs up all went away.

The dog was also covered in fleas!  Lovely.  Employees from Taco Bell watching me told me I should just take the dog to the shelter.  Another employee said all shelters in Monterey are kill shelters.  I couldn't take her to a kill shelter.  She clearly had an owner at one time because she warmed up to me fast.  Zeke wasn't too happy losing his front seat to a matted, filthy dog, but he didn't protest.  He moved to the far back of the Honda and watched.

I ate a quick lunch and googled the King City shelter.  It's a small unmanned shelter one has to call to make an appointment.  I didn't have time for that.  My only regret is that I couldn't capture the other dog.  That other dog could have been the mother or a sibling, and now that dog would be even more stressed out losing that companion.

If this dog turned out to be a lost dog and someone claimed it, I'd just drive back to drop off the animal.  At least she was safe with me for a while.

I drove down to Paso Robles and stopped at the Firestone Walker Brewery right off US101.  That place is big!  The distribution center is also there.   This is the brewery that Eric and I both enjoyed very much when we stopped here in 2013.  The place was busy today as it was then.  This time I sat at the bar and enjoyed two wheat beers.

The little dog settled in nicely.  She stayed bundled up in my towel and dirty clothes the entire time, never wandering around the car or bothering Zeke.  I stopped one more time off Hwy 101 north of San Luis Obispo (SLO) at Cuesta Pass to get another mile in to make my four-mile quota, walking down the rutted Old Stage Coach Road to what looked like a former river bed.   This is very pretty country, and an area I've always considered the northern edge of Southern California.  I would have enjoyed staying here the night, but hiking here will have to be for another time, perhaps over my fall break when California is not so wet (but also when wildfires begin).  There are ridge hikes that start right off US101.

I had an hour of daylight.  I took CA166 south of SLO east toward I-5.  Staying on US101 would have taken me to the ocean, going too far west.  Gasoline is cheaper on I-5 than on US101.  I passed more luring trail heads like the Willow Springs trail, but couldn't stop.  I made it all the way to Palmdale and got a room at the Motel 6.  The first thing I did was bathe the little dog.  Her fur was oily and the water came out brown.  Good heavens!  But at least she was now flealess.  I cuddled with her to keep her warm, then fell asleep, only to wake up later when she peed next to me. Twice!