At the start of this month I headed down to LA to attend ICWSM. Even though the conference was in the basement of the LA airport Marriot, which is not the most exciting place in the state, I wanted to make the most of my trip south, so I schemed with Alex to drive up the coast afterwards and link up along the Big Sur coast, where Alex pitched me on running up the Stone Ridge trail, which climbs straight uphill from the ocean to the summit of Cone Peak at 5,155 feet. A week before the trip, Alex called me up to plan. “I have an idea…” he said. “But first, a question: do you know how allergic you are to poison oak?”
I set out on Friday afternoon from LA, battling traffic as I made my way northwest. I enjoyed a lovely sunset near Ragged Point, then drove another hour or so north to camp near the trailhead, a short ways up a side road. When I woke up before sunrise, there was a thick layer of fog above the ocean, filling the valleys and making for a beautiful view. I snapped a few pictures, then headed over to the trailhead to meet Alex.
Piedras Blancas Lighthouse
Sunset and flowers near Piedras Blancas
Dusk above San Carpoforo beach
Morning fog above the ocean, looking north up the coast from Nacimiento Road
At 6:30 am, right on time, Alex rolled up and parked next to me. We stepped out of our cars and were immediately hit with a foul smell: there was a rotting deer carcass in the ditch about 10 feet away. An auspicious start. We lathered up with some sunscreen, then set out to find the overgrown trail. The first bit was the brushiest, with plenty of dew to soak us and sharp brush to scratch up our legs (and to get more poison oak oil into our circulatory systems), but it was pleasant climbing through the foggy hillside. We crossed Limekiln Creek in a nice grove of redwoods, then started climbing Stone Ridge in earnest, soon rising out of the clouds. We headed uphill with a few runable flatter spots, with the views getting nicer and nicer as we got higher. It was a gorgeous day! Before long we were at the top of Twin Peak, where we took a short break before a rocky traverse over to the much larger and more popular trail that runs up to Cone Peak. Before long we were at the fire lookout on the summit, where we took another break before starting our run down, down, down.
Crossing Limekiln Creek in a nice grove of Redwoods
Climbing above the fog on Stone Ridge
Gorgeous views out to the ocean below!
Alex doing his thing
Alex and I just below the summit of Cone Peak
The descent loop was nicely varied, with some single track, a fire road, and then the highlight was the lower stretch - running down through Redwood groves above Vicente Flat, then traversing the steep hillside to the south. We hit the highway about 3.5 miles south of our cars, and ran up the road. Alex set a brisk pace up the shoulderless highway, and it was starting to get hot in the sun. The last mile was gently up hill, and I was starting to feel in rough shape after 5000+ feet of downhill running. Soon enough, though, were were running through the new Rain Rocks Rock Shed, installed by Caltrans to help keep rockfall off the highway, and then we were back at our cars - a really wonderful loop run!
Descending towards the ocean as the fog burns off below
Running through the rock shed
We drove back to the Bay Area, where I thought I took the right poison oak precautions: immediately washed all my clothes, showered with Tecnu. We headed into San Francisco for a nice dinner to celebrate Alex’s birthday, and I thought that was that. I spent four more days in California, visiting friends and coworkers, enjoying a great paragliding flight at Mussel Rock, and watching a few more nice sunsets. I thought that all the poison oak risk had been overhyped, but I was so, so wrong… (First a few more photos - scroll on for the epilogue!)
Sunset over Marin County from Mount Tam
Sunset views from Mount Tam
Cormorants south of Point Pedro, near Pacifica
Foggy sunset at Devil’s Slide
Flowers south of Devil’s Slide
Surf blurs in this long exposure at dusk
Epilogue: As I sat at SFO waiting for my delayed flight back home, I felt the first itchy urges. Within a day or two, I had a rash all over my arms and legs, some on my chest and on my face as well, which was decently swollen. Sleeping was awful, and to really add to the fun, I had a nice infected rash in my navel and groin to boot. I somehow even seem to have managed to bring some Urushiol back to Becca, too! All this despite not seeing too much poison oak along the trail and despite trying to be careful. Lesson learned. A week later, with most of a course of Prednisone behind me, I’m much better, but now I can definitively answer Alex’s question from the beginning:
Q: “Do you know how allergic you are to poison oak?” A: “Extremely!”