Sue and I just watched Duane's video of the SanO surf scene and I couldn't find Annette Funicello anywhere. But I just looked out at *our* beach and if you guys thought it was cold there on that sunny Christmas Eve morn then I have a shock for you. It was 18F here when I struggled out of bed and it's all the way up to 24F now... on its way to a foggy high of 32F. Whoopee. We left Moses Lake at 7am on December 19th (Saturday) and arrived at Doheny Beach campground in Dana Point, CA (50 miles or so south of LA) about 6pm the next day (Sunday), had dinner, walked around the campground and went to bed. The next morning we were glad that we had not sprung for the classier "on-the-beach" camp spots because there was a 12-foot sand berm bulldozed up between the campers and the water. For $35 a night we looked across the road and through an empty camp spot at the berm. For $65 a night we could have been even closer to it. I never did see the water at Doheny except once we walked to the end of the berm. Nor could I get a straight answer from anyone as to when the berm went away - if ever. Even so, the place was attractive, clean, and we were close to the showers and toilets. I had bought two 30-watt solar panels before we left and those proved remarkably efficient at keeping us in lights and music plus a couple of DVD movies in the evening. They were about half the physical size of the 33-watt panels we had used on our cruising yacht (Kibitka) in the 1980s and about half the cost (via Amazon). I also had a 7-amp voltage regulator that I didn't bother using as the days were short and the nights were long and we never risked over charging the batteries even though I re-aimed the panels every few hours as the sun moved in its low arc across the southern sky. I found it interesting that although we had used solar panels in the 1980s there were still RV enthusiasts who had no clue what they were and we fielded several queries about whether or not they worked. Every day the rest of the campground echoed to the sounds of generators running but we had a quiet and efficient charging system all day long. We didn't even bring along a gasoline generator. While at Doheny and waiting for the big SanO Christmas Eve morning surfing extravaganza we did the usual touristy things including a visit to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. The swallows, apparently, were still vacationing in Argentina. I was surprised to learn that the entire mission - valued at $55,000 - had been sold by the Mexican governor of California to his son-in-law for a measly $710. I am so glad corruption has ended in the USA. I love the missions but I am ambivalent in my feelings. The history of the missions is mixed. On one hand they unquestionably civilized California (both upper and lower). On the other hand they decimated the populations of those who were already here through sickness and virtual slavery. There is no doubt that California would be different without them but no one knows exactly how different. I found myself wondering why the missions were so often situated miles from the ocean and wondered if they would have been placed differently if the padres had kayaks instead of burros. This is not, as the more cynical of you might think, an obligatory paddling reference. Boats either had to be brought around the tip of South America or built on the Pacific side of the contenent so this made them relatively rare until the California gold rush of 1849. By this time the kayak cultures of the north were well established and there is little doubt in my mind that the craft could have revolutionized travel where the trees were too small to make into dugout canoes. Certainly there must have been plenty of seals for covering. If there had been kayaks we could be marveling at the mission at Nuestra Senora de Newport Beach. Just imagine. The big event for us was, of course, the CKF surf extravaganza at San Onofre State Beach. Lucky for us Mark Sanders led us to the beach or we'd have been on our own miles away. The surf may have looked low and safe to Duane and Steve and Mark and the rest but as I sat there in the 40F temps (warmed to 60 or so later) I was not enthused. The low stuff was fine but every now and then they looked bigger; at least to me. I was also reminded that the previous day I had taken my last antibiotic for the bout of pneumonia the doctor diagnosed ten days earlier. And besides, the sun was getting warmer and there were doughnuts. So I took the F1 off the truck and assured Mark Sanders that it would not break under his weight (he and I aren't that far apart in weight anyway) and, sure enough, he took it out and did well even against Steve's *real* Coaster. The highlight of that morning was, for me, the honorary induction into the CKF music section by virtue of my nearly incoherent rendition of "There