Elfin Forest

The mind does wander while hiking up a steep hill.  Recently, I started thinking about people asking where home is for us. I usually say "Colorado." That is where I grew up and raised my family.  Home for us isn't a building or place but matters more who is across the table from us and how our days are spent when we are "there" where ever that is.  Our cozy trailer is a good place as long as it moves from time to time.  I guess for us "home" is more of a feeling than a place. But not for more than 3 months at a time.

We had been missing our hikes and decided to head to Escondido to Elfin Forest. We were glad to get an early start since it gets pretty warm inland and appreciated the clouds of May Grey during the steep climb up the Way Up Trail. 

The creek as we crossed into the Elfin Forest

I have never seen bells offered for use at a trailhead for mountain bikers.

Olivenhain Reservoir and Dam is a good thinking place. It helps that there was a good breeze to cool us down.

The Elfin Forest is not only great for hiking but also for delving deeper into the mysteries that surround this area and is rumored to be haunted with hundreds of stories and sightings.

The most popular myth is about the white witch. As the story goes, her husband and son were murdered out here a long time ago. Rumor has is she is still looking for her family, or the person who murdered them. There are also stories of the Northern Diegueno Indians haunting these grounds.

We didn't feel any spirits. We just sweated a lot. Maybe the bike bells help scatter the spirits...

This was a fat horned toad that would not move wither than his eyes would blink. Maybe, he thought we didn't see him or the sun just felt good.

Yep, we made it clear to the top. The lake is on the other side.

What makes your home a "Home"? We like to hear your stories.

Living at Paradise by the Sea RV Resort

 

Fulltime work in most hospital is three 12 hour shifts. I have found that many California nurses try to work 4 per week. They are paid very well here but the cost of living off sets that. It takes about 6 months to train an ICU nurse to be able to work on their own. After that training period, many choose to move on due to stress, demands of the shift and performance expectations. I have left for short periods to regain my sanity but been able to return after stints in other areas. We came to Oceanside because of a crisis situation giving a higher pay rate. This happens a lot in ICUs across the US. I don't really see a solution in the near future.

When we decided to live in our travel trailer while I worked my contract, we weren't sure how we would like it after having very nice furnished apartments. This place is pretty darn nice and working out just fine.

There is a little garden next to the laundry to relax and read.

A place to relax near the creek.

Showers to get off the sand upon returning from the beach

Small but cozy rv sites

Rarely, do we see anyone when we head to the pool except on the weekends. There is a big influx of people on Fridays and most leave on Sunday. They head across the street to the beach for the day.



 

Yoga every morning in the park for $10 at 9am.

I wonder what the future holds for healthcare but feel fortunate to have had a career that gave me so many opportunities. We have traveled and lived in some great places. I worked on the ski patrol as a nurse at Monarch so my children could learn to ski and was able to help a new expectant mom on the ferry as we traveled to work with the natives in Alaska and paid with pie.  I know it was a good choice I made when I was pretty darn young and am glad that Mike is so ready to try about anything I come up with.

 

 I know I am sounding sentimental as we move on from this chapter of our lives over the next few weeks. Don't get me wrong. We are more than ready for the next chapter.

 

 

Cabrillo National Park

I misread my calendar and went to work on my day off on Friday the 13th. It was good day not to work even though they offered me the opportunity to stay.  With the entire unexpected day off ahead of us, we decided to check out the tide pools of Point Loma arriving an hour before low tide. We have always enjoyed walking in the tide pools and caves. I had fallen while we were in La Jolla's tide pools even with gripped shoes. This time I stayed upright.

The splash from the high tides made some interesting sculptures in the sand. 

At mid tide, these rocks are covered by the waves. 

The pelicans would just float above our heads along the edge of the cliffs.

Clusters of barnacles

anemone

We had see plenty of limpet shells but never with its snail until today.

Coast guard lighthouse

The park offers a view of San Diego's harbor and skyline, as well as Coronado and Naval Air Station North Island. On clear days, a wide expanse of the Pacific Ocean, Tijuana, and Mexico's Coronado Islands are also visible.

