Relaxing on the Central Coast

Summer is over and school has started. It was time for a quick trip up the Central Coast for some R & R. Summer was an extra busy time at our house. My wife really needed a couple of quiet days to relax. We decided that the Pismo Beach area would fit the bill just right.

Caching on the Pismo Beach Pier

While the purpose of the trip wasn’t to do any heavy geocaching, we checked the GPS along the way from time to time.  The first find of the trip was The Wardholme Torrey Pine in Carpinteria.  I’ve tried this cache before, but it was very hard to find because it wasn’t there.  My friend, Curtis of TheMboys replaced the cache in July.  Much easier to find when they are there.

“Pelican Rock” in Seal Beach

We enjoyed a walk on the Pismo Beach Pier before dinner.  I wondered if the pier was home to any caches.  Sure enough, Scale Down was a nice, well hidden cache on the pier.  So well hidden that I almost DNFed it.

After dinner, we enjoyed watching the pelicans come off the ocean to roost for the night.  A couple of rocks were covered with pelicans early in the evening, but the pelicans kept coming, sometimes as many as 40 in a flock.

Spooner’s Cove in Montana de Oro State Park

Thursday morning, we explored Montana de Oro State Park.  I was surprised with the fee situation.  There wasn’t any.  At home, if we get close to a state park, we need to be prepared to pay for parking.  It was a pleasant surprise not to have to shell out for parking.

Spooner’s Cove was a very nice stop.  The Spooner Ranch House cache was up the hill from the beach.  I was a bit worried about the poison oak.  I was wearing shorts and sandals, not the best get up for geocaching in poison oak area.

Sandspit Beach

I also cached in the Sandspit area.  Here, the geology was completely different than at Spooner’s.  While Spooner’s was rocky, Sandspit was, well, sandy.  There was a series of 6 caches along the trail to the beach and along the beach.  I went for four of them and didn’t feel like walking though the sand for the other 2.

All in all, I found 16 caches, between Carpinteria and Cayucos.  The primary purpose of the trip was met—we had a very nice, relaxing couple of days.