Week 7&1/2: WindandSea to Bird rock: a lesson in fractal geometry

I called today's walk "a lesson in fractal geometry, because on the map it did not look like we had far to go (1.5 miles), but on the ground it took forever (~ 2 hours). While we have normally been doing this on the weekend, we made an exception and did this segment on a wednesday afternoon.  The reason for this was the tides: Over the weekend the daytime tide was not expected to fall below 3 feet, whereas we needed a tide level closer to 0-1 feet if we were to have any chance of making it around these headlands.

I'm game, Let's do it!

The same stairs we came up on.

Return to Paradise

Arriving back at Windandsea, we found it a place transformed from what we had seen the previous Saturday.  The tide as clearly higher though on it way out, but more troubling was the waves.  Out the Northwest the surf run up the beach with chaotic vigor and I managed to get quite wet ~ 20 minutes into our walk down the shore from standing too close to the water.  It was not exactly warm today, but the ocean was still all right and we had sun for the moment.

The ocean is a bit more angry today.

"I roar!" The Ocean says.

Anita takes the high road and stays dry for the time being

Tide still low enough to expose some nice sculpted rock.

Always surfers

The locals consider this perfectly acceptable swimming weather.

Obligatory Selfie at Windandsea cabana!

Given how this leg of the journey I would not have been surprised to see vultures hovering above us.  But no, these were just seagulls

Rocks and Sand.

So far so good!  I'd say we're almost half way there . . .

So close yet so far

 So we hit our first sign of trouble at the south end of Windandsea.  There was a slipper rockface that lacked obvious hand holds.  The waves out of the northwest were buffeting against the cliff, making any attempt at passage treacherous.  Thinking there might be some workaround if we carefully timed it I found a ledge to stand on that may have worked in calmer seas, but today just placed me direcly in the path a sea splatter.

I took this picture just before getting whalloped by a waist high wave.

I think I remember a stairway back here somewhere . . .

On the left you may notice the first sighting
of Ocean Beach and Point Loma!

So we once again found ourselves in the neighborhood, a nice one at that, with fancy houses and fancier cars, until we reached the next access point.  Here I were treated to several sights.  Whereas we had for the time being left the our view of the North County Coastline, we now had our first views of Point Loma and the way south.  For all our struggles, this was one gem.

Ahh crap, forgot to charge the battery,  Honey can I borrow your camera?

This image captures both the embayment between La Jolla and Point Loma, but also Anita's Beauty.

We may have been able to do this . . .

Point Loma indeed!

Anita and sea.

On this stretch of shore we passed several teenage couples exploring various aspects of sex drugs and rock'n'roll.  They gave us no trouble but were not exactly in the mood to say hello.  I wanted to see if we could make it to the top side of the cliff that had frustrated us so, but stopped short knowing we needed to move on.  After some more scrambling and photography around the point I eventually convinced Anita that there was a way forward along the shore.

Maybe instead of taking pictures I should help here.

Yeah we can do this

Making our way around the retaining wall we were treated to small sculpted beach populated by boulders and moss.  The way forward, however was getting harder as we went over, around and even through the various rocks along the water here.  Fortunately we had protection from the waves and other elements.

Sculpted beach around the bend

These rocks make me feel very small in the world.

These rocks make me feel very large in the world

I think this is my favorite shot of Anita from the whole day.

This could be difficult . . 

As I have said in previous (and future) posts, seawalls are a mixed blessing.  In this case we had a seawall that may have been perfectly walkable, but the stairway leading up to it had been worn smooth by the waves and i couldn't get traction.  So we scrambled up between the houses and emerged back on the street.  Passing a rather colorful halloween display featuring poetic tombstones about people who had died at sea and other places.  It was only 2 or 3 houses down that another staircase led us back.  By this point the sun was getting low and we did not want to be scrambling after dark, so in my infinite judgement I suggested we had time to make it just a bit further.

the rocks on the left were on the right side of the previous photo.

Stairway to doom!

Twin seacaves in 3-d

This was where it really got gnarley.

We were beginning to feel like a bunch of seasoned pros at this by the time we reached north end of the cove at La Jolla Hermosa park.  Alas the worst was yet to come.  The boulders in this cover have washed against one another for centuries and have all been worn very smoothe.  they vary in size between that of a baseball and that of a beachball,  Deposited by the waves they are not in their most stable state and any weight seems to make them shift.  We found some sandy going initially in the water, the waves were getting more dangerous as we got more exposed to the northwesterly swell.  Also I wasn't exactly sure where we could get back to the street.  The first staircase ran a locked gate and a multi-million dollar back yard, and likely a security system comprised of armed guards and other unsavory types.  So as the sun went down I let Anita rest and scouted down the cove until I found the following escape:

After we knew this was a plausible escape route, we found our way across the boulders, taking to the detritus mantling the cobbles along the upper part of the beach.  The worst, however was this cliff.  Although there was a fairly obvious path trod by those before us, I did not feel particularly good about it.  In addition to being steep, the sandstone was not particularly well hardened and much of what we tried to grab onto gave little purchase.   Had it not been for using the iceplant near the top as a sort of crude rope I'm not sure how we would have made it up.

Yeah!  Now you tell us!  Thanks for Nothing!

We emerged into La Jolla Hermosa park, dirty, wet, hungry, cold, and tired, and pumping with adrenaline from our close call climbing up there.  Fortunately it was only a two minute walk to the bus stop and the bus arrived within five minutes and had us back to our start point in less than 10.  We agreed to be a little more cautious on future portions of the journey and never do anything like that again.

It is dark, we are both wet and the temperature is dropping.  Yeah It's beautiful here!  Sure what the heck ever.