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June 30, 2014

from Mission San Fernando

I have people who want me to write more while I am on this trip, I am trying, but the simple fact is that after you have trudged 12-15 miles while carrying 45 pounds of "stuff" in your pack and, strangely, there have not been that many places to plug in and get online near my daily stops, it is hard to write, little less get it out.

I am trying some new things, my blog has an app, why does that scare me?

Most of my writing has been in a little journal app on my iPhone.

The other part is that this first two weeks has been extremely tough and painful and I don't want to come off as a whiny child (trust me, I have been one a LOT this week).  My feet hurt, well duh! I have noticed that my legs and butt are looking amazing, too bad that I now have too much skin on them, maybe it will tighten up (please please please).  The rest of my weight loss is out of my face and my gut seems to be about normal for me (DAMN! LOL).

Other than the gut part, I expected the rest. This is a huge transition for me.  I have been a fairly sedentary type of guy living in the usual LA way, TV, driving, pretty much an easygoing lifestyle.

I have been surprised by how little I actually miss certain things:
  • I do not really miss TV, I thought I would; God knows I spent enough time in front of it.
  • I am not really missing the banal BS conversations that make up the majority of Angelino-speak.  When I talk to people, they are actually interested in what I am saying and I am interested in their words.
  • My feet hurt from the walking, but I do not really miss driving and definitely not missing traffic and the insanity that passes for "safe driving".
Not so surprising is what I do miss:
  • Showers - regular showers
  • Nice bed with sheets
  • Climate controlled environments
  • Sleeping lying down - see below...


Guerrilla Camping

One of the things I am getting used to, especially the last few days crossing Orange and LA Counties is what I refer to as Guerrilla Camping. This is the art of finding places where you can sleep at night without being harassed or, in some cases, arrested.

When looking for a place to sleep, you want something out of site, not particularly well lit (not a problem for me as I have the straw hat) and someplace the cops will either not see or not care.  I spoke to LAPD last night about this and their response was that even in public space, other than parks, as long as no one calls to complain, they really don't worry about it.

Parks are a different story as they often have posted hours, so after those hours you are officially trespassing. Even then, unless they have some reason to go in, the odds are that you are likely ok, but it is a risk.

I have noticed that the police do not seem to bother you for sleeping in public spaces at night if you are upright. I am learning how to sleep sitting up with my pack behind me. The toughest part is that after a while, your butt really hurts because the ground tends to be hard and uneven, so it wakes me every hour or so to shift, oh well...

The one thing that I have become aware of is the great mystery of sprinklers. You never know if and when they are going to go off and the last thing one wants is everything one owns soaking from a poorly timed sleep session.

The other night I had found this space and was so tired that I almost did not worry about my tarp. I had bought this tarp for under my tent, but it has been more useful for this than anything else...

The way this works is like this, I open up a little less than half of it (I should have bought a larger one) and put my pack in the fold and then take the rest over the pack and then over me.  I sleep on one end of it and the opposite end acts like a blanket of sorts. 

So the other night, I set this up and at 5:00am, suddenly I heard the dreaded sound of water heading into the sprinkler system. Thanks to having taken the time to set it up, my boots got a little wet and that was basically it, I and everything else was dry.

The other aspect of Guerrilla Camping that takes some getting used to is something close to public bathing.  When you do not have anywhere else to clean up, you clean up where you can, park restrooms are not the easiest to work with sometimes, but water and walls are about all one really needs, assuming you brought a washcloth and a towel.

Am I spotless? Oh Hell no! I am reasonably clean and feeling like I might actually pass for something akin to civilized.



So this is the practical things I have been dealing with and I think I have at least a passing grade.

On a more metaphysical/Spiritual level, I have been practicing a form of walking meditation that allows me to be somewhat conscious of what is happening around me while focusing on my meditation.  I'll write about that later.

I have some other things that I am working on, this trip has been something of an eyeopener when it comes to some of the contradictions that make up our society, but that is going to take a while to write the way it should be, give me time...

Blessings all!

Robert

June 23, 2014

Mission San Juan Capistrano

OK, what can you say about Mission San Juan Capistrano?

Well, it's being restored beautifully and the entrance made me think more of a hotel than a historical sight.  Well my guide book did say they were "public ready" so I guess I should have expected it.

I didn't get to take the tour, just to tired to do all the walking and I needed to start working on the next leg of my trip, four to five days walking across Orange County to get to San Gabriel.

Now my OC friends will not exactly love this, but I have never really been a fan of the OC.  I find it over-planned and over-developed and large chucks of it could be picked up and dropped into another area and no one would even notice.

So it looks like I'm going to be going through Mission Viejo, Irvine, Santa Ana, Orange, Anaheim, Brea, Whittier, Monterey Park and into San Gabriel.  Can we say FUN FUN FUN?!?

One route suggestion had me walking PCH to Huntington Beach and then walking Beach Blvd all the way up.  OK, I was saying about boring?  I've nearly fallen asleep driving on Beach Blvd so a few days walking it just does not ring my bell.  Ha ha ha, Robert makes an El Camino Real joke.

This is the beginning of the leg that I am most not wanting to do.  I go WAY inland and not a lot of non-city to deal with, so I see a lot of strip malls, residences and the usual urban sprawl for at least a couple of weeks, approximately 143 miles, a bit over double what I have done so far (not counting the bus across Camp Pendleton).

