Mission Walk Part 2

End of week 2 at the Britt Festival in Jacksonville, Oregon. Our new conductor, Teddy Abrams, is inspiring and has injected the old masterpieces, much played, with new life and new ideas. He is a brilliant musician. Tonight we play a banjo concerto composed and performed by Bela Fleck. It is a lot of fun!

I have been hiking, played golf, and saw three excellent plays at the Oregon Sheakespeare Festival. My friend Carla and I even made it to the movies to see "Chef".

These are the three weeks I look forward to all year! Hope some of you will make up here for the rich offering of concerts and plays.

Second Blog

I am blogging thanks to my dearest daughter-in-law! I am getting ready to head out to my fabulous summer music gig in Oregon, the Britt Festival. Next pics will be from Oregon!!

California Mission walk (partial)

From June 20-23, I walked a total of 60 miles through the Salinas Valley and Monterey Peninsula to visit Mission Soledad and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo. It is a fraction of the 800 mile walk of all 21 California Missions.  If this interests you, read on.

Why did I do this? For years, because of my love of history, study of religions, and interest in church architecture I have had the idea of touring the California Missions.  Over a year ago, I read in Westways magazine about a book mapping a walking tour along the Camino Real (or as much of it that is not covered up by freeways) by Ron Briery, retired band teacher and veteran of the famous El Camino de Santiago in Spain. I bought the book, met Ron and his wife Sandy in Oregon last summer, and found travel writer Maggie Espinosa on the California Mission Walkers Facebook page. She lives in San Diego and is walking the whole  Camino in 4 day segments over 12 months and was looking for fellow walkers. So the stars aligned.

I am reasonably active but have never walked/hiked more than 10 miles. We were not going into the wilderness, however, so I knew if I could not do it I could catch a bus, train, or cab. Maggie was very helpful about what to take, properly broken in and well- fitting shoes being the most important.

So we left via Amtrak in San Diego at 6 am June 19. We changed trains in Los Angeles at my favorite train station and headed up to Salinas. We met fellow walker (peregrino or pilgrim) Genette in LA. She had walked El Camino in Spain and was interested in our adventure. Unfortunately, she joined us with a bad cough and only lasted the first day. 

We arrived in Salinas at 7pm and were met by our 4th walker, Sheryl, who had driven from San Luis Obispo. So we did have a car which was both handy and somewhat confusing vis a vis dropping off, walking, etc. We all decamped at a very nice Best Western PLUS (no less) in Salinas and had a good getting- to- know- each other dinner. None of us, except Maggie and me, had met before. 

By 7 am the next morning we were on the road to Soledad where Maggie had left off walking last month. We left the car in a strip mall parking lot and set out along the vegetable fields of the wide Salinas Valley, heading north, basically following 101 and the railroad tracks. Walking along the dirts roads abutting the fields was most ideal. Having to walk along the frontage road at times with iffy shoulder width was not ideal.

We saw alot of broccoli, lettuce and even asparagus. Farmworkers were out picking the crops and the one we actually had any contact with were quite friendly. In fact, everyon we encountered was friendly and at leat mildly interested in what we were up to. 

We walked through the charming farm community of Gonzales and had a wonderful meal at a newly opened Italian restaurant. A previous peregrino had had a trip book printed for the CMWs to get stamps, business cards, and signatures of the Missions and the places we stopped to eat and sleep. So we presented those booklets along the way and sparked interest.

The afternoon was more of the same. We walked past young farmworkers hoeing weeds. We got separated as Genette was slowing down and I slowed my usual quick pace to hang back with her as I knew she was not feeling 100%. Thanks to cell phones, I could keep in touch with Maggie and Sheryl and know we were all literally on the same path.

A side note about the "Path". We followed a mixture of Ron's route and a more recent route of Jim and Craig, two walkers who were a week ahead of us. The great thing about this walk is that people can refine or gear it to their own interests, time constraints, and fear levels as needed.

We ended our first day in Chualar, another farming town about 10 miles south of Salinas. Then we took a local bus back to out starting point in Soledad to the car. We did drive to the Mission Soledad, southwest of the town, as we had not actually started walking there but we wanted to see the Mission, of course.

The Mission is small, and not the original building. The lady at the gift shop was expecting us! Beautiful gardens everywhere. I will not go into detail or history of these Missions as the purpose of this missive is the WALK! That first day we walked 15.5 miles.

Another side note about weather. It was perfect, surprisingly so.

We returned to our motel, showered, and found another pretty good restaurant in Salinas. Sadly for me, as much as I walked, I ate enough to keep up those calories I lost. No weight loss on this trip for me! 

Up early again on Saturday. Only Maggie and I walked today as Genette headed back to Pasadena with her worsening cough, and Sheryl, the most atheletic of the 4 of us (marathon runner, also El Camino de Santiago walker) was recovering from foot surgery so needed to take a day off.  Sheryl drove us to Chualar where we left off and Maggie and I headed out of town!

Interesting to walk through these really sweet little towns and then just head into the fields. We saw  a lot more lettuce today. We were walking east of the 101 and heading toward the eastern edge of Salinas. We were faced with deep and wide irrigation ditches which we had to creatively cross and at one point my years of dance paid off as we made a big leap across some water. One rather sad and a bit frightening thing - we saw many signs in English and Spanish along the fields, "Danger, Pesticides". The most ironic juxtiposition was that sign next to another field proudly advertising that it was an organic field! We wondered how organic their produce could be right next to pesticided produce. We watched a whole "assembly line " of farmworkers picking, washing, and packing romaine lettuce. 

We knew, thanks to Maggie's GPS, that when we neared the Salinas airport we were close to our destination. We walked on to eastern Salinas, where Sheryl picked us up and we had a lunch break in a Salinas sports bar and then spent a little time in the very fine Steinbeck Museum. 

