We rented a
house about 60 miles up the coast in Dillon Beach, with a population of
slightly more than 200 residents, one of the small, isolated communities that
hover anonymously on the coast perfectly in sync with the ocean. While it sits on a cliff overlooking the
beach, there are several nearby pathways allowing beach access, though a clear
path to the beach in town is not accessible during high tides, so one has to be
cognizant of the tide schedules. The
town is located opposite the peninsula tip of the commercially undeveloped Pt.
Reyes National Seashore, just at the point where the ocean feeds into Tomales
Bay, the site of the freshest oyster harvests serving the Bay area. This is really a tale of two towns, where the
older part of downtown features a trailer park and a few tiny houses all packed
together just off the beach, featuring a surf shop, a small diner opened only a
few days a week and a general store owned by the Dillon Beach resort, offering
a few cabins to rent. That’s it, with
the irony being three palm trees planted directly outside the café windows,
creating a post card effect, with the owners adding a bit of southern
California kitsch to the northern California landscape. While up the hill, a newer community is being
developed, an elevated subdivision of homes built on a hill with ocean
views. As a single road winds through
these “beach” houses, they are comprised of a variety of smaller houses to
immensely lavish estates, each with large picture windows offering a view, most
featuring outdoor decks or patios, sporadically placed so that large open
spaces exist that don’t obstruct the views.
Much like Chicagoans have summer homes in New Buffalo or Benton Harbor
on the sandy shores of Michigan, wealthy Bay area residents have summer beach
homes that they can retreat to from time to time, often renting them out during
their absence. What surprised me the
most was how empty these gorgeously located houses were, with more than 50% of
them completely vacant. It gives one
pause to think of all the homeless people living in tents or under blankets on
the streets, where an entire tent community was seen living on a public
sidewalk against a wall of a Best Buy store in San Francisco, compared to this
wealthy group of multiple home owners, moving from house to house depending on
the seasons, and leaving multiple bedroom houses empty for large periods of
time. Only in America, one thinks, is
there so much disparity. But perhaps
not, as this may reflect the impact of a global economy, where so many people
have been left behind, and the haves express so little interest providing for,
or even thinking about, the have nots.
Just down the
road from the public beach is Lawson’s Landing, which is a privately owned
gated community, where you have to pay to enter, offering trailers and
campgrounds for fishermen, considered a fishing and boating resort at the mouth
of Tomales Bay, including a large sandy beach that is relatively calm
waters. While there is public access to
the Dillon Beach, the parking is not free, as it costs $8.00 a day, payable to
the general store, making this the only private beach anywhere in California. Deer roam the town and the hills, often
hanging around the road, where they are not afraid of people or even cars, but
seem more like pets roaming the countryside.
They might cross the road, but never run away, as people routinely leave
apples for the deer to eat. The town is
a favorite for surfers, all wearing wet suits, as they tend to get bigger waves
away from the protection of the Pt. Reyes peninsula, but there are also body
boarders and even kitesurfing, as the wind gusts are strong enough to propel
the surfers. Curiously, there is no road
in or out of this town that does not involve jutting away from the ocean, where
there is a series of country roads traveling through the rolling hills of farm
country, with cows seen scattered about the hills, but also sheep, horses,
free-range egg farmers, and even a llama mixed in. This inner territory is sunnier and hotter,
certainly dryer, with completely different characteristics than small coastal
towns, as these folks don’t have neighbors or towns for miles in any direction,
generating their own income through a kind of self-sufficiency, yet most of
these farmers collectively belong to the Grange, an organization where they
band together, sharing common interests, where rural communities continue to
have Grange Halls. This continuing practice
feels very old-fashioned, yet is a vital part of the farmer’s history. This region accentuates organic food, even in
restaurants, where they are strong farm-to-table advocates, where everything
they buy and prepare comes from local produce, including local livestock. The best example of this, and the best
breakfast place within 50 miles (and a place I’d drive 100 miles to get to), is
the Estero Café (http://www.farmtrails.org/partner/estero-cafe),
open daily from 7 am to 3 pm, with dinner served on Wednesdays, located in the
heart of farm country on Hwy 1 in the small town of Valley Ford. Formerly a roadside hamburger joint attached
to an auto body shop, it sits directly under one of those picturesque water
towers. While there used to be a gas
station, that’s long gone, and it used to be run by a mother/daughter team of
Ariana Strozzi and daughter Lesley Smith (Ariana Strozzi -
Casari Ranch), but they now run a horse ranch, selling the café to new
owners Samantha and Ryan Ramey in December 2014. Both are chefs, but she runs the café, which
is obviously a labor of love, also the Community Farmers market, while they
both team up to run a catering business as well. With a small counter in front of the grill
with about six stools, along with a few indoor and outdoor tables, a unisex
bathroom, and local art for sale on the walls, this place has an extraordinary
option of choices, where you’re not likely to find fresher ingredients anywhere
across the land.
When heading
north up the coast, we have to pass through Valley Ford to get to Bodega Bay -
- yes, the site of the apocalyptic 1963 Hitchcock film The Birds -
- which is evidently the biggest town for miles with a population just over
1000. The Bay itself is hardly
recognizable from seeing the film, as there are houses and commercial
development surrounding it, though it’s interesting that the town is swarming
with birds, seen sitting on docks, telephone wires, or fence posts. While there is a gas station in this town,
there are also plenty of bikers hanging out, as if expecting to take up the
reins once Hitchcock’s apocalypse kicks in.
