2025
The first California Walk. The idea had been circling for years. A Camino in the David Whyte sense. A long walk-and-talk in the tradition of Derek Sivers and Kevin Kelly. The California of it all. The adventure of it. 2025 was the first time we said the date out loud and invited people to come.
Vipul walked the whole trip. Ruben joined for the Big Sur leg. On Easter in Monterey, Stuart led us, a guide who knows the California state parks coast intimately. John drove up for that day too.
What the trip became wasn't anything we'd planned for. Two river crossings at Henry Cowell that taught the group what it could do together. A beach walk on Easter. A poison oak afternoon in Carmel that taught us where the line is between adventure and care. A baptismal swim in the Big Sur River that rescued the day. On the drive home, paging through the dictionary, we landed on indelible.
Day 0, San Francisco
Thursday, April 17. A day in the city before the walk officially started. Walking the neighborhoods, getting situated, picking up the last things we needed for the road.
Day 1, SF morning, train and bus to Santa Cruz
Friday, April 18.
Coffee at Sightglass in the Fillmore. We wrote out four intentions for the trip in the back of a notebook:
- Camino. Pilgrimage as a form.
- Walk-and-talk. A conversation that lasts a few days.
- The California of it all. Important to live where you live.
- The adventure.
Then the SF leg: Sutro Heights down the western edge of the city, through Golden Gate Park for a long lunch, and out to the Embarcadero. Caltrain south to San Jose in the afternoon. Bus down to Santa Cruz from there. Downtown by dusk and into the beach house that would be home for three nights.
Day 2, Henry Cowell and the river
Saturday, April 19. Henry Cowell State Park.
The plan had us going from the park to a swimming hole called the Garden of Eden. What actually happened was the river.
The San Lorenzo had to be crossed twice to keep the trail. The first crossing was nervous. The second was earned. From the recap call three weeks later:
Getting to the river was the climax. As soon as we got there, a voice inside me said, we need to cross. It was the clearest thing.
After the second crossing we walked out onto Graham Hill Road, found our way onto the wildlands near the road, and had a big meal of eggs somewhere on the way back. Vipul noticed all the classic cars in Santa Cruz. As if people just have old cars.
Day 3, Monterey, Easter
Sunday, April 20.
Stuart led us on a long hike that ended at the mission. The Monterey he showed us was the layered one: maritime history, the missions, the working coast that runs underneath the tourist version. Stuart's tour is the one to take.
John drove up for the day. He and Vipul walked together that morning. The conversations turned out to be the beginning of a long thread.
A long beach walk in the afternoon. Easter. Tacos.
Day 4, Carmel Valley, Garland Ranch, and the river at Fernwood
Monday, April 21. The harder day.
Ruben picked us up in Monterey and drove. First stop, Garland Ranch in Carmel Valley. A long, beautiful, almost-empty hike up into the highlands. The views from the top look back toward the ocean over a landscape that doesn't look like the rest of California.
Pizza for lunch in the Valley. Then south on Highway 1, the dramatic drive into Big Sur. The road carved into the cliffs. The Pacific dropping away on the right.
We pulled in at the oldest standing building in Big Sur and tried for a beach hike. The trail turned out to be thick with poison oak, and Ruben is intensely allergic. From the recap call:
You were going to keep going. You were going to find that beach even if it took you all the way through that whole river.
We walked back to the van. Ruben was holding his shirt away from his body.
Then the rescue. We drove to the Big Sur River, the one that runs alongside Fernwood Resort, and jumped in. Vipul, three weeks later:
The river was healing in some funny way. Cured it all, whether it was psychological or chemical or baptismal or some combination of the three. After that, we were kind of better.
The lesson that landed that night in the cabin at Fernwood: the adventure we want and the care we owe the people we love aren't opposed. They have to be designed together.
For the record: Ruben healed cleanly. Vipul got a small patch of poison oak on his shin five days later. It was fine.
Day 5, Big Sur backcountry
Tuesday, April 22. The big hike.
Pine Ridge Trail east out of Big Sur Station, climbing into the Ventana Wilderness. The trail follows the ridge through redwoods, then chaparral, then back into forest, all the way to Sykes Hot Springs. A set of natural pools on a remote stretch of the Big Sur River, about ten miles in.
We spent the day on the trail and ended at the river. A baptism in the Big Sur River. The full long day. This was the end of the walking.
Day 6, the drive south with Ruben
Wednesday, April 23.
One last walk into the Fernwood redwoods before pushing off. A blessing:
Thank you to the creatures, the ones who made this amazing setting.
May we all grow as redwoods, 200 feet tall, 400 years old.
May our roots grow 10 feet into the ground, 100 feet across.
May we be connected to every other living thing, every other redwood.
Amen.
Then south on Highway 1 with Ruben, stopping once. Ruben, en route: if you want to climb mountains, climb stairs. Home in LA by evening.
What the walk was about
A first-year walk is partly about doing it and partly about discovering what it is. This one was both.
We learned that an intuition (we need to cross) can be held for a group across a hard threshold, and the group will follow it.
We learned that the adventure we want and the care we owe the people we love have to be designed together. The poison oak afternoon was the teacher. The Fernwood river was the reset.
We learned that the long form (six days, a base camp, day trips, big drives, real talk, real walking) holds something the weekend version doesn't.
Two river crossings. One Easter beach. One Garland hike that broke open into the poison oak afternoon. One blessing in the redwoods. One ride south.
The walk started as a thing we thought we might do. By Day 4 it was something larger. By Day 6 it was indelible.
People
- Vipul. Full trip. Co-planner. The stable other.
- Ruben. Joined for Big Sur. Drove the leg south to LA. If you want to climb mountains, climb stairs.
- Stuart. Guide on the Monterey and Carmel coast for the California state parks. The Easter tour.
- John. Joined for Easter Monterey. The beginning of a long thread.