new 4x4 owner wants to explore south coast ridge (big sur)

John, you didn't happen to be at little basin last night with your telescope? Silver truck like yours with the astronomy club?

 

asamatteroffact, yeah, dat was me I'm the VP and Star Tsar for the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club, as well as web mangler and email wrangler. I schedule most of our star parties and other events.

which camper were you? heh. We musta had about 90 or 100 visitors Saturday night.

I was the one with the Orion 12" dobson and the giant binoculars, wearing a puffy light blue down sweater. and yeah, the silver taco.

same place, last fall, with my old astro-wagon.

 

Small world! I was with a bunch of guys for my friends 40th b-day party. His kid was the 6-year old redhead running around causing havoc. I was the taller Asian dude wearing a black fleece, baseball cap, & headlamp. One of the guys I was with was asking about the red light in your camper. We were some of the last people there. Thanks for letting us look at Jupiter and its moons. It was a good experience. We were commenting this morning on how cool you were to let the kids handle that expensive telescope.

I should have asked you about TW...

 

cool place for a bday, hah!

I vaguely knew about Little Basin back when it was still the Hewlett Packard Family Camp, and always wondered what was back there, then about a year ago, was searching google earth for clearings in the mountain forests where we might be able to setup our scopes, and 'found' it, so last fall, I gave them a call, then drove up there to chat, and they were totally amendable to us volunteering astronomy to the campers, so we go up there one Saturday most months...

There's this one RV space right in front of where we setup, at the base of those really tall trees due north of us, I would *love* to book for my little 16' Casita some night we're doing a star party there, but that site is booked up well into fall on the Saturday's I checked (new and last quarter moons)... maybe next year.

 

I've only been up on South Coast a few times but I'd say 4wd can be useful to avoid wheel spin and road damage in spots. I was going up a pretty steep loose pitch when I got waved down by a ranger to "remind" me about the fire restrictions, and definitely needed 4wd to restart. BTW, last time I was there, the Los Padres NF web site said that the road north to Cone Peak was closed, but in fact the gate was open and we drove up to the trailhead and hiked to the lookout. Very steep hiking but incredible views ... about 4000 feet up and only about 3 miles inland from the ocean. I'd be interested in going back; I haven't explored south of San Martin Top.

 

Call the ranger station next time, they get daily updates that can take some time making it to the web.

 

Good idea, especially if the website says its open, and it's not. I'd say we had enough rain today to extend the 4wd-needed season in that area. I know the Old Coast Rd (from Bixby Bridge to Molera) can be really slick near the southern end when wet. And boggy at points inland.

 

hahahah, I used to take my VW's (RWD) over the old coast road in all kinda crazy weather. great fun

fording that creek at the bottom when its raging in a rainstorm in a 66 VW Squareback with partially bald tires is an experience.


anyways, not sure I've got the time to make this run to Prewitt Ridge after all this spring, or if I do, it will be a quick day there and back. :-/

 

I'm down for an over nighter! Do you guys got room for one more?