The Endangered Day

Monday, February 25, 2013

We packed up to leave the perfect campsite view of Big Sur. (Sigh...) It was time to get connected. No cellphone or internet the whole time in Pinnacles and Big Sur left us needing to connect and check things. When you have no “stix and brix”, as RVer's call houses, you need the internet and phones to communicate with family, pay bills, and find out if the outside world still exists! We also needed some utility connections to recharge all our electronics, dump tanks, get water, shower and do some laundry. We talked with Doug the camphost we got to know during our time at Kirk Creek campground. He and his wife expect to host for the next few summers at Turquoise Lake in Colorado. First they will do some traveling. Doug was a real estate broker of mountain properties in Colorado. They had a two story penthouse in Denver across from the stadium. The stress of his life was taking a toll on their physical and mental health, so they sold out, bought a truck and trailer and have spent the last six months in Big Sur as camphosts. They still have a home in the Breckenridge ski resort that they rent out. He and Greg were encouraged by finding someone else who left the corporate world before actual retirement age.

We waved goodbye and headed south, driving past Sand Dollar Beach and further down the coast. The views were still breathtaking and the road got twistier. Eventually the cliffs began to flatten out and there were more sandy beaches. Hearst Castle appeared off the beach on a high hill. It really does look like a castle. After glimpsing the packed parking lot and checking on line, we finally got connected again, we decided not to pay $25 a piece for a partial tour. It was $50 to $75 a piece if we wanted to see the majority of the castle.

Shortly past the castle we began to glimpse large oval “rocks” all over the beaches. Then we came upon two busy parking lots with lots of cars and people coming and going. Oh, my, the rocks were seals sunning themselves. But huge seals! We pulled in to a parking lot and jumped out into the glorious weather. Upper 50's, slight breeze and intense sun. We walked down the railed walkways along the beach. Just below us were hundreds of endangered Elephant Seals basking in the sun. They were the Piedras Blancas colony of over 15,000. Elephant seals were thought to be extinct having been hunted to death for their oil. A small colony was found on Guadaloupe Island in Mexico and now they have spread up and down the Pacific coast. This colony began in 1990 when a dozen of them were spotted on this beach.

There are placards with information and volunteer docents wandering among the crowd to answer questions. The beach was filled with huge 14-16' long males, (they reach 5,400 pounds!), with long droopy snouts, females, and newly weaned babies. A few were in the water, but the rest were lounging about and using their flippers to toss sand on their backs to cool themselves off. The noises were outrageous! The baby males start to make loud aggressive sounds even when they are tiny, as if they just want to hear themselves. The females were mostly patient as the newly weaned babies still tried to nurse. Sometimes they smacked them with a fin. The males would occasionally lift their heads and bellow. A variety of strange sounds came out of all the seals.

One baby decided to go down to the water to cool off and got close to a male that was lounging in shallow water. When the mother started to go after it, four males came “racing” over and threatened her until she went back to her previous spot and acted subservient. They all left the baby alone. We also observed four males fight and bite each others necks while rearing back their heads and bellowing. A fifth male kept a close eye on them. He looked much older, and had a bleeding gash on his back.

On another section of beach a large male decided to get in the water and steamrolled over a baby that was in his way. We watched as the baby lay still and them moved its flippers, but didn't leave that spot. We don't know if it was hurt. Then another male decided he was ready to mate. Had charged a female and pinned her down. We were watching “seal sex” from 30 feet away! No graphic details here. You can watch a nature documentary. I'll just tell you that she was not happy. She kept trying to get away and making noises that sounded like a weed wacker or a chainsaw starting! He didn't make much noise. He was too busy trying to fulfill his biological imperative! When he was done he “spooned” with her with a big fin lying on her middle. She kept squirming to get away and mostly freed herself. Apparently the life of a female Elephant Seal is tough. They spend their whole lives either pregnant or nursing. As soon as their baby is weaned they are impregnated again.

After all that drama we went back to the RV and had lunch. We checked out campsites on-line and decided to go to Morro Bay, a little farther south down the coast. It has a lovely large bay dominated by Morro Rock, an eroded volcanic plug. It is now a protected site, but was used as a quarry in the past, and is smaller because of that. We found a campsite in a private RV park with all the amenities right across from the beach. We walk past the trailer next to us, go through the gated fence and cross the street to the beach.

After getting the RV hooked up, we took a walk on the beach and over to Morro Rock. We met a young man who had a receiver set up on his camera and was looking for tagged sea otters in the harbor. They are a listed endangered species. We saw three swimming in the harbor. We walked around to the south side of the Rock and found a placard with information about endangered Peregrine Falcons. It said that they nest in the cliff above us. After observing for a few minutes we spotted a nest and a falcon flew out of it to another part of the Rock. Three endangered species in one day!

We came back to the RV and relaxed before dinner. I had a good phone call with my mother and Greg read. After dinner and some TV time to catch up on the news, (heading for the fiscal cliff again... maybe we were better off without TV!), we called it a night.

Tuesday morning- Greg is off for a bike ride. He is going to check out a beach bike path that he found and will also ride for a while on the hard packed beach. I am catching up the blog and looking at Morro Rock out my window. If I stand up and look out, I can see the ocean over the campground's stockade fence. While he is gone, I am going to take advantage of the showers and laundry. The camper needs a good cleaning, but it is hard to get motivated with a beach across the street!