Can it really have been 18 years since Caroline entered our lives? That’s what the calendar says. But it seems like only yesterday when we brought her home…
Spider Crossing
One of the unexpected highlights of the trip was the passage from San Miguel up to Highway 198/25. I knew from past experience that the Monterey Peninsula was breathtaking; I had no idea the valleys east of the US 101 corridor were so spectacular.
Yes, almost the entire way is a one-and-a-half lane road, with stretches that are not particularly well-maintained. But the scenery, wildlife, geology and isolation more than made up for any riding inconvenience. Plus, I got to try out the “soft” setting on my FJR-1300ES’ electronic suspension.
I didn’t stop to take pictures, which would not have done the scenery justice anyway when done with an iPhone camera. But you can get a hint of what some of the geology looked like from this Google Earth screen capture of part of Peach Valley (click to enlarge in a separate tab/window):
What this doesn’t convey is how the sides of the valley look like they’ve been sliced open with a knife, as if they were just huge piles of sand that you were being privileged to see in cross-section.
In addition to many herds of cattle, several herds of deer grazing through cleared out fields, and a seemingly infinite supply of birds and squirrels, there were two particularly interesting wildlife encounters.
The first was with a fox. Stationed in the midst of a herd of cattle. Who studiously ignored him, while he studiously ignored them…and kept his eye on me.
The second was something I’d never seen before on a road, anywhere. I was coming up a hill, and around a curve, fortunately going fairly slow. Only to see a small creature dragging itself across the road. My first thought was that it was the survivor of a hit-and-run…until I realized it had a lot more legs than any mammal I’d ever seen. It was a tarantula! Speeding — in tarantula terms — across the road. Later on I saw a second one, also attempting to cross the road. Hopefully they both made it.
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