I’m on winter break from work and I have no wheels. The story behind my truck is a long one and it’s emotional for me. So, I’ll skip that part of the story. The worst part, in fact, the only bad part is that no truck means no mountains on winter break.
But I am bound and determined to roam. Who needs a stinkin’ car? I don’t. I can walk out my front door and a half mile later wade in the Pacific Ocean with San Juan Creek and the Saddleback Mountains in view. In fact, times like this forces me to change my routine, my wandering routine (oddly, I get into wandering routines).
Last Friday (1/6) before the onslaught of rain, this wanderess walked a block and hopped onto the county bus – Route 1, which takes the coast (Hwy 1) from San Clemente to Long Beach. I sat at the back of an empty bus and road it south to the county line, past the last stop (Cristianitos Rd) and exited at the first stop on the northbound route. That stop was Avenida Santa Margarita, which overlooks Camp Pendleton Marine base. The trip took about 35 minutes (plus the walk to the bus stop). From there, it was a quick trek through a fast food restaurant parking lot to Trestles Beach Trail.
View of Camp Pendleton from Trestles Beach Trail:
Trestles Beach Trail is a quick dirt path that travels beneath Interstate 5, all eight or so lanes, north and southbound. Take the trail inland, it turns into Panhe Nature Trail which takes you right into San Mateo campgrounds of which I’ve visited once and really have no desire to return.
They’ve cleaned up the graffiti on the pillars that hold up Interstate 5 since I last visited. I was kind of looking forward to seeing the artwork. Some of it is interesting and rather polished. Regardless, graffiti or not, it’s a lovely urban stroll. And everyone on the route is super excited to be there. Why? Because they’re going surfin’!!!
Train tracks run through all San Clemente Beaches. This may bother some. As for me, trains are nostalgic. I’ve grown fond of the train whistle that I hear from my house on foggy nights. So many times I’ve driven a cranky baby to the station so he could be soothed by the trains. Many mornings and sometimes nights I’ve sat in my truck waiting for the train to bring a son home from college. I kind of love trains.
So, back to Trestles Beach. To begin, what is a trestle? The short answer: a type of bridge. And that’s just what you will see at this beach, only about 1.5 miles into the hike, a trestle bridge crossing San Mateo Creek.
I meandered beneath the trestle bridge and spied on ducks floating along the creek. Eventually, I took up residence on the sand and remained there for some time. The weather was chilly, the skies sunny and blue. I spotted another wanderer just like myself on the sand up the ways. I noticed he too unpacked and sat there for a while. Looked like he ate a snack and then was off, kind of meandering without urgency with a pack on his back and hiking pole in hand.
My plan was to hike the sand, or tracks, whichever was available, to San Clemente Beach, then Calafia Beach, and from there catch the bus back home. But as with all hiking adventures, there are always some type of obstacles. On this day, the obstacles were Amtrak workers on the tracks, blocking through access.The tide unfortunately too high to pass along the sand, I slumped down onto a boulder defeated. I had to hike back the way I came, and if I was going to do that, I might as well just hop on the bus and go back home. That’s what I thought at the time anyway.
Fortunately, the hike back was long enough for me to change my mind.
One of the huts along Trestles Beach:
I made the mile trek along Avenida del Presidente, which runs parallel to Interstate Five, still a little annoyed that I could not do my originally planned hike along the sand. I peeked ahead of time using Google Maps, so I knew that I’d come to a pedestrian entrance into San Clemente State Beach campgrounds. And once I found a trail back down to the sand, my annoyance disappeared. (Trails do that!)
Trail down to Calafia Beach:
I’m happy I didn’t just hike out of Trestles and go back home after being thwarted in my plans. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to explore these beautiful, kind of eerie land formations at San Clemente and Calafia beaches. What a spot! I absolutely treasure my time standing here doing nothing.
Wasn’t the greatest of adventures (I didn’t have my truck afterall!). But I don’t regret it. Time well spent for sure.
A quote comes to mind right now from a wonderful Professor (Dr. St. Laurent @ CSUF). He once told his Humanities class (of which I sat so long ago): “Most people say, don’t just sit there, do something! I say, don’t just do something, sit there!” These words astonished me. I think about them often.
No time wandering ever seems wasted. There are no junk miles!
From House of Trestles (near my bus stop for trip home):
7.25 miles approx. (Don’t know stats yet; haven’t downloaded watch)