Is a Beach in Southern Cal" (to the tune of "House in New Orleans"). Can a Grammy be far behind? Well... ya... it can. I was awed by the talent of the real members of the music section, however. Especially Steve's impromptu rendition of "Mighty Fine Dawg" (a selection well appreciated by the dog's owners) and Barb's unforgettable solo, "Get that thing out of my face!" Tears come to my eyes. We left Doheny Beach campground at 0-dark-thirty on Christmas morning. I made a good-faith effort to keep the hook-up and departure as quick and quiet as possible but I'm sure we annoyed someone even though the place was mostly deserted. Our goal was Monterey where I had tried in the past to paddle in the bull kelp areas off the famous Aquarium only to be thwarted by weather. My Christmas present - and a present to Sue - was a quiet winter paddle with the sea otters. Plus we got in some surfing as there was a bit of a swell breaking against the beach behind the Monterey Bay Kayak shop. We asked another kayaker what the rules for the area were and he told us that the otters make the rules. So we glided into the kelp beds to find ourselves surrounded by sea otters who regarded us solemnly but without fear. I was surprised to see a mother with a pup on her tummy only a few feet from me and we regarded each other curiously. The pup launched into the water as Sue drifted past and ended up swimming along behind me and parallel with Sue. The otters are not tame but they don't seem perturbed by kayakers. Although a 40-foot sailboat motoring into the kelp at 4-kts managed to scatter them pretty well. He scattered us, too. After this there didn't seem to be anything else to do but motor north towards the cold. We picked up the kids (at the Redding, CA grandpa's house) at 11am the next day (Saturday) and we were home in Moses Lake, WA by 11pm that night. The new bicycle for Hailey was unloaded at her house and then we discovered that the throw-out bearing for my Dodge pickup had gone out just as we motored up to the lake house. At least it wasn't inconvenient. Many thanks to the CKF gang who, as usual, treated us as one of their own. If there was any reason to live in SoCal the CKF group would be it. Oh, look... the sun is out here and the temperature is all the way up to 26F. I wonder how you fix a throw-out bearing. Happy New Year Everyone. I'll have some photos of the trip on my website over the next few days. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Craig Jungers wrote: > While at Doheny and waiting for the big SanO Christmas Eve morning > surfing extravaganza we did the usual touristy things including a visit > to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. [snip] I found myself wondering > why the missions were so often situated miles from the ocean and > wondered if they would have been placed differently if the padres had > kayaks instead of burros. If the natives had had watercraft, I bet the padres would have used them. The natives lived a subsistence lifestyle in a climate and time when little contact with the ocean was needed, unlike the cultures to the north which depended on the sea for their subsistence. I grew up just south of San Onofre some 50 miles or so, passing through the mandatory yearly dose of California history in elementary school, replete with the saga of the missions, sans what the natives might have thought of it all. Nowadays, the offspring are getting even with a panoply of casinos, reversing the flow of gold and goods. Now to the real reason the missions were sited inland: They were placed along El Camino Real, which is most places not a coastwise arterial at all, because of the huge salt marshes alternating with sandstone-based peninsulas, some steep-to, some just rounded lumpy barriers to a coastwise walker (who would be a _swimmer_ at the low points). No way a wagon, horse, and burro road could have been maintained closer to the coast. And, the marshes were no doubt an alleged source of bad humours and (perhaps) malaria. Even today, those low areas are a barrier to the sprawl Southern California spawned for the rest of us to enjoy. The peninsulas were extensively used by the natives, for their acorns (made into "flour" after much working in a stone metate' followed by leaching of the bitter tannins from the acorn flesh), for pinon nuts, and for access to the ocean, for fish, pinipeds (rare), and bivalves. As young snorkelers, my buddies found (and retrieved for use as yard ornaments) dozens upon dozens of metate's from the rubble alongside the major reef at the north end of Solana Beach, just south of Seaside, a reef break well-known to surfers. The metates are a gift of the rapid erosion of the peninsulas, to be joined soon (in geologic time, anyway) by the many thousands of multi-million-dollar bluffside McMansions, stop-gap seawalls and concrete facades blown-onto the sandstone notwithstanding. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
On Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 11:07 AM, Dave Kruger <kdruger_at_pacifier.com> wrote: > > If the natives had had watercraft, I bet the padres would have used them. > The natives lived a subsistence lifestyle in a climate and time when little > contact with the ocean was needed, unlike the cultures to the north which > depended on the sea for their subsistence. > I was greatly interested in the missions 30 years ago. There was little mention of the natives other than their involvement in mission work. Last week the tour included a fair representation of how the local residents would have lived prior to the mission. And you're right.... subsistence would be a pretty good descriptor. No complicated structures for them... just a hut made of willow branches covered in salt marsh reeds. With metates for grinding nuts. No mention of boats of any sort. Not a lot said by the native descendant about seafood diets either. The name (El Camino Real) made me think that it was a Spanish/Mexican invention rather than a native American trade route. Or did the padres simply wander up and down in search of native American population centers? They certainly sited a couple of the Baja missions in remote areas (but at least one, Loreto, near the sea). It's interesting to wonder what spurs innovation in a culture. The Chinook and other NW First Nations had access to trees that could be converted into canoes by the simple expedient of burning and carving away the parts that didn't look like a boat. The Greenland Inuit had no such luck. The SoCal cultures certainly weren't well off as a people but looking towards the water may have simply not occurred to them. I know that if I were a friar traveling up and down the coast of California (at least south of Point Conception) I'd prefer a kayak over a burro. I've ridden both and the kayak is a LOT more comfortable. Craig Jungers Moses Lake, WA www.nwkayaking.net *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Craig, If you want to learn more about the Southern California natives, you should stop by the natural history museum in Santa Barbara: http://www.sbnature.org/research/anthro/chumash/daily.htm#Canoes As you can see in the webpage above, they had many skills and crafts, including planked tomol canoes. They just weren't good at warfare, because before the Europeans came, they didn't have a need for it. Duane *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Dave, Actually, the Southern California natives used tomol canoes, which were planked, to get back and forth to all eight of the Channel Islands. The natives at the islands and along the coast relied heavily on the sea for sustenance. There are huge midden piles of abalone shells on all the islands, and they fished and traded. Dolphins were sacred. The missions ordered the natives off the islands and took their tomol canoes away from them. There is a story of some of the natives not liking mission life, steeling back a tomol canoe, and sneaking back to one of islands. Duane --- On Sun, 12/27/09, Dave Kruger <kdruger_at_pacifier.com> wrote: > If the natives had had watercraft, I bet the padres would > have used them. The natives lived a subsistence lifestyle in > a climate and time when little contact with the ocean was > needed, unlike the cultures to the north which depended on > the sea for their subsistence. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Duane Strosaker wrote: > Dave, > > Actually, the Southern California natives used tomol canoes, which were > planked, to get back and forth to all eight of the Channel Islands. The > natives at the islands and along the coast relied heavily on the sea for > sustenance. There are huge midden piles of abalone shells on all the > islands, and they fished and traded. thanks, Duane. Did not know of any of that. The natives down where I grew up may not have done any longer distance seafaring, although I'm sure they hit the abalone hard, now that you mention it. Mine were located very close to San Diego. See: http://www.californiaprehistory.com/tribmap.html Forgot to mention in the earlier post that some of the metates were found pretty far out, maybe up to a quarter mile, indicating long-term use of that spot. If it eroded at the rate of an inch a year, or so (probab,ly a high rate), that would give a distance of about 830 feet. (10,000 years at 1 inch each year) / (12 in per foot) = about 830 feet). Not sure what sea level was 10,000 years ago. That erosion rate might explain the absence of any middens in my memory, although the seashore was so heavily altered by 1955 maybe they were covered up or bulldozed away. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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