Day 223, Sept 5, Channel Islands Nat’l Park
The adventures just never end, including unexpected ones. Take for example the not-so-fun adventure we experienced Sunday night. While packing for The Channel Islands, the door to Bambi slammed shut with us outside, and the jarring of the slam triggered the lock, and well…we were not quite up a creek without a paddle, but rather outside a trailer with the keys locked inside. Our phones were locked in as well, so we stripped the truck searching for the spare keys which we knew were not there and which we should have had made but which it never occurred to us we’d need. With bile rising in my throat from the thought of how much this was gonna cost and contemplating how many hours this could take at 8pm on a holiday Sunday, I went to a neighboring trailer to ask for the use of a cell phone to call a 24-hr locksmith.
The nice folks next door came over to see for themselves what might be done. All of us stood looking at Bambi, stroking our chins, befuddled that we couldn’t seem to break our way in somehow. But I’d locked tight the windows against the heat, and there just didn’t seem to be any way around having to employ a locksmith.
Then, with a stroke of insight which I can only attribute to yet another answered prayer, I told the boys that if we could just pass tools under the window edge, we could jimmy open the window and I could crawl through. The men immediately went to work, retooled a marshmallow skewer, and cleverly slid various tools between the locked window and the rubber piping, sprung the locks, pulled out the screen material, and voila…I was in!. We were all quite proud of ourselves for having pulled off this breaking and entering.
Aaron says he’s had way too many of these kinds of adventures.
I scoured the trailer for gifts and pulled together a container of fresh blueberries, a bag of candied pecans, and a hand-painted flamingo rock to offer as an expression of my gratitude to our neighbors and thanked them for being the kind of good folk who have continued to bless us on this journey. I told them people like them make all the difference. That and God’s inspiration.
The cruise across The Santa Barbara Channel from Ventura to Santa Cruz Island proved quite eventful as we passed several pods of dolphins surfing in the boats wake. As well, we saw three humpback whales surfacing, blowing, and feeding on the plentiful anchovies in these cold nutrient-rich waters. Accompanying us also across the channel were flocks of huge brown California pelicans and dozens of other species of sea birds feasting on hordes of anchovies. Aaron felt much less seasick and his color improved slightly once he puked up his breakfast smoothie. Poor motion sick boy.
We spent the heat of the afternoon hiking the interior of the island. Hoping to make it to one of the higher peaks about 8 miles in, the heat finally overwhelmed us so we shortened the hike to 5 miles. Parched and overheated, we made our way to the coolness of the black sand beach and the refreshingly cold water to hang out and watch the tide roll in.
Approximately 400 people come to Santa Cruz Island everyday on 3 separate cruises. The vast majority of them return the same day, leaving only a handful of us hardy campers alone on the island overnight. We sat on the beach in the late afternoon as the last of the day trippers cruised back to Ventura leaving us for a quiet peaceful experience on this beautiful and now semi-deserted island.
Three amazing things:
#1- Sunet over the ocean, especially from the high cliffs of an island, cannot be equaled. It literally made me cry.
#2- Miniature adorable red foxes roam the island, unintimidated by humans and ever hungry. Not “bear boxes” but rather “fox boxes” were provided to keep the rascals outta one’s food.
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