Althouse: "That trail is so intimate. You’re almost touching people if not hugging them because you haven’t seen them in ages. I look at the trail with so much gratitude."

July 11, 2017

"That trail is so intimate. You’re almost touching people if not hugging them because you haven’t seen them in ages. I look at the trail with so much gratitude."

"I’ll be sort of sorry to see the bridge go back up. We’re all hiking that trail all the time, but next year how many will still do it?"

From "'Every crisis has a silver lining': why Big Sur's isolation is making people fitter/Winter storms battered this stretch of coastal California, blocking the sole road – but residents forced to leave their cars at home have been feeling the benefit" (in The Guardian).

6 comments:

traditionalguy said...: Even with a road, it's a great place to escape from crowds. It is a hundred mile stretch that is so close to the Pacific Ocean on one side and near impossible to climb hills on the other side, that there is no place for human cultivation or development except for a few isolated patches of flat earth discovered by Hippies.

The Spanish Missions trade route found it to be impassable, and routed their El Camino road back into the central valley to get around it to Monterey where it ends. They called this unexplored area "The South." The old El Camino Road is now the four laned Cal. 101, and the Big Sur got this Cal Hwy 1 built as a FDR's WPA depression era public works gift. It is famous for the bridges they somehow built in the middle 1930s.; 7/11/17, 9:12 AM
MadisonMan said...: From the Article:

Other neighbours grumbled too, he said, despite the benefit: “They may not like it but it’s good for them.”

Damn the inconvenience people! You will feel better in the long run!!

Puritanism is still living in California. It's a good thing when something causes a disruption in the Economy and people have to adjust to the hardship.; 7/11/17, 9:13 AM
Anonymous said...: The copy-editing software at the Guardian is set up so that any time you type "forced" it fills in "feeling the benefit" for you. It does leave it up to you where in the article to insert the shout-out to Castro, however.; 7/11/17, 9:52 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Yeah yeah yeah. All wonderful, community building etc etc etc. for the wealthy retirees and the hippies who have nothing to do anyway. Until....you are the person who has a job in Monterey or Pacific Grove, working a 9 to 5 job or worse, an evening shift.

It is a nightmare. How do you get to work? How do you get home? Who has the time or energy for this extra commute? Some people that we know (my family lives in Pacific Grove) have had to rent hotel/motel rooms, stay at friends houses, rent a room, live in their van. Their employers have been very accommodating but eventually, something will have to give. Kids need to go to school, this next year should be interesting for them.

There are no grocery stores in the afflicted area. Getting supplies, medicines, etc is also a nightmare. How do you get all those supplies over the trail. Pack mule?

It isn't fun, it isn't idealistic, despite how the Guardian tries to make it. It is a giant pain in the ass and is devastating small businesses that rely on tourism.

Nepthene is a great place to go!!! I hope that they can get their business back to speed soon.; 7/11/17, 10:20 AM
SGT Ted said...: The Commies at the Guardian are always celebrating when other people have to do without.; 7/11/17, 10:57 AM
Michael said...: Agree with DBQ here. I feel sorry for the locals who work (worked?) in the local restaurants and hotels which catered to the evil tourists. SOL there in the community solitude. I "ran" the Big Sur marathon a decade ago. Beautiful 26 miles when seen from ground level, ever so slowly.; 7/11/17, 4:14 PM