We spent a day exploring Big Sur, specifically partington cove and tan bark trail. Both trails were recommended to us by Tree Bones’ staff. We lucked out finding the trails as they weren’t marked from the highway. It was one of those drive north six miles, look for a dirt road and you’re there kind of things. We didn’t know what we were in for as neither of us hike. Luckily, it was early enough in the morning that it was just the two of us left to explore the area. We climbed rocks, watched the waves crash into the rocky beach and even built our own stack of pebbles. Next, we hiked up to the sixty foot tunnel that leads to the cove where we did a bit of off-trail exploring… Anthony’s idea. We climbed things that no first time hiker wearing skinny jeans and fashion boots should climb, but we made it without falling into the ocean. We found a secluded spot in the rocks with a killer view to have a picnic. We sat listening to the waves and watching seals play in the ocean while eating our little lunch of tuna and egg salad sandwiches. It was one of the better lunches of my life.
After we dropped some of our early morning pre-hike layers off at the car, we walked across the highway to tan bark trail. As we made our way into the woods, we noticed that the majority of the redwoods were charred. We later read that a 2008 forest fire burned off most of the area (it just recently opened back up after being closed for four years). We understood that the trail was 3 miles long, lead to a tin house, then looped back down 3 more miles. We assumed the trail would be marked. We were wrong. We had to do a bit of trial and error hiking before we got on the right path. It was through that trial and error that we came across a waterfall. We hiked along the bottom of the canyon, then climbed up the side, following the narrow dirt trail. We hiked for hours. Hours! My skinny jeans were sticking to me, and my shoulder was aching from the intense hike up. Every twenty minutes Anthony would say, “I think it’s around this corner… it must be!” and it wouldn’t be. We never saw the tin house. I was exhausted and kept thinking we were being stalked by a mountain lion. I was loosing it. It took us forty-five minutes to get down the canyon. As soon as we got cell service we looked up the trail and realized that we were in fact so very close to the end. Anthony was bummed, but I was proud of how much we’d accomplished on our first hike. We learned a lot, like, don’t wear skinny jeans, walking sticks look dumb, but definitely serve a purpose and most importantly, always research the trails before you head out!
