Stuck on an Island!

September 25 

From Washington State, I meandered my way southward, on the path to an October 1st trip to Santa Cruz Island for Island Scrub-Jay, and then an October 2nd pelagic also out of Ventura in hopes of Craveri's Murrelet and Blue-footed Booby. 

My first stop was to visit Hannah & Erik at the beautiful hotel they manage in Cannon Beach! Hannah & Erik treated me to a birthday dinner - my birthday was the next day. 

September 26

I awoke on my birthday to a surprise view of Haystack Rock, the exact place where I'd come to get Tufted Puffin for the year back in August. 

I hung out the following morning, blogged, walked over to the beach and treated myself to a birthday breakfast. By early afternoon, I  was on my way to Portland, Oregon, to meet up with my friends Dave & Shawneen. Dave and I share the same birthday! I was looking forward to celebrating with them. I arrived to Portland and we spent a few hours enjoying the beautiful weather in their backyard, catching up on the last few years. We ordered Thai for dinner, and they'd been so thoughtful as to order us all cheesecake slices from the Cheesecake Factory earlier in the day. I'd requested the coconut cream. Delicious! 

After dinner, we Zoomed with Ann and Jim, whom I also originally met at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival. It was Ann's birthday too! We are birthday triplets. 

September 27

After a night's rest, I continued southward to Eugene, Oregon, meeting with Katie for lunch, who I’d met on the World Girl Birders Facebook page. From there, I continued south through Ashland, Oregon, meeting big year birder Nicole for twenty minutes, in the rain, at a gas station. I was headed north, and she was headed south. Yes, we are certainly both crazy. 

I left to head to Yreka, California, visiting my friend Mason and his partner, Becca, where we had dinner, caught up for a few hours, and then off to sleep. 

September 28 

By 8 am I was back on the road, en route to see "real" redwoods for the first time in my life! I'd been to areas that have a few of them, but never to a proper grove. The route from Yreka to Humboldt Redwoods State Park was about a four hour drive, with more than three hours being an incredibly remote road with only one gas station about 100 miles in. At some point before reaching the gas station, I looked down at my phone to notice that it wasn't charging, despite being plugged in. I wiggled the cable on both ends, which did nothing, nor did unplugging and replugging. Yikes! I had about 50% battery, several hours to drive, redwoods to photograph, and needed to navigate back to San Francisco the next day. I hoped that there might be one available at the gas station, but upon arrival, I realized there was indeed nothing but gas - not even a basic convenience store - at that location. I continued driving, a beautiful but stressful drive, on a road with a 55 mph speed limit, with random steep 25 mph curves mixed in. The road required so much attention that there was no room left to enjoy the scenery. I  came upon several areas of construction, where there was only one lane, with a flagger. At one of the construction areas, I was first in line to wait. While I was looking down at my phone, zooming in to the one tiny town I would pass on my way to the state park, the woman directing traffic walked up and asked me if I had cell reception. No, I  said, and told her my situation with my phone charger. I  showed her the map and asked her if she thought I might be able to purchase one in the upcoming town. She said she didn't know what town that was, but that she might have one in her truck. She walked to her truck, and back to my car, procuring a short lime green charger. I thanked her and handed her a $20 bill. She refused to take it, and said she only wanted for me to be safe. Hang on, I said, I have something for you. I asked for her favorite color, and then handed her a lavender alarm, along with the instruction manual, and my big year card. We shared a moment of a few seconds where we just looked at one another, silently acknowledging the beauty of what had just transpired. Women looking out for women. It was my turn to go, and she waved me along. The entire thing happened over the course of about three minutes, but it's something I'll remember forever. 

I drove the remaining few hours, and spent the afternoon and evening immersed in the redwoods. 

Later in the day, I found a remote road that was closed to vehicle traffic. Entirely unplanned, I stripped down naked, leaving my clothes off to the side of the road, and just started walking.

It was the single most liberating thing I've done in my entire life. Not a soul saw me - nor did I see a soul. If I had, the trees were so giant, it would have been very simple to hide behind one as people walked by. 

