Mickey’s Beach
Our last leg of the trip before the wedding was spent around San Fransisco. Mike had to be back to get some work done so Austin, Jonathan, and I decided to try our hand at some sport routes at an area called Mickey’s Beach. It was awesome and weird all in the same. When you hear there is a climbing area that is along the beach with routes well within your reach you cannot say no. Yet, when you read that this area is also a popular nudist beach it adds a new head game to the matter. You only live once so we had to risk it.
One of the great things about going to Mickey’s Beach was that driving from San Francisco we got to cross the Golden Gate Bridge and drive along the pacific coast on the curvy Highway 1. I guess climbers can be tourists too. For breakfast we stopped in Stinson Beach at a place called Breakers Cafe. I mention it because it was the best breakfast we had on the whole trip. If you ever go there Bill’s Breakfast Enchiladas is a sure win. So with breakfast in gut we made our way to the climbing area.
view from the parking lot
The approach was a beautiful little jaunt through patches of wild flowers and shrubs down to the beach. Upon arrival we began inspecting the routes. While dealing with those little nerves that come from your first visit to an unfamiliar crag, I was thinking in my head “few, so far, no naked people.” Then Jonathan says “Did you see it?” Me, “See what?” Jonathan, “The naked dude?” I hesitantly looked across the way and saw what Jonathan spoke of. Darn, there he was sprawled out on a rock for a nice summers nap. Well, to each his own I suppose. You can all consider yourselves warned now. Naked people do like to hang around this area. Anyways, the climbing was fun and turned out to be different from what we were used to. Balancey moves on polished crimps and ledges proved to be a hard days work. Having the ocean waves crashing against the rock to your right and seeing the spray descending on you was a challenging thing to get over in your head but really cool in the same. This was some great out of the ordinary experience for us in-landers and was a really neat place to spend the day climbing.
me on the lower section
Austin mid-route
Jonathan pulling through
I can’t thank my friends enough for being such a great adventure team and am already counting down the days until our next trip. This concludes the California From the Field.