I am hoping my feet get their act together and let me increase my mileage, I have been averaging about 12 mile a day and I would like to get that up to 20-25. When your feet say, "ENOUGH" you either stop or seriously pay for it later.

I was reading something online that may help, had to do with taking the boots off and letting my feet breath and dry more often, I have been avoiding that since it takes me SO long to get them back on and the best times for me to do such things, Starbucks breaks, etc, they really frown on my running around barefoot.  Oh well...

Had a potential problem, when I stopped in Oceanside for a day off at the RV Park, when I took the tent down on Sunday, one of my poles had a bubble right smack dab in the middle of the segment.  Of course it then broke when I set the tent up last night, fortunately there was a Big 5 on the way. Unfortunately, the direct route has a "No Pedestrians" section so I had to work a detour, no to bad.

So, I get to the Big 5 Sporting Goods - Capistrano Beach and I ask the helpful associate if we can solve my tent issue.  Since I bought it at the Culver City store and I don't have the receipt he cannot replace the tent.  I don't want to replace the tent, but maybe one of the pole sets.

The best he can think of is to sell me a replacement pole segment which looks to long and we are not sure it will fit.  He grabs a box of my tent from the shelf, strangely open on both ends, and takes it and the spare to the Store Manager, Nick. Nick is not sure if the replacements will work, but when we tell him what happened with the original set, he tips the box and out slides the poles from this open tent, he hands them to me and says have a safe trip!  Nick is my new Customer Service God!

So, I'm waiting for my emergency battery to finish charging, but I'm kind of wanting to get out of here.  I want to get a couple of miles in and I am burning daylight.  It should be nearly complete and I can always finish at the next Starbucks I run across and it charges my phone at least four or five cycles before draining itself (thanks Mr. G!).

Anyhow, enough rambling, I need to finish this up and post it so I can be ready to get out of here when they close in a half-hour.  Later!

June 18, 2014

Made it to Encinitas!

I am SO tired, but I managed to make it to Encinitas.

Spent the night in UCSD's "park" and woke up freezing about 2am. I was really fine, but I had taken my shoes and socks off to give my feet a breather, not such a great idea...

I was to tired to fight with finding clean socks to put on, so I just put the pair from yesterday back on and slid on my boots and went back to sleep.  I stayed like that till about 8am, a miracle for me as of late.

I had hoped to make Torrey Pines last night, didn't quite make it, but it turns out that when I came out from the UCSD campus I was there (well the street at least).  Not real far down the road was the park, beautiful! A park employee saw me working on a couple of blisters I have developed and came over to confirm that I wasn't setting up camp.  I told him it would be a beautiful place for it, but it's to early in the day and I am hoping to make it to Encinitas.

Oops, just found out that my coffee house here, Surfdog's Java Hut, is closing in a few minutes, so I am going to have to continue this later...  Sorry!

June 17, 2014

So today it begins...

Yesterday I finally made it out of the house and finished the last of the details. Of course I had to forget something, this time it was the hat, a major no-no for 2 months of hiking in the California sun.  I managed to pick it up and make it to the new, to me at least, Culver City Expo Line Station looking like this...


I didn't make it to San Diego till about 10:30pm and by the time I had taken the Green Trolley to the Mission are, it would have been too late to hunt for a place to camp for the night.  I thought about ringing the bell at the Mission, but even monks like to sleep, or so I thought.  I found a Hostel/Hotel, the 500 West Hotel, like two blocks from the station and just the other side of the Trolley station, it was a bit late and I had some work to do before sleeping, so I spent a little extra and got a room, or in this case, a large closet.  It is definitely no-frills flying, but I like it.  (Definitely ask for the Amtrak special)

Part of this journey for me is the walking away from all the "things" thatI have allowed to take such an impressively prominent role in my existence, not sure why, but they do make the time pass quickly.
 
It's kind of interesting as I got up this morning, I looked out of the window onto Broadway from 3 floors up and just started to watch the people as they walked past on the way to whatever it is they are up to, after a bit, I had to stop, it was getting depressing, all so somber and not "here" on such a beautiful morning that was just begging to be noticed.

OK, maybe I'm looking at it from a different pair of eyes, I have started to step out of the "norm" and it causes one to see things differently. I am also willing to admit that I am definitely in the minority on how this all works, but I wonder if my view that gives so many opportunities to enjoy this existence is really so wrong when at least it allows for joy in my life, when I watch the "normal" I do not often see joy or happiness.  It reminds me of something my great-grandfather used to say, "The only difference between a rut an a grave is a matter of depth."

I am the first to admit that I am going through MAJOR withdrawal of all the stimulus and intrusions upon peace for the entertainment of the mind. I turned of my cable and internet off on Friday and last weekend sucked, but it helped me get ready for what starts today.  Fortunately my "room" did not have a television so I had no opportunity to "get a fix"...  LOL

I will say that the fear that has practically paralyzed me the last week or so seriously started to subside as soon as I got on the Metro yesterday and I feal better today than I have in quite a while. So I'm going to shut down here, go back upstairs after I finish my breakfast and start to the Mission and get my passport and start heading for my first goal, Self-Realization Fellowship's Encinitas Hermitage, Retreat & Gardens, about 26 miles of walking.  I was hoping to do it in a day, but I will be quite pleased if I make it half-way since it is my first day and while the temperature is nice, low-70's, the humidity is a touch oppressive. We will see what happens, plus there is no real required date and time for this trip, I am literally placing myself at the disposal of the Universe.

Later!



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