Ever Feel You're In a Movie?

It doesn't happen that often, but this evening I really felt like I was in a surreal scene of some movie.

I made my typical post morning run decision to go for a walk in the evening to stop my legs from seizing up and made my way down the hill toward the ocean.

On the penultimate downhill block before Lighthouse on Drake (Google Maps will help if you're not sure what I'm on about), there's a guy walking backwards up the hill on the same sidewalk I'm on.

He has his back to me and he looks like he's pulling something heavy up the hill, but as I get closer, I still can't see what it is he's pulling. He soon spots me as he glances over his shoulder and then he decides to cross the street.

As he turns, I see there's nothing he's pulling up the hill - it's either an optical illusion or he's a bit strange.

As he's about to cross the street, an older woman on a scooter turns on to the street and then proceeds to go uphill slower than I've ever seen a scooter move before without the rider putting their foot down or falling over.

I suspect she's new to scooterism and has it to save gas mileage, but if she continues to ride it that slowly, her hospital bills will soon be wiping out the gas savings.

Phantom heavy load guy is now in a dilema - he feels the need to get off the sidewalk I'm walking down, but he daren't cross the street as the slow motion scooter is still approaching.

I just smiled as I walked on down to the ocean - a very weird scene - and I forgot my camera for once too - damn!

Highway 1 Is Open

All roads around the Basin Complex fire opened today, so I decided to go check out the carnage for myself. The fire isn't out yet, but it's contained enough inland that the roads re-opened.

You can still see the smoke billowing up from inland when viewing from the coast at Monterey, with the smoke blowing more inland, but as you approach Big Sur, you see that the smoke is also blowing towards the ocean too.

In the first photo below, you can see the approach to Big Sur from Highway 1 - the smoke is still lingering on the hilltops and there is still a tanker 'copter on standby just in case.


It's quite amazing how far down the coast you can drive and still see fire damage - I turned around at Big Creek bridge, and I'd seen fire destruction (mainly in the distance) for a long time before I make the 180 degree turn.

Most of the parks in the Big Sur area re-opened in some state or other - Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park opened its waterfall trail - all the other trails were still closed due to fire damage. The next photo shows the hillside just south of the park, scorched by the fire.

Many of the scorched hillsides viewable from Highway 1 were very steep - I'd be immensely surprised if this winter doesn't record some sort of record for landslides in that area of Highway 1.


The following photo is a view looking north of the hills, whose tops were still smothered in smoke. Whilst I only smelt smoke a couple of times during the trip, there was ash in the air for most of the time - it was almost like light snow.


Finally, while at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park, I did take the one open trail - to check out the waterfall. The smoke in the upper atmosphere caused the sun to appear orange and actually gave the waterfall a nice orange glow - a small silver lining in an otherwise catastrophic incident.

Kaboom! - end of an era

Yes, after a couple of years expecting my bike to finally give out, today it did. The picture below shows how the chain snapped and took the spoke guard with it. That was the least of my problems as the chain stay piece of the frame bent also, so the derailleur was now stuck in the spokes too.

After 25 mins of repairing the chain and using brute force and ignorance to get the derailleur out of the spokes, I had a bike that would get me back to the car, albeit slowly stuck in one gear.


I've been tempted to get a new bike for a couple of years now, half expecting the current one to give out - given that (a) part of the frame bent, (b) the chain lost a link for the second time, (c) the wheel rim must just about be worn out, it became time to get a new bike. (a) is the biggest reason to get a new bike as opposed to repairing the current one - it was waay too easy to bend the frame back - time for a new bike!

In the interim, I have the old Marin bike - used as a trainer bike when I was rehabbing my wrist - it'll last me while I get a new MTB bike.

Independence Day

Monterey does Independence Day well, there's a parade down town finishing with a party in the grounds of Colton Hall, and then at night, a cool fireworks display over the bay.


This was my third 4th of July in Monterey, and I reverted to my original fireworks vantage point, the Lower Presidio, giving a great view of the fireworks over the bay with the two wharfs in the foreground and the lights of Seaside and the Monterey airport in the background.

The icing on the cake was the weather. Although the fog wasn't too far away (the higher fireworks were lighting up the fog), the weather was warmer than in previous years.

Monterey's Fishing Industry

This morning, whilst out running, I got to witness Monterey's fishing industry. I run up and down the municipal wharf as part of my regular route, and at the end of that wharf are the local fish wholesalers and the Abalone farm. I've seen fish in these stores before, but I've never seen them being unloaded before.

In the image below, emerging out of the morning mist and drizzle, you can see the Trionfo docked against the wharf unloading its catch.


The fish were being sucked out of the hold and on to a conveyor (see below) where the fish ended up in big plastic containers. There was a guy throwing lots of ice in with the fish and as soon as each container was full, a fork lift came in and loaded that container into the trailer of a waiting semi while the fish were now being deposited into the next container.


There was a large row of containers waiting to be filled and as I watched, the first semi was filled with containers and left the wharf. There were two semis waiting to take its place.

It was cool to see what's left of Monterey's fishing industry in full flow.