Mendocino Weekend, September 21st and 22nd 2002.

Once again BASK scheduled a long weekend on the Mendocino Coastline. Competition for the group campsites has become fierce and we had to move our date from the traditional August to late in September. The last few years we have had increasing battles with the park rangers over parking. The group camp allows 40 people but has only 14 parking spaces. The nearby beach which has plenty of parking is off limits at night because, because, well because no overnight parking is a rule and you can’t go against the rules! Last year they solved the problem for themselves by turning away BASKers after the 14th car had registered. This year we determined to solve the problem by reserving almost all the campsites in the park! Once the group site was reserved we suggested that everyone who wanted a parking space should reserve their own campsite. These single family campsites allowed up to 3 cars each and were easier to reserve than the group site.

I drove up late on Friday evening and camped in the back of my truck in my private campsite. Jamie Morgan and Konstantin Gortinski camped there as well. On Saturday morning I went abalone diving and caught two for the pot luck dinner. Then I went on a pleasant paddle north to Caspar Beach and back. In the afternoon I started cleaning and pounding my abalone and had them ready at dinner time for the big pot luck feast at the group campground.

The next morning there were many plans for various different trips on the Mendocino coast. Several people mentioned the Cuffy Cove area and I joined these people. We settled on the plan carrying our boats down the long trail from the town of Elk then paddling north to Navaro where the carry across the beach would be easier than going back up the hill to Elk.

The water was mild and the sky sometimes clear and sometimes overcast. We were able to paddle through the rock gardens north of Greenwood Cove with spectacular views of the arches in diffuse sunlight. The fog moved back in from time to time and it seemed we were paddling into mysterious passages between the rocks around the points. Then the sun would come out again and replace the mystery with beautiful bright scenes to paddle through.

After a much more difficult carry over the sand at Navaro than we had hoped for, we all scattered in different directions to return to our homes.