The adventure continues

I had a couple of hikes planned for today. Those plans were scuttled by the weather. It’s not so much that I mind a slightly wet hike, it is more that I wanted to stay close to my car so as not to end up on the wrong side of a rockfall. The roads north of Lucia were relatively clear this morning (although see the image of a few rocks that accumulated overnight. CalTrans cleared all of the remaining debris this morning, but the rain started again at noon. So the morning activities changed to galleries (Hawthorne ) and lunch (Nepenthe ). Given the steady rain this afternoon, I’m spending it in my - admittedly very nice - room at Lucia Lodge. The sunrise photo was taken just outside my door.

Tomorrow will be another unanticipated adventure. In spite of the fact that Google maps says that the Hwy. 1 north of Lucia is closed and the Hwy. 1 south of Lucia is open, boots on the ground say exactly the opposite. The local information is that northbound stretch is “soft” opened and the southbound stretch will be closed for the foreseeable future. Like Hotel California, “You can check out any time you like but you can never leave.”

My original plan was to drive down Hwy 1 - Mountain View - Big Sur/Lucia - Malibu - San Diego. It looks like I will have to head back north (hopefully additional rockfalls will hold off) all the way up to Monterey and cut over to 101 to get down to Malibu. What was supposed to be a 4.5 hr. drive will now be a 6.5 hr. drive. The best laid plans ...