After that, Maggie and I walked for another hour or so west through Salinas out of town towards the Monterey Peninsula. One busy street was a little hairy to cross. But we patiently waited for traffic to clear and walked on across more fields. We did get into very slippery mud at times when we walked along freshly watered fields. But no one fell or twisted anything. We covered 15.5 miles.

Sheryl once gain picked us up and we drove to that night's resting place, the lovely and welcoming home of Bob and Theresa in Monterey. Bob had walked parts of the trail in a Franciscan Friar's robe. He and Theresa are extremely interesting, kind, and generous people. 

Sheryl, Maggie, and I went to Mass Saturday evening at the Carmel Mission. They are both Catholic. I am a Presbyterian and have not been to Catholic Mass in very long time.  I found the kind informality at the Mission to be very welcoming and even felt invited to take communion, although Sheryl later told me that non Catholics were not supposed to partake. Just following my conscious. We wandered a bit around this very beautiful Mission and acknowledged the burial place of Father Junipero Serra at the altar. 

After mass, we took our hosts and their college student daughter to a new and very good (I thought) restaurant in Monterey. We had a very good getting to know each other dinner then wound our way back to our comfortable resting place for the next two nights at Bob and Theresa's "granny flat", or casita. 

Sunday morning did not seem like Sunday as I usually go to church that day, but we took care of that Saturday evening. Sheryl,  drove the car to our stopping point for the day just east on Monterey. We took a cab to the starting place, at the eastern edge of Fort Ord National Monument. This is where our climb across the coastal range into Monterey would take place! I had been wondering and watching these small mountains, actually rolling hills, with some trepidation and wonder. Fort Ord  National Monument has a series of very well marked trails through the golden grass and dark green scrubby oaks that dominate so much of central California and southern Oregon. We picked up a good map at the entrance to the park and made good progress. Today we had no restaurant for lunch so we ate our trail snacks on the move. We met two hikers who were both considering the El Camino in Spain. It is so easy to strike up conversations on the trail. Today felt truly like hiking. The elevation gains were only mildly strenuous. 

Early in the afternoon we came upon the Laguna Seca Raceway. We had been hearing the distant roar of Porsche engines for some miles. As we descended to the racetrack, we searched for the route around the track and on to a road taking us into Monterey. A time keeper(?) at the track could not help us, but did tell us the road we were looking at was a county road. So we figured, even though there was a locked gate and fence between us and said road, it was still public property. We managed to actually climb the fence, which was possibly 7 feet high. It was a bit terrifying, but I did not suffer any torn ligaments as I dropped to the other side and my leg stayed up on the fence in possibly the best split I have ever done. We found our way around the racetrack, with great views of the cars. We had to maneuver around a few more fences, but that involved sliding under or around, not climbing over. 

On the other side of the racetrack we went down hill as Monterey Bay and the Monterey airport became visible  through the marine layer. The road was actually closed to vehicle traffic and bordered the southern perimeter of Fort Ord which was closed to the public because of live munitions. It was nice to have a wide paved road to ourselves. We got to our cross street and then only another mile or so to our parked car.  Back to dinner and our comfy casita. We did 17 miles this day, but it felt glorious and the Laguna Seca adventure was quite a diversion.

Monday was our last day and the day we went to the Carmel Mission. Theresa opted to hike with us and it was great to have her as she is a warm and interesting woman and she knew the route! A great thing about walking is that a lot of good conversation happens. 

Sheryl and Theresa dropped Sheryl's car at the Mission, then they came back to the house to get Maggie and me. So we climbed in the car to...oops! we almost forgot we were supposed to be walking! So we went back to the house and began our walk. 

Through Monterey along a bicycle path on Highway 1 took us to the Highway 1 gate of the famous 17 Mile Drive. This was beautiful but a little scary as there was little or no shoulder in many places and a lot of poison oak. We left 17 Mile Drive at the Carmel Gate. From there we walked to Ocean Avenue, the main street through Carmel, down to Carmel Beach. Our reward! White sands with the famous cypress trees between sand and the scenic road. We walked along the hard sand on the beach until we came to  Scenic Drive which took us past the Butterfly House, tidepools, the Carmel Mission Ranch, and finally, about 1:00, the Mission itself. Completion!

After a somewhat celebratory lunch at the Rio Grill Maggie and I went on to start the beginning the next leg of her July walk from Monterey to Marina. Sheryl headed back to SLO. Our mileage that day was a mere 12.5 miles.

Wildlife! Nothing scary like snakes, in spite of the warning signs in Fort Ord. We saw a lot of birds, a few squirrels, only one deer.

We ended our last evening at "Yappy Hour" at the historic Cypress Inn in Carmel. The Inn is owned by Doris Day and is openly pet friendly. Since Maggie has recently written a book about pet friendly hotels in Southern California, The Pampered Pooch, it was important for her to visit and be a guest at the Cypress Inn. Yappy Hour featured wonderful dogs, standard poodles, Irish Setters, pugs, Chihuahuas and their owners. Our hosts Theresa and Bob brought Dralion, their standard poodle.

After a very restful night at that fabulous Inn, we headed back to Salinas to catch the train home. I had to take one last stroll to the Carmel Beach before we left. Good antidote to the long train ride home. Because of the expected delays, we missed our connection to San Diego from LA and were bused home.

My feelings about the adventure? I could have kept walking. I am inspired to do the El Camino in Spain. I discovered I am a walker. I found beauty in the mundane  repetitiveness of the early part of the walk. I let myself be open to people and experiences. Sometimes I had to make a conscious effort to do that. I was vastly rewarded. I just got home last night and I felt more than doing anything else today, compelled to put this all down in words.

If you got to the end of this, thanks for reading. Questions and comments are welcome.