A White Knuckle Adventure

I need to start out by telling you that K has been trying to figure out a way to get his own abalone. Since going out with Rick and his friend last week and watching them dive easily for abalone at Port Arena while he stood on the pier fishing wishing he were equipped to dive, (remembering he taught diving in his younger years), he's been e-shopping for a wet suit, fins, weights, hood, ab-iron, etc. and then chuckle at the thought of him dressed up ready to go . . . you know how he is when he gets a bug. Well—here's the story.

We're in Mendocino with our good friends, G and C, for another week of so.The four of us started out this morning thinking we would venture out to find a remote place that K read about in a book he had purchased that told of remote places to go to "pick" abalone off the rocks at low tide. The only hitch was the book said we'll need to go down 60 feet or so from the road to the beach. We wanted to check out how hard the 60 feet was going to be to climb down and decided against it. We went on to the second spot — Usal Beach in Sinkyone Wilderness State Park. Did you see the word WILDERNESS? That should have been a clue as to what we were in for. So we got in our truck and headed north on Highway 1 about 30 miles north of Fort Bragg. We left at 11:30 a.m. and G was the navigator while C and I sat in the back seat of the truck.

Well . . . this is where we should have thought seriously about what we were about to do. What was a 6.5 mile road up and over the mountain and down to the rocky beach took us over an hour!


When we got to the correct mile marker we made a sharp left off the highway and turned onto a dirt road. What G didn't read out loud were these words "Allow some time for the drive, as the road is steep and winding, with great views over the ocean.[read that STRAIGHT DOWN] . . . Rainy season travel during and just after heavy storms may require 4-wheel drive, chain saw, winch, and extra food, water, and gas." [read that MINOR DETAIL!—everyone knows how much rain we've had this year.] It was a very narrow, curvy road full of ruts and had us white-knuckle hanging onto whatever we could to keep our balance as we crept up and down and around the mountain. Looking down from my window was about a 200-300 foot drop straight down! K was in low-low-four-wheel-drive for quite a bit of the time. It was so narrow that in the couple instances that we approached an oncoming car I just closed my eyes and prayed! (Although from the top of the mountain the view was spectacular, I'll have to admit.)



When we got to the destination where the abalone were supposed to be it was a bit after 1 p.m. Low tide today was to happen at 1:07 p.m. so our timing was perfect. However, K (with ab-iron in hand) and G climbed over rocks to get to the other side of the beach looking for the abalone's hangout but came back empty handed. The abalone were nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, C and I stayed back collecting "stuff" for our seashell wreaths. We climbed back into the truck for the trip home (which seemed safer at the time, I guess because we knew what to expect). The guys loved the adventure, however C and I have decided they can go by themselves if they want to try again at a "minus" tide next Monday.

By the time we got back to camp it was nearly 4 o'clock and we were famished. We hadn't taken a lunch so we fixed some appetizer type snacks and enjoyed a stiff scotch and soda. We got the smoker going to smoke a bunch of salmon we bought and enjoyed laughing about the good times we had today.