On Christmas day I went to the beach and was binocularizing the huge rocks out off the beach, when I saw something move other than a wave or a bird, it was one of over 100 sea lions on the rocks out there. It was a raining, ocean misty day so the photo is not so good, but to give perspective so you can find them the rock is 100 x 400 ft and they look like slugs up along the top edge all the way down the slope. I drove further down to a cape lookout and saw the rock at an entirely different angle and you could see where the sealions had smoothed the rock with their blubbery bellies as they climbed it over the eons of time, resting on this rock, they, of course have favorites they frequent.
Yesterday went the other direction and hiked the trails above and along the beach, there are "Beware of Bears" signs posted so I clapped my hands and yelled "Hey bear bear bear" as I went along my merry way, no one was there but me but if anyone heard me I would have felt "silly". Got out to the cliffs and beaches and stayed back for undercuts are likely, no way to see if they are there or not. The wind gusts were mind-blowing and so much fun. I scoped out the tree conditions and stayed clear of broken limbs and figured even though these gust are strong to me, they are a 'day in the park" to these rugged trees.
I saw squall after squall out on the horizon amidst sun breaks. A major black squall was headed my way so I high-tailed it back to the truck exactly in time. I had to push on my door to get it to open as the wind was so intense, then once inside there came hail just pooring down. It passed in minutes and the sun was out again. totally cool!
So, this is what it has come to, I have been alone for 2.5 weeks with very few conversations with humans; a seagull flew over my head and I spoke sweetly to it as it passed by and it made an immediate about-face and landed at my side about 6 ft away. So, we held a long one-sided conversation. Of course I knew he just wanted to use me as a lunch stop so I gave him a healthy organic cranberry oatmeal bar. We were buddies for a moment in time.
My Buddy