LuV

Hello, world :)

Quite the journey it has been so far,

I feel my energy coming full circle

Grassy heads staring at stars,

Naked bodies swimming as turtles

Last I wrote I was in a peculiar state, I was amidst an unfamiliar mental drift, mind feeling active yet reserved, reminding me to learn from the experience, but not to forget the road is calling.

I am writing now from a state park along the ~~Big Sur Coast~~ feelings of wizardry and the energy of nature have begun to swirl about in my mind, playing with my thoughts and stimulating them. I am happy, content, I am moving with the flow and listening to its beautiful babble.

Blessed be thy journey, travel well and be peaceful

Here begins a summary of the last week out on the road~~~~~ 

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Leaving Santa Barbara last Sunday I headed for my father's home in Santa Ynez, overall the ride was easy, but climbing the San Marcos pass is always a workout, especially with the load I'm bringing along. The valley was beautiful and I really enjoyed my stay with my dad, Laura, and Henry the pup. I was on the road again, still with family, but the wheels were moving and I could feel things settling back into road life.

        The following morning I made for San Luis Obispo, a ~70 mile ride, which is quite long for me. The ride was smooth, and I had a nice place to stay when I arrived. I lodged with my brother's girlfriend's sister (got all that?) Amber and her boyfriend Blake. Knowing that they were a young busy couple, I didn't expect any feasting to be going on during the work week, but lo and behold it just so happened that friends and family were visiting and there were several helpings of a delicious quinoa salad for me to munch on. I relaxed in SLO for one day (sidenote: I went to Cal Poly SLO in 08 for a year), cruised around town, stopped in at the Conway's (brother's girlfriend's fam) for some SUPER DELISH granola, and then chitchatted with my roommate Brian from 2008.

       After the relaxing stay in SLO, the real trip mentality returned as I headed away from the familiar towns, up north towards Big Sur. The first night brought me to San Simeon state park where I met the two awesome brother I would end up spending the next 3 days with. I had actually bumped into Nitai and his brother Rom while cruising around SLO the day before, and I was happy to see them in the hiker biker campsite, my only other fellow campers. We got to know each other, talked about this and that (mostly food), and enjoyed the beautiful beach.

      The next day I inched up the coast to a lovely campground called Kirk Creek, the hiker biker spot is separated from the other campgrounds and overlooks the ocean on top of a cliff. There is a beautiful trail down to the water, where I climbed up on one of the huge rocks and watched the sun set. There was also a beautiful girl, named Tonya, who wandered about with hemlocks...

      Kirk Creek left me thirsty, there was no sanitary water, and my supply was low, so I set off early the next day. I loaded up on water in Lucia, and charged myself up on bars and apples to make it to Julia Pfeiffer (the main campgrounds in Big Sur). The ride was quite short, though there were some good climbs, and the vistas were incredible going along the coast. I got set up in the campgrounds and set out for some adventuring. I brought my bike with me because it took so long to walk around the campgrounds (it's a HUGE park) and started riding it up one of the trails. It took me a while to understand that miles are much different when you're carrying a bike up a narrow trail by foot than when you're cruising along paved road at 20mph. I ditched my bike a little past halfway up because there was nobody else doing the trail at that time of day and if there was, they probably didn't want to carry a bike all the way down. I jogged the remainder of the path and reached the peak where there was a beautiful view of the ocean. I got naked and soaked up some of the last sun rays, getting in tune with my body before embarking on the journey back down. I ended up riding a fair portion of the trail on my road bike, which was silly, but super fun, it was crazy to go along the dirt path and just see an ocean of redwood trees beneath me (although there was a river full of alligators as well, the PCH).

      I stayed another day at the same park with Rom and Nitai, and met plenty of other travelers. I had an incredible day hike/swim up the river and feasted that evening on some good, real food, followed by some great sleep. This morning I got up, started packing and said my goodbyes, to my traveling friends and to the forest and the wilderness, as I made my way to civilization.

      I am currently relaxing in Seaside, just North of Monterey, with a lovely young couple from warmshowers. They are experimenting with delicious dried foods to get ready for their epic 3 week backpacking trip. I must say, their lentil soup is quite tasty, as is my newly acquired almond butter, and bread, and raisins, and all of the food I've been able to acquire in the city after having it taken away in wilderness! YUM YUM FooOOOD!

     In the morn I continue North to Santa Cruz, probably staying for one night, but perhaps more, after Santa Cruz I intend to head into the red woods of Big Basin to get in touch with my wild side before I enter the city life of San Francisco. This will be a true test to see how well San Fran resonates with me, if I still like it in contrast to beautiful nature, then it is truly a city with a place in my heart.

    I have not been taking any pictures as of late, but I have been spending a nice chunk of spare time working on my music, I will add below a clip of the new project I began working on in San Luis, and continued to play around with throughout Big Sur. This project represents reaching the point of creating all of my own sounds, which is incredibly freeing, even though my databank is so small. This is also my first time experimenting with vocals, which is fun :)

Enjoy your life ~ I love you