Every New Years we try to escape the ball drop, gun shots in the air, wild parties where amateurs think they can drink and instead head off where we can't find another sole. I don't know if we are getting old, but to me i'd rather just sit around a nice campfire , gaze into the night sky and sip on a cold beer. I guess im over the bar hopping, champagne drinking, drunks running into me typical New Years of yesterdays. Besides, lets face it, now im lucky to stay up till 11pm. So this year we headed up to the central coast near Big Sur. Its a great place to get away with terrific scenery and ocean views around every corner.
So we headed off New Years eve to a spot that we visited last year for Thanksgiving. Prewitt Ridge. Located up in the Los Padres national forest about 4,000 feet above sea level its a great way to escape the smog, riff raff and anything else you can live without. With its location off the beaten path and it being at least an hour away to its closest major city (Monterey) its one of the nicest places we choose to travel too.
Once arrived this was the view from our tent..
A friend of ours met us out via GPS coords and found us within 10 feet. Technology is great, but never a replacement for a real map. He camped with us night 2 and 3. We spent the next days relaxing and shooting some bows that our friend brought.
He was really good..
If you look closely i captured the arrow flying through the air in this shot..
Like i said, he's good..
I couldn't hardly hit a barn door for some reason. But it was still fun nonetheless. Think i lost 2 of Justins arrows for sure.
Yosh had a great time, which i didn't really expect. She even hit the dang Deer before me!!
I was slightly better with the red "rental" bow.. but i still sucked. My arms aren't built for archery. I need a custom bow.
It was surprising how fast your arm would fatigue pulling a 65 pound line back a dozen or so times. Our muscles were simply not used to it, that's all. The rental let us relax a little more because the line wasn't as hard to pull.
Meanwhile , Dixie laid in the sun and snored up all that mountain fresh air.
Justin took a break on his sun deck off his roof top tent. It was pretty funny. Could serve useful in a flash flood situation.
The evening had began and the sunset was terrific.
Dixie proceeded to get into her attack position for the campfire.
We got the campfire going and after a bit i tossed on some new york bone in steaks and some asparagus. Nothing like cooking over a campfire to get that smokey taste.
For desert we tried out our cool little cast iron muffin maker by putting some pancake mix and chocolate chips in it. Left over the fire for a few mins they were amazing and made a great desert with little mess to clean up after.
I dont know which one was better, the desert or the steaks.
The next morning came all too quickly like it always does in the field. The night was a windy one and i didn't get much sleep. So i was really looking forward to having some good coffee. Justin had a surprise on this trip and popped these out of his bag..
Who needs Starbucks when you have Soco and Jack with you?
After eating breakfast and relaxing Yosh, Dixie and i hiked around a bit. We found a small pond not far from our camp.
Funny, last year at Thanksgiving it didn't even exist. It looks like a run off from the rain that comes down the hill. Next i found a couple cool trees. I can't say enough how beautiful some of this terrain is.
Up atop a lookout where hang gliders jump is a spectacular view.
A look to the north towards Monterey. PCH is just down at the bottom of the photo.
After another relaxing day, we enjoyed a nice fire and another beautiful sunset. This will never get old. Its hard to get tired of such beauty.
Shot of camp right on the edge.
It's wild, it almost looks like you are on top of the world and that the ocean looks like clouds. Feels as if you are on the highest mtn in the world for a moment. Not often you get a campfire with a background view like this. This is why we drive 7-8 hours to get to this spot. It's worth it.
The final day came in a hurry like always and it was once again time to return home. But this time we were going to get off the beaten path and not take PCH the whole way. From San Luis Obispo, we would overland across dirt roads, mtns and prairies to get home. This would mean no other cars, no traffic and we were seeing more country. I was excited. This was icing on the cake for me.
Yosh and Dixie were excited too. Smiles from ear to ear.
After fuel and heading off the into the back country we ran into Pozo saloon.
Pozo saloon was built in 1858. If you'd like to read more info about it, see our trip report where we visited it in 2007. It's really a cool place and if you're ever in the area i suggest stopping in for a soda.
CALIFORNIA COAST TRIP 2007
After heading south towards home we hit dirt. We climbed through the wilderness where we saw a bobcat run across the trail and earlier 3 deer. Unfortunately i didn't have the camera out so i couldn't get pics of them.
Dixie slept through most of the way back, like always.
Jack, Justin's dog was up and watching every turn.
The land was really cool. Much of it i had never seen before.
At some point Dixie woke up and wanted to see where we were.
There were a few short sections where we had to take pavement. But we still were the only vehicles out there. It was great.
Old windmill spotted in the distance.
After driving a few hours, we found ourselves in Carrizo Plains National Monument. Carrizo Plains is one of the largest grasslands in California. Little people know about it.
If you'd like to see more of Carrizo plains you can visit our trip back in 2008 here
Justin heading towards the southern end of the plains.
A shot of Soda Dry Lake in the distance.
I was told that these were Caribou , but my 28mm-200mm lens didn't go far enough to quite get the shot as well as i would have liked. They were just off grazing in the middle of the valley as we drove by. Spectacular.
Nightfall was coming and we finished the last bit off highway driving in the dark.
All in all it took us about 10 hours to get home this way vs taking PCH to the 101 which usually takes about 7. But it was so worth it in every way. Not seeing any other cars for hours on end is always the way to go. It was the true definition of "overlanding" and what we are about. We ended up popping out at the grape vine in Frazier Park, CA. Then we had to face reality, traffic and the smog again. We didn't want to get on the I-5. But we knew we had too.
Another great trip in the record books. Quick note: Thanks for reading everyone, you are the reason why i type these up for you. If it wasn't for our readers then i would probably stopped typing these up a while ago. Thanks again and see you all out on the trail someday! - Dave