Happy Accidents

Do you ever have one of those days?

I planned to go to Point Dume (pronounced du-may) in Malibu to see if I could walk from the west beach to the east beach via the beach.  Rocks pepper the beach of the actual point.  So I wondered if at low tide a person could actually walk around (without getting too wet) or was that area always covered in water.  And I couldn't just ask someone.  That would be too easy, right?  I had to find out for myself.

So, I dutifully checked the low tide schedule.  I planned what time I would have to leave my home to be at Point Dume at low tide.  I made sure my camera battery was all charged up.  I was off to check it out.

Normally, I don't enjoy the 405 Highway and will choose an alternate route, but to get to Malibu it seems like the best choice.  As I was traversing the highway, my mind became lost in things I might see, what I might write about it, new ideas I might write about, blah, blah, blah.  I missed my exit.  I got back on the 405 going the other way so I could get on Highway 10 and missed that exit.  After another fifteen minutes of waiting to turn left and following signs in Santa Monica, finally...I was on the 10 and on my way.

So much for getting to Point Dume right at low tide.  No worries.  There had been warnings all day about what was going on with the ocean, which meant much higher than normal waves at the beach.  Maybe I wouldn't get to test my wonder about walking around Point Dume at beach level, but I would most likely see some excellent surfing.  If you don't know by now, I love to watch.

When I arrived at Cliffside Drive hoping to snag a parking spot, there were many vehicles hoping to do the same and the area was abuzz with surfers.  Cool!  I knew this would be some golden filming.

I went back down to park on Westward Beach Road and see what I could see.  Right away I spied a photo op.  Out came my camera and click...memory full.  What?  I knew that I had deleted everything on the card before replacing it in my camera.  What was this?  This couldn't be true.  This couldn't be happening.  So, of course, what did I do?  Try to take about five more pictures all with the same result.  Camera useless.

I didn't drive all this way though to simply get back in my car and drive home.  By now it was a good 75 minutes past optimum low-tide time.  I walked over to see how high the water was on the west beach to see if I could pass.  Way too high.  Denied. (author's note: the next day I returned to Point Dume with my camera functioning...so, I have since included some photos to highlight this blog from my next day trip)

Up the path I went making a B-line for the stairs to the east beach.  At the top of the stairs I could see at least a dozen surfers at the Point waiting to catch a wave.

I descended the stairs greeted by a rocky stretch.  The sand that had been my greeter less than 14 days ago was now covered in rocks.  Don't worry.  The rocks weren't that big and easily navigated.

Now what?

Since I didn't have use of my camera and I'd already discerned I couldn't walk around Point Dume at beach level, I decided to go left.

Oh the things I saw.  A boat motor had washed up on the shore.  Even though the tide was still fairly low, I wasn't seeing any starfish.  Were they hiding?

Then as I got close to the area (which I have circled on the photo included with this blog) I noticed a guy with a backpack and some walking sticks walking close to me.  Since I had never actually walked this far east before, I decided to ask him if he had.  "No" was the reply.  "First time."

Now while I currently don't believe that the coming together of phenomenon in a given moment can be explained by one simple contributing cause, I have since been mulling over how amazing it seems to me that this person I struck up a conversation with was in fact on a hiking trip he'd started in Seattle, Washington.  I find it especially interesting because I rarely tend to engage people I don't know in conversation.

I'm still a little in awe as I sit here at my laptop contemplating what to write next about this.  We exchanged cards.  He asked me to friend him on Facebook.

I thought of him last night sleeping wherever on the beach in his sleeping bag he'd fished from the backpack that didn't really look big enough to me to carry all the things one might feel they would need for such a journey.  Once in July I slept out in a tent and I was cold.  Something about the moisture in the air.  I just couldn't imagine.

What I loved the most is that he, Keith Salender, reminded me as we talked that in my life there have been many times when people have trusted me with their life and their possessions without a seeming reason or knowing me that well.  I know they had every reason to trust me, but I've known me for over 50 years.  And in a world where it seems we are smarter to not trust others (if you believe all the news reports), we talked about how his journey so far was proving to be more of a reason to trust people.

