I have paddled around Monterey town area several times. I went back once during the following years and paddled from Moss Landing to Monterey but there was still a section of coastline I had not seen yet. There was a group of BASKers planning a whale watching trip out of Monterey and I asked them to help me complete part of my missing coastline. While they were looking for whales I would paddle down the coast to Monastery Beach and fill in part of my missing shoreline. Then they would drive down to pick me up, providing the shuttle.
Joe Petolino was one of the people on this trip and he offered to come with me to Monastery Beach. We launched from Lovers Point and paddled together around Point Pinos at first. The whale watchers wanted to go farther and farther from shore while I wanted to see the shoreline. Eventually Joe and I split off and went our own way. The coastline here is very developed with golf courses and expensive houses. We saw several mansions under construction and I commented that the Coastal Commission seems to have had the opposite effect that it was intended for. Originally the Commission was set up to create access to the coastline (and to protect if from development). But the major effect has been to make it enormously expensive for anyone to build anything near the water. Instead of giving the average guy access to the coast, it has simply made it possible for only the super-rich to afford to build there. If you are not super rich and your family has coastal property you cannot use it. The only thing you can do with property like this is sell it to someone who can afford to spend years and millions of dollars going through the permit process. And the incremental cost of material and labor for building a super-mansion is a small part of the total.
Joe and I stopped at a beach called Shelter Cove (the third cove I know of with that name on the California coastline) for lunch. I was tempted to paddle past Monastery Beach and fill in the last missing section of my map. If I cut across Carmel Bay to Point Lobos it would only add 6 miles or so to the day. However, I wanted to savor the whole coastline, and didn't want to be too late to meet the whale watchers when they came to pick us up. When I mentioned some of these thoughts out loud, Joe replied that the Point Lobos area is spectacularly beautiful and I would find many volunteers to come back and help me fill in that section. So we stuck with the original plan.
Monastery Beach has a reputation for having dumpy waves. Joe suggested going to the south end of the beach which has milder conditions, but as we approached we could see that the waves were very mild on this day. So we just headed in where we figured the beach was closest to the road and made easy landings. When we carried our boats up the beach we found that the San Jose Creek was flowing and had enough water to rinse the salt and sand off our kayaks. After it was clean I didn't want to set my kayak down in the sand or dirt so I picked it up on my shoulder and walked up to the road to look for a grassy spot to set it down. As I arrived at the road our shuttle arrived! Kate DesLauriers was driving my truck and she pulled over next to me and I slid my kayak right up onto the rack. Now that is roadside service!