2021/1/17 Nipomo Perambulation

 

Looking from the Nipomo Mesa to the agricultural fields below.

The middle of January, when equestrians in other parts of the world are slogging through snow.... it was a 86º day in Nipomo, hot and bright and just right for a tour of the Mesa and Western edge of the community.

For the first time ever we had an equal compliment of mules and horses for a ride. We staged out of a local equestrian facility and headed out, following our Pico Tour guide.

Nipomo is a very newly developed area. Within the memory of the people I ride with there ALL of the land now gridded up into estates and ranches was eucalyptus forest.

Many of the roads are still dirt, so it has a distinctly rural feel and is decidedly equine friendly.

It was HOT, so we savored being able to walk in the shade of the massive tall eucalyptus trees that still line the roads.

On previous rides here we have tracked through the planned community called Trilogy, but I was pleased that today our guide had a different plan for us.

Like the homes of country folk everywhere, the ranches were full of barking dogs and signposted to prevent access. NO ANIMALES!

We walked to the end of the street and suddenly we were in the old days, the one part of the Mesa that has not been developed.

 

Looking out to the West, across the agricultural grid the sand dunes and the sea are visible.

 

While looking to the left, to the South-East, the regular patterning of the crops stretch off towards Santa Maria and the mountains behind.

Our guide Stormy has logged literally thousands of miles on this elevated patch of scrub grass on her trusty Arabian horse Pico. 

She led us onto trails that were barely visible, with the avowed purpose of re-establishing them before they were lost. 

Despite the numerous gopher holes in the sand we did our best to stomp them clear.

There is a strong equestrian community here, and a covenant with the developers of the golf course and housing developments, that a percentage of the land must be set aside for trails connecting all parts of the acreage.

With the nation in turmoil politically it was a pleasure to see this property on the mesa flying Old Glory. I wanted to pose people next to it but the dogs behind the fence were so frantic it seemed best just to shuffle on past.

There are trails all through the Mesa, all soft sand that has a zillion gopher warrens beneath. So progress was slow, punctuated with yelps when an animal stepped in a deep hole and the rider was surprised.

Looking in towards the buildings the attempts at landscaping and erosion control were visible. 

Many of the eucalyptus are a century old, and are being removed and pines put in their place. 

But the Mesa's grass is eternal.

Out across the white plastic covering growing crops the white sand of the dunes and the blue of the sea are just a few miles away.

But I found myself marveling at the organized grid pattern that fills the entire valley with intensive patches of individual crops. Refer back to the map at the beginning of this blog, to see the regularity.

When we got to the end of the Mesa we turned inland, and walked along the edge of the developed areas.

We stopped in the shade to give the creatures a rest. Tobe Mule is always a good sport, wherever I trailer him to he is willing to be my legs and take me to see what there is to see.

Here, perhaps we are looking at the sort of Planned Community that may become more popular in the future. 

Trails for bicycles and walking paralleling ones for equestrian use.

On old idea whose time may come again.

Parked in this field it was interesting to see a large number of Langstroth bee hives. They may be resting up here, before taking to the road to pollinate crops throughout the annual cyclical seasons.

But these are the paths that really define the town, old growth eucalyptus bordering streets, with trails strewn with a carpet of their fragrant leaves.

In a civilized acknowledgement that poo happens, the walking/cycling paths are marked with the presence of doggie bag stations with rubbish bins below. 

We did see one old guy struggling along in the heat on one of these asphalt strips, and I encouraged him to go adopt a dog at the shelter. On a hot day like today the poor thing would need protective booties on its feet! But he'd have a pal for his wanderings.

In the midst of a drought these peeler cores at intervals in the trails are just interesting obstacles for the equines to step over, but in a rainy year they'd help stop erosion.

Finally it was time to turn back towards our staging spot, so we went back out onto the Mesa. The afternoon sun now slanting differently onto the fields gave them a much different look.

And the wind began to pick up, a nice breeze to cool off the sweaty mule who had well earned his bunch of carrots waiting back at the trailer.

Another day, another place to see, another adventure made possible by the cooperation of human and mule.

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to."
"I don't much care where –"
"Then it doesn't matter which way you go.”
― Lewis Carroll,  ALICE IN WONDERLAND

 

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2020/12/5 Pre-Covid-LockDown Lost In The Dunes Expedition

The Covid LockDown was looming for tomorrow, forbidding all unnecessary travel, so it was time to make the point that exploring the natural world on equines is absolutely necessary for mental health!