Cabrillo National Monument is located at the southern tip of the Point Loma Peninsula in San Diego, California. It commemorates the landing of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo at San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542

The Old Point Loma Lighthouse is the highest point in the park and has been a San Diego icon since 1855. The lighthouse was closed in 1891, and a new one opened at a lower elevation, because fog and low clouds often obscured the light at its location 422 feet above sea level. The old lighthouse is now a museum.

We stopped at Liberty Public Market near Shelter Island for lunch and checked out the area along with many sailors.

St Elmo Ghosttown

We knew that this area had a lot to offer as far as the outdoors but is also an interesting area with lots of tales to be told. There are plaques as we drive up Chalk Creek Canyon with stories about the Love Ranch and Agnes Vaille that show the hardy ladies of times gone by.

The Agnes Vaille Waterfall in the canyon along Chalk Creek is named after a hardy woman from the 1920s, who had spent time in Paris working with the Red Cross before moving to Colorado.

 Agnes Vaille was an experienced and fearless climber who had scaled a number of fourteeners. She 

decided to ascend Long Peak in January of 1925 but fell, sliding down a snowy bank more than 150 feet, she landed in the snow below and was immobile. When the rescuers came upon her frozen body, Agnes lay with her prized axe in her hand, her head pillowed on her knapsack. At that time, aids such as sophisticated protective gear and equipment for mountain climbers, were not available.

 You can no longer hike to the falls since the trail was closed and rerouted after a family of 5 were killed in a rock slide in 2013. There is now a trail to view the waterfall named for Agnes by a friend who owned the Love Ranch nearby.

Another peaceful place to lay our heads or at least we thought so. I was glad that we were on the opposite side of the campground from the rock slides. Kind of silly to think that short distance would make a difference if it decided to let go again. But our peaceful nights in a very dark valley were disturbed by a critter that won. He would climb under the front of the end cap into the walls and party all night. The second night when he showed up, he was a little less rowdy but convinced us to leave before the third night we had paid for. I bet he went back into his hole and high fived the other mice that he beat us down. He actually creeped me out a lot.

Cascade Campground is way up in that valley between Mt Princeton and Mt Antero, both 14ers. We had no Verizon signal, hookups or neighbors, other than the mouse. The nights were as dark as a cave until the stars came out.



We took the short drive of 6 miles up a dirt road to the ghost town of St Elmo after we got settled at our site.

 Nearly 2,000 people settled in this town when mining for gold and silver started. The mining industry started to decline in the early 1920s, and in 1922 the railroad discontinued service.  It is one of Colorado's best preserved ghost towns. Now, there are 8 full time residents.

This is 4 wheeler paradise with people from all over the US. One guy from Minnesota asked if we knew where to get "high". I guess we looked a little loopy from the altitude. I suggested he check in the general store. Then, they headed up Tincup Pass....

The walk from the campground along the old railroad bed was a nice easy 2-3% grade overlooking Chalk Lake and Mt. Princeton.

 We were feeling stiff and with the discounted rate for Monday thru Thursday and very few people, who could pass a day at another hot springs.

 The Mount Princeton Hot Springs were first frequented by Native Americans.

In 1860, a way station, hotel, and freight depot were built near the site of the present hotel to serve freighters traveling over Tincup Pass, bound for the mines of Ashcroft and Aspen; and over the Altman Pass toward Gunnison.



We climbed down along side the creek to soak in the rocks.

The bathhouse

The grayish white Chalk Cliffs emerge from Mount Princeton and are unlike any other mountains in Colorado. Though they look like chalk, they’re actually made of granite, which changed colors when other minerals leached out of fractures. Legend has it that gold was hidden in the cliffs’ crevices by 17th-century Spaniards and is yet to be rediscovered.

We had planned another day with a hike or a visit to Buena Vista but the mouse won. Creede is not too far down the road and we now have mothballs.