San Lorenzo River Walk

Waxing Crescent Moon

The San Lorenzo River is not very long. It starts up in Castle Rock State Park in the Santa Cruz Mountains and empties into the Pacific a little less than thirty miles away, near the Boardwalk in Santa Cruz, CA. Until the powers that were did a bit of remodeling in the 20th century, the river caused some pretty big problems, flooding the low-lying areas near its banks several times and wiping out homes and businesses in the process.

That's the Boardwalk on the right, with the roller coasters, etc.

The solution, however temporary it may be, was to build tall levees on either side of the main channel and encourage stabilizing plant growth. The river was essentially harnessed and funneled to the sea. This allowed some very hip development to blossom near the levees, including  bike paths, walking trails, a skateboard park, hoops, beautiful parks, and an art colony that is both upscale and, if I may use the word, fabulous.

The skateboard park scares me, but I guess there are actual humans who can navigate that pipe.

This morning I wrangled Spugly the Spectacularly Ugly Palomino Transporter, through doomsday rush hour traffic to meet Aptos, CA's own Captain Chem for breakfast at the Sunrise Cafe in Soquel to fuel up for a two-hour walk on the San Lorenzo River Trail.  We began the hike in Ocean View Park, quickly cutting down to the trail which was built atop the levees on either side of the river. Ocean View Park is a nice little neighborhood park with playscapes for the kiddies and its own Free Little Library. You can tell that Santa Cruz is a university town by the contents of the FLL. There was a well-used biography of Madeline Albright to name only one of the heady titles begging to gather dust on your nightstand. Ow. I am getting a headache just from thinking about cracking open that baby.

Long live the Little Free Library.

San Lorenzo Park was one of the highlights of this walk, with ducks and lily ponds and grassy playing fields and lots of welcome shade. Right next to the park are a couple of county government buildings with crowded bicycle shelters. Clearly, lots of the county employees use the trail to get to work and store their bikes in the cages during the day. They are not the ones clogging the freeways.

The star of the show, however, was at the turn-around point just past Highway One. It's called The Tannery Art Center, a thriving little community of densely populated apartments and condominiums clustered around upswellings of grand public art. I truly love this place, even though on a Tuesday morning there were no people around who may or may not spoil the very fun vibe (it's not that I distrust my fellow humans, you understand, but, well, there is that potential). This complex has just about everything I like, including full-court basketball, lots of bike racks, and instant access to the trail. Pretty cool.

I could easily move right in and never ever not once ever get inside a motor vehicle again. I might need a sizable cash loan forthwith. Please stand by.

Peace, Love, and Designed Living,

Jim