We started at the end of Grand Avenue in Grover Beach, where a very large dirt lot gives us room for parking our rigs. On the map that's the top of the blue trail line. We tracked South through the part of the dunes that is filled with plant life, then along a levee out to the edge of the major dunes, then back on the beach to return.

 

Eleven riders total, some of the usual regulars and others attracted by the MeetUp invitation. Everyone was riding a competent animal, all the riders were pleased to be on a new trail together.

Leaving the parking lot takes us directly into the botanical back-of-the-dunes zone, filled with ice plant and native brush.

Clearly marked NOT a camping area.

But almost immediately we saw that a large swath of the plant life had recently burned.

And the explanation was that homeless people come and camp and set the area on fire with their cooking and warming fires.

Volunteer rangers patrol, looking for illegal campers, but the vagrants are a recurrent problem.

The unburned areas on the other side of the trail show the wonderful diversity of plants that manage to survive in this area of salt mists and scarce water.

Anchoring the habitat and providing a buffer from the winds for the smaller plants are mighty Monterey pines. They are scraggly and clearly struggle to grow in this seaside zone, but as the dominant tree they define the character of the landscape.

Next our path led us down onto the beach, which was filled as always with automobiles, dune buggies, and people who drive down to set up campsites and tents.

Personally I don't see the attraction of driving onto the beach, but clearly it is a cherished local tradition. Tobe Mule takes the presence of vehicles in stride, but he is adamant that no mule needs to ever dip his toes in the churning surf.

Yesterday there was an extreme high tide and rip tides, so this lake of water up on the beach was a leftover from that.

Tobe Mule and I enjoyed being able to take a stroll on the beach, his ears flopping contentedly as we followed our friends.

Then we turned inland, toward the famous Guadelupe-Nipomo Dunes. In 1923 Cecil B. DeMille filmed his movie The Ten Commandments here. After they were done, the sets and props were simply covered with sand, so any time we ride here we always are on the lookout for a Sphinx rising from the dunes.

In 2017 this Sphinx head surfaced and is now displayed in a local museum.

The trail led us to a levee between some sort of water treatment plant and the dunes.

The leaching water creates an unexpected lush forest, with sink hole ponds along the trail and vines growing up into the trees.

The canopy closed over us as we went down this tunnel, and I continued my Patty Poppyseed new botanical sabotage habit of dispersing California poppy seeds in areas where I think they may take hold and flourish. I look forward to returning in subsequent Springs to see if I spot any blooming.

But for today, after the purely California beach riding, this was like dipping into the kind of forest my pals who live and ride in the SouthEast send me photos of.

Thankfully, we don't have their midges and skeeters!

 

Then up, onto the dunes again, and through a trail overgrown with grasses and masses of iceplant.

Every so often the trail would give glimpses of the major dunes beyond

And while we tracked through the brush we got closer and closer to the dunes that so easily served as a stand-in for Arabian and Egyptian deserts for cinema.

 

 And under the chemtrail cross there they were, the dunes stretching off with the tracks left by other explorers marking the way.

But did we follow a sensible trail? Oh NO! With trust in our trail boss we bumbled forward into the sands, and thus proceeded onto a stretch of the trail that I was utterly unable to document because I was holding on for dear life to my Magnificent Mule as he made his way through sand in which he seemed to be sinking several feet with each step.

There were animal prints in the sand, so clearly this was a route others had followed, but it got quite scary as we wallowed along trying to get back to the beach. 

Not as if we were LOST, because the beach was "just over that ridge" but we were stuck, with no trail leading us there.

We hung around while our trail guide reconnoitered a trail, and we could see her with her fearless Arabian horse going up and down the sand embankments.

He was clearly in his element, his ancestors were bred for centuries for adventures in environments such as this.

Finally she came back with a way out.

Thankfully, we came back out onto the beach. 

Not to worry about us exceeding the speed limit, mule speed is 2.2mph and because we had a lively group of horses we were averaging 2.8mph.

And then we proceeded to weave our way down the beach through all the vehicular obstacles, back to our starting point.

Back to the rigs, and after a sociable snack, back to the highway and down coast 100 miles back to Santa Barbara. Another adventure in sharing a mutual enthusiasm for the equine mode of transportation, with friends old and new.

"...to meet the
spirit that dwells within the land,

 under its sky, in its air, in its
valleys, and on its rises, in its fields, in its waters and its trees--

a mute friend, judge, and inspirer.” 

 
― Joseph Conrad, LORD JIM

 

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