It made me ruminate over the teaching of the Law of Attraction.  Actually, it got me thinking about one of the stories in the book, Autobiography of a Yogi, by Paramahansa Yogananda.  It's been a while, but one of his rites of passage had him being sent out with a friend on a journey to a certain destination with seemingly no resources (including financial ones).  They weren't allowed to ask for help either.  They were simply to have total trust in the Universe.

Anyway, if Keith and I never meet again, I feel blessed to have had the few minutes together we did.  Click here if you wish to be connected to his flickr presence.  He's been uploading some of the photos he's been taking along his journey.  If I remember correctly, his ultimate destination is Pennsylvania...the long way, obviously.  What's the hurry, right?

Did I mention he's doing this walking?  Walking!

I know this is getting long.  I do this as much for potential readers as for myself, especially since I had no camera on this day.

So what else did I see?

Just about the time I hadn't seen one starfish and I was thinking to myself, "hmmm, I guess no starfish sightings today."  I saw one.

I saw white heron.  I got pretty up close and personal.  They didn't seem to care.  Of course, I am no threat.

I saw a sea gull with some sort of something in its beak I can only assume it thought was food.  Try as I might I couldn't figure out what it was the sea gull had gotten a hold of.  With its beak wide open, I got to see its tongue.  My first ever sea gull tongue sighting.  It struck me as sort of funny.  Don't know why.

The portion I circled on the photo, I asked one of the surfers if this part of the beach had a name so I would know how to refer to it later when I wrote about it...what do surfers call it.  "Misstoe" was his reply.

"What?"

"Misstoe" he said again.

"Did you say misstoe?  How do you spell that?"  I asked.

Well, he didn't know.  And a thought popped in my brain.  Okay, remember the word and then look it up on Google.  So, this area is actuallly known as "Misto".

As I stood at Misto watching the surfers ride the waves, it reminded me of when I first moved back to California.  For some reason when I thought of waves surfers would want to ride, I had a picture of the big waves you find in Hawaii during winter time when the surfing contests take place.  So to me, California's waves were wimpy.

Not today at Misto.  This was the first time I could recall where the waves were high enough that you could see the surfer inside the wave and still have wave above and below the surfer.  These were some waves.

By now the sun was starting to seriously set and it was time to start back to my car.  As I was walking back I thought what could make this day any more better (my English teacher would be so proud).  Gray whales!  Wouldn't it just be the most awesome thing if I saw some gray whales now?  Nope.  I swear though, in looking I feel like I saw some dolphins.

I ascended those stairs like a pro.  What?  How does a pro ascend stairs?  Okay, there was a surfer behind me.  And let me tell you, these stairs are one-way stairs.  There is not room enough on them for a two-way passing.  So, I didn't wish to feel like I was holding up traffic.  I was doing pretty good until about half-way up at which point for the sake of my beating heart, I felt like I had to take a pause.  There.  I admitted that.

I'm about to get to the street when I see a man on a bike riding toward the beach overlook.  I swear.  He could have been Ted Danson.  I saw Mr. Danson once at LAX.  Man he is tall and thin, I thought.  Was it him?  Who knows.  I didn't have a camera to figure it out.  So I guess I'm saying it was.  Prove it wasn't. 

About the time I stopped thinking about all of this, I noticed a woman and her daughter walking the trail with their two dogs.  There are plenty of signs around that specifically state dogs are not allowed.  And so I started thinking and riffing about that.  I guess for some people signs are simply suggestions.  And before I get too judgmental, I've been known to view certain signs as suggestions, as well.

Then I started thinking that even if they are suggestions, you'd think people would be better about following the signs.  I mean I would assume Malibu didn't just for the heck of it decide to put up "no dogs allowed" signs at Point Dume.  I'd like to think they had a good reason.  No more than a beat in time later, here comes a man, woman and child walking the trail with their two dogs.  I laughed to myself.

Oh and one other thing I saw, a plastic, purple shovel.  You know...a little kid one for playing in the sand.  How can I be sure?  It's now in the back seat of my car. You know...just in case I ever need to dig my way out of something.