|
Arroyo Seco, June 2004 Background / Map Henrik, a co-worker of the author and Mr. Woods,
originally brought up the idea of the Arroyo Seco Trip way back in early
2003 based on a trip he found on the web authored by Rob van Glabbeek.
It describes a trip were two groups drive to Arroyo Seco, leave
one car at the gorge parking area, drive to the Escondido Campground
through Fort Hunter-Liggett, spend the night at the campground, spend
two days and one night going down the river, get back to the Arroyo Seco
Campground gorge parking lot, then drive back to the Escondido
Campground to get the other car before heading home. This is a lot of driving, especially since the trip
from the Arroyo Seco Campground to the Escondido Campground takes about
1-½ hours each way by car. I
was interested in walking, or perhaps riding a bike, on Indians Road
from Arroyo Seco to Escondido and thus turning a two-car/one-way trip
into a one-car/loop trip. Thus
began my investigation into the condition of Indians Road. If you look at the AAA map below called “Coast & Valley, Bay Area to Southern California”, you can find both campgrounds (indicated by pink triangles but not labeled) and see Indians Road connecting them and running roughly parallel to the Arroyo Seco, however, an arrow points to the middle of the road and states “Road Closed Indefinitely”. After numerous searches on the web and phone calls to the Arroyo Seco Ranger Station I was able to garner that landslides had closed the road but that it should be passable on foot. However, I was not able to determine the number of slides, the extent of the slides, the location of the slides, or even the length of the road between the campgrounds.
So, one weekend in late May Emily and I drove down
to Arroyo Seco with the intention of riding our bikes on Indians Road.
Actually, it was Memorial Day and the park was so full they
wouldn’t let us in, turning us around at the kiosk to be precise.
Having come so far we decided to drive to Escondido and try the
ride in reverse. However, we were stopped by the military police and told
access was not allowed since 9/11.
Note that our entry was denied before we even had a chance to
show our drivers license, registration and proof of insurance, all of
which are required by the military police. Driving back north on 101, having given up all
hope, we decided to try to go back to Arroyo Seco in hopes that they
were now letting people in. The
third time was the charm and around 3:15 pm I set off on my bike on
Indians Road. My primary
goal was to ride all the way to Escondido and in the process see if the
road was passable. Smartly,
my wife remained behind. I
estimated the trip to be about 10 miles each way and guessed I would be
back by 5 pm. After one downhill leading to a bridge the road
went up for many unrelenting and exposed miles.
I only kept going since I knew my ride would be all downhill on
the way back. Despite the
grade and heat the road was in good shape and easily navigated by bike. However, after about 8 miles I reached a saddle and hadn't
yet come across the slide. I
didn't want to continue since: I was already exhausted, I didn't have a
watch, going downhill towards Escondido would mean uphill to get back to
Arroyo Seco, and I already drank most of my only bottle of disgusting
luke warm Gatorade. But I did continue, and shortly came to the slide
that I easily carried my bike across.
After the slide I kept going towards Escondido, going down two
more gentle slopes before reaching a long, flat, and straight stretch of
road. Riding across it I
found an old sign lying on the side of the road indicating that I was in
Hanging Valley. At the end
of the long flat valley the road started to go down again; I conceded
defeat and started back to Arroyo Seco.
At 5:50 pm I found Emily in the day use parking lot that was due
to close in 10 minutes. I jumped the river and then we headed home, stopping in San
Jose for gas and Vietnamese sandwiches. Based on my bike journey I concluded that walking the road at night was feasible and did so about 1 month later with Mr. Woods and Mani, which you have presumably read about already. Just one week after the trip with M&M, I went to Arroyo Seco again, this time with my wife, for a more leisurely overnight trip up and then down the river, details of which can be found under “Arroyo Seco, July 2004” in the Backpacking Section of this site (no, I'm not going to put a link here you lazy bastards!). |