In the nearby town of Bodega, about a mile away, there is a general
store that is a veritable shrine to Hitchcock’s film, including movie
photographs, posters, clothing articles, DVD’s, and other paraphernalia
associated with the film, while out front there is a statue of Hitchcock
greeting all incoming customers. More
visible, even along all these severely hilly country roads, is the presence of
cyclists, who are literally everywhere in this state. In some cases the incline is too steep, and
cyclists are walking their bikes uphill, but we were shocked at the level of
difficulty that many of these cyclists were pulling off, as they weren’t shying
away from some of the steepest and most dangerous climbs on cliff edges, especially
sharing these narrow, winding roads with vehicular traffic, as they are seen on
every road surface traveled on his trip with the exception of interstates. And not just a few, as they are out in
droves, with each seemingly scrutinizing their maps at roadside stops. While Los Angeles is consumed in snarling
auto traffic and smog, northern California is totally committed to going
Green. This is noticeable each and every
day. Easily the best restaurant in
Bodega Bay is the Terrapin Creek Café, (http://www.terrapincreekcafe.com/),
which is all about local ingredients mixed with Asian fusion, giving each
course a modernized texture. It’s
located in what looks like a strip mall just off the beaten path, with no views
of the Bay, yet this place is extremely popular with people of all age groups,
with a very relaxed vibe, and was absolutely packed even on week nights. The best restaurant with a view is Drakes
Restaurant, formerly The Duck Club, which is part of the Bodega Bay Lodge (http://www.bodegabaylodge.com/),
which is located directly on the grounds of a bird sanctuary, offering views of
both the Bay and the ocean right outside the dining room, with sunsets
occurring nightly. Obviously the reason
to explore this territory is the ocean, as it offers an ever-changing
landscape, as you can literally drive up the coast all the way to Alaska and
see some of the most spectacularly beautiful, rugged coastal landscapes in the
world. California has the advantage of
towering redwood forests that still survive, adding an element of unique
distinction to the rest of the world.
Driving further north to Jenner, another tiny town with a population
just over 100, this is where the ocean meets the inlet of the Russian River,
with more than a half dozen beaches to pass along the way, with giant-sized rocks
and boulders sitting just off the coast getting splattered by the waves, where
often you can catch a glimpse of harbor seals and sea lions sunning
themselves.
Heading south of
Dillon Beach, following the Tomales Bay, you come across two towns, Marshall,
with a sign claiming a population of 50, though it’s closer to 400, home of the
state’s longest running sustainable oyster farms that provide service to most
of the entire state, where you can shuck your own, reserve picnic tables, or
buy the freshest oysters, clams, and mussels in the state, providing an array
of organic, homegrown sauces, where they love BBQ oysters out here. The popularity is reflected in the back-up of
customers in cars parked in the vicinity stretched for about a half a mile in both
directions. In town, we ate at
Nick’s Cove (https://nickscove.com/)
overlooking Tomales Bay at sunset, where a married couple rented a cabin at the
end of the pier with a piano and heater, where servers walked the entire length
of the pier replenishing their food and drinks, where they were still at it
when we left hours later. Interestingly,
a rival oyster company has recently
been forced out of business. Drake’s
Oyster Company was the only commercial fishery with traps along the Pt. Reyes
National Seashore, which was declared preserved national grounds by President
Kennedy in 1962, granting a 40-year lease to the company to continue harvesting
as they had an established history. Once
the lease expired, it was granted a ten-year extension to study the
environmental effects, however the Department of Interior refused to extend the
lease after December 31, 2014, finally sending the company out of business (After
a long battle, Drake's Bay Oyster Co. packs it in - LA Times), with the
government insisting that a wilderness area remain free of any commercial impact. If you mosey on further south, you come
across the town of Point Reyes Station, a thriving metropolis of less than 800
people, named as one of the ten best small towns in America by Budget Travel magazine, yet it retains a
distinctive counterculture vibe mixed with modern chic, a unique food scene
with Cowgirl creamery (which also has a storefront at the San Francisco Ferry
building, though it was recently sold to a Swiss dairy company) that uses only
organic milk, making a variety of organic cheeses, with a best-selling Mount
Tam triple cream brie cheese, but also eclectic café’s, bakeries, and a general
store that also includes an art gallery, a yoga studio, and a coffee bar. The town also served as science fiction
author Philp K. Dick’s home residence from 1958 to 1963, and got its name as
one of the 19th century railroad stops north of Sausalito. The 70,000 acres of the Pt. Reyes National
Seashore are home to more than 1000 species of plants and animals, including
Tule elk grazing on the shoreline of the Pacific Ocean at the northernmost tip
of the peninsula, while 45% of the birds in America can be found here. There is a lighthouse on the westernmost
point, which can be reached by climbing down 308 steps, but unlike most
lighthouses which are placed at the highest point so they can be seen at a
distance by ships at sea, the Pt. Reyes lighthouse was built low to get below
the habitual fog banks that perpetually hover over the territory. While there are 140 miles of hiking trails,
outside of camping, the only lodging available is the Pt. Reyes Hostel near the
Coast Trail trailhead called Hi Point Reyes (http://www.norcalhostels.org/reyes),
which was once the grounds of three 19th century pioneer dairies, now providing
dormitory style rooms at a cost of $35/day for adults, half that for children, situated
about two miles from Limantour beach, a two-mile stretch of continuous,
unending beachfront, with cliffs and dunes on one side and the Pacific ocean on
the other, where the more remote northernmost area is a nude beach with
clothing optional, also reachable by 1.8 miles of hiking trails, where the
closest bus stop is six miles away. For
Bay area residents, this is the best and closest opportunity to get into the
wild.
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