A Toast to Well Done and Spectacular

   
     These recent photos are evidence of what we've been waiting for.
   Frequent readers of this space will recall my devout love for Big Sur. It is the part of California that hooked us and tickled our imagination for years. Eventually time and life conspired and led us to make a retirement move from Indianapolis to a place where we knew no one. We knew we loved the California central coast.

    Until 18 months ago we came and went freely on the spectacular Pacific Coast Highway to the legendary Big Sur.
     Highway 1 is our primary road, but about 25 minutes north the road was closed by the largest landslide in California history.
     The frame below was shot on May 22, 2017 by John Madonna.

Photo by John Madonna for Cal Trans

  That is some 6 million cubic yards of slide material. As you can see it buried Highway 1 under 40 foot of debris and created a new peninsula on the rugged coast line.

   It took heroic effort by Cal Trans engineers and workers and the John Madonna construction company to re open the iconic highway. It was a $54 million project. An average of 20 workers began each morning at 5AM and many of them worked 100 days before taking a day off. It was hard and dangerous work and the land continued to slide.

   In the before and after composite published by the San Luis Obispo Tribune you can see the historic change.

May 2017

July 2018

JuxtaposeJS

Photo Credits: Before John Madonna After CalTrans

     While those of us who lived 30 to 40 minutes south were denied access to our beloved Big Sur and were forced to take the 101 to Carmel or Monterey, those who lived there were devastated. 

     Work, school, commerce, and the commutes were shattered. To go anywhere required hours long journeys via arduous and dangerous mountain roads.

    But traffic flows again.

   The two frames immediately above show the Mud Creek area and the new stretch of road just opened.  For a sensational short drone video link here to see Joe Johnson's masterful work.

   I've been fortunate to drive many of the world's spectacular mountain, wilderness and coastal roads. Highway 1 from our Cambria home to Big Sur excites and gives me joy as much as any. As my friend Jim, who introduced Big Sur to us all those years ago says "It never disappoints!"

   Being back in the magic area was a good cause for a lunch and toast to our love of Big Sur and a "well done" to John Madonna Construction and Cal Trans workers.

         See you down the trail. And I hope that means that sometime in your life you'll drive Highway 1 through Big Sur.

    

CALMING THE UNSETTLED

      It seems everyone is fatigued by the crisis a moment energy that emanates from Trumps Washington. During the foreign trip a few observers noted it almost seemed normal. Almost. There were those little quirks; Melania flipping away the donald's hand, his shoving a NATO minister out of the way to mug for the camera, the Pope's message about climate change, insulting comments about Germans-but they were oh so mild compared to the norm.
      The relative normalcy of the trip gets blown away like jet blasts from Air Force One when the trump show returns to DC. 
       The Russian intrigue did not disappear. Now son in law Kushner is under investigatory focus and there remains the president's acknowledgment he tried to obstruct an investigation. It is incredible, fast, furious, unprecedented but it is destructive not only to our tradition and pending history  but also to our mental health. It is as though an amphetamine and psychotropic have been mixed and put into our food supply. We are racing full blast through a house of torture. And we remember, kids are watching. Impressions are being made. The trump legacy is already toxic.

when will it stop?

 Photo by Joe Johnston The Tribune-San Luis Obispo 

   This is the newest problem on the legendary Pacific Coast Highway and no one knows how to fix it. The Mud Creek slide has changed the Pacific coast line as mountain continues to slide into the ocean, obliterating the highway. This is less than an hour north of our home and a reason we, like many others, have been denied access to some of our favorite hiking trails and spots in the Big Sur area.  

    This week more than a million tons of mountain slid over the road. There are 4 slide areas in a quarter mile and we are told springs also feed the motion. It is perplexing. We wait for it to stop.

prevailing

     Mark Wellman's photo from the Yosemite Conservancy has special appeal right now. The timeless beauty and power of the Sierra, the remarkable interaction of human and mountain, and the spirit of adventure and achievement are a tonic for those malady's and unsettling troubles of our day.

I find great peace in the Sierras, an abiding tranquility and perspective on the transitory nature of human endeavor and foibles. 

     

    In time trump will be gone, the body politic may scar but it will heal, that majestic Pacific Coast Highway will be re-engineered, re-imagined, and the mountains and the sea will survive long beyond our generations. The mountains will be steadfast and the pacific will continue to sing the song of this planet. Comfort in these thoughts and the boundless arc of the star nations helps me put the present human mania in focus. Indeed we are like mists in time, vapors. But we dream and hope. 

    See you down the trail.