September 29 

I slept in until around 8, spent a few hours enjoying camp, wandered around the restrooms in search of cool moths, and eventually packed up and made my way to Dorian's once again, in San Francisco. After yet another amazing meal cooked by Dorian's wife, Sonia, we went to get amazing ice cream from a town nearby. There were standard and eclectic options to choose from. 

I chose pumpkin pie flavor, and was not disappointed!

September 30 

I was gone early, to meet my friend Teresa, who I'd met in the Rio Grande Valley, when she was visiting, during my heavy border wall activism days in 2017. I hadn't seen her since, and we met for coffee and bagels for an hour or so. 

Next, I ventured down to Santa Cruz, where I finally caught up with Laura and Steve, who are typically volunteers at Estero State Park in winters, but covid has scrambled their plans the last few years. I'd missed them in Portal, Arizona, when I was there in May. I got to meet their brand new puppy, and they treated me to kombucha and a vegan pasta dish for lunch. 

I'm not sure I've mentioned this in my blog, but I'm pescatarian - and mostly vegetarian. It's been a real challenge to eat vegetarian while traveling so much! 

I got to my HipCamp site in Ventura just as the sun was setting. I heated up some canned Minestrone soup, brushed my teeth, took my seasick meds, and crawled into my tent. 

October 1 

The boat trip from Ventura to Santa Cruz Island leaves at 9 am, and I needed to check in by 8:15. Arriving by 8, I was one of the first, and relaxed at a picnic table a bit before taking my place in line to board. I didn't notice any obvious birders around me. 

After the boat was boarded and orientation accomplished, we had a slightly late departure, leaving the dock around 9:20. Despite constant scanning, I didn't notice any murrelets at all. I was slightly relieved, in a way, because I imagined it fairly unlikely for me to concretely ID them without a camera. The first stop was to Scorpion Harbor, where roughly half of the boat got off. The rest of us went on to Prisoner's Harbor , where there are more Island Scrub-Jay reports. A giant group of partiers - a family reunion, I'd later learn - stayed on the boat momentarily while the rest of us - only myself and three other birders - got off and had our own separate orientation. 

We all made a stop at the restrooms before hitting to the trail. Outside of the restrooms, I pointed out the first Island Scrub-Jay. This species is larger and darker than California Scrub-Jay, and the only place it is found is Santa Cruz Island. 

It was fairly tame, and we'd come across more than two dozen more throughout the course of the day. 

Eventually, I wandered back to the dock / campsite area, where two collard and one uncollared Island Foxes were hanging out, and harassing day visitors from time to time. Island Foxes - their own species - only exist on the Channel Islands, with distinct subspecies on each island. 

I showed a non-birding visitor a rare for the area Green-tailed Towhee that was hanging around the white picket fence area, near the dock. He was interested, we chatted for a bit, and then he said he had to go. I looked down at my phone for the time. 3:15. I'd need to head to the boat - we were set to depart at 3:30. Only, I looked up, to see that the boat was already motoring away from the dock! 

In genuine movie fashion, I ran to the end of the dock, hopelessly waving a bit at the end. My heart absolutely sank. Now what? I checked my phone. No service from the dock, and very little battery left. I'd surely be spending the night on the island. And I'd miss the pelagic the following day! I power walked back to the area where some overnight campers were hanging out, and yelled to ask if any of them had cell reception. By the time I walked up to them, one of the men was already on the phone with the boat company, telling them they'd left a passenger. It's okay, the guy repeated back to me, there's another boat coming at 5 pm. I'd already connected with some day users who were there in a private boat, and they had agreed to take me back to Oxnard Harbor, the next harbor up, and drive me to my car. I told them if it's not a problem with them, I'd take a ride anyway, and felt nervous about waiting for another boat to come. 

I rode back with them - two group leaders with four young ladies in the Youth With a Mission program. I  played "What Do You Meme" with the young women on the two hour trip back, and gifted them personal safety alarms as well. 

Once we got back to Oxnard Harbor, I piled into the van with them, and they took me back to my car in Ventura Harbor. I thanked them, from the very bottom of my heart. 

There's more to this story of the missed boat, which I'd learn on my pelagic trip the following day. Watch for the update in my next blog post! 

Year List: 698