Hiking the Tan Bark Trail

Wednesday 16th October

The camp site was amazingly quiet, especially compared with English sites where there seems to be no limit to how late selfish campers continue to make a lot of noise. Although I'm still out of sync with normal hours I did get some sleep before waking at the crack of dawn.

Our breakfast preparations were more successful, mainly because we could see what we were doing, and we feasted on scrambled egg, sour dough bread, muesli and bananas......and of course, caffeine.

Fortified ready for the day's activities we drove about 9 miles back down Highway 1 and parked at the start of the Tan Bark Trail. One false start meant we had to return to the car for a forgotten item after walking about a third of a mile, but it was still early and we had all day. 

We first visited Big Sur in 2008 when we ran the Big Sur marathon at the start of a 3 week holiday which included a trip to Reno to get married. Later that year terrible fires caused massive damage and devastation to the area and some of the trails, including the one we had chosen today, have only just re-opened. There is still much evidence of the fire but nature has largely done a marvelous job of rejuvenation. 

The trail follows Partington Creek to begin with twisting and turning through the giant redwoods, before climbing approximately 1600 feet to the Tin House, a derelict structure which apparently after completion was only ever occupied for one night before being abandoned. It was hard to imagine why anyone would go to the trouble and expense of building an ugly tin structure in such a beautiful, panoramic spot.........

From the Tin House we followed the fire road as it zig zagged back down through the forest. We stopped before we lost too much height and took advantage of a handy fallen tree to have our picnic and admire the view of the Pacific coast way below us.  Eventually the fire road came down to Highway 1 which we followed the short distance back to the car making one detour down to Partington Cove.  The temperature had risen to the high seventies and we really fancied a dip in the sea but alas, although the cove was very scenic, it was much too rocky for anything more than a paddle.

We headed back to our lovely camp site beneath the giant redwoods to relax for a while and although it would have been lovely to stay there and cook supper, if we had been properly equipped and if it hadn't been dark, we took the soft option and headed down to the Big Sur River Inn where we enjoyed the riverside location, excellent beer and tasty food.