ALERT: Stunning Views Possible
I’m heading to the beach right after church at about 11:45 from Laguna Beach. It’s a beautiful drive down the coast. There are some thin wispy clouds in the sky but it is mostly sunny and warm - about 60 degrees.
I get to the parking lot and get my stuff situated and head down the stairs to the beach. It feels a little warmer than it did yesterday. Still, the thought of getting in the ocean and swimming for an hour is just not an appealing thought right now. It seems like it would be super unpleasant. I am now intimately familiar with this thought pattern and just let it run its course in the background of my mind. There is no way to stop it even though I know that the moment I get in that water, I will feel great and grateful. I just can’t seem to connect with that reality from where I am now but I know it’s out there in the water waiting for me.
On the one hand, it’s like a sort of truth that I hold on to by a thread of faith even though it seems utterly beyond my capacity to believe. On the other hand, I have watched this metamorphosis transpire hundreds of times as the water transforms anxiety into delight. It’s easy to have faith in something I have directly experienced so many times. So why is it that the anxiety of the water persists. Who knows but lets get down there and get on with it.
Right at the ramp onto the sand, someone has put up some very ambitious rock stackings (or whatever the proper term is). I see these here and at Doheny every once in a while and it is always cool but today, whoever did this gave a little extra. There are three stacks balanced on top of a long washed up branch that is hanging a few feet over the sand with one end of the branch stuck in the rocks at the bottom of the bluff.
The tide is low and the beach is exquisite. It is a very similar scene to what was here yesterday. The sand sits under just an inch or two of water for about 50 feet out to just near the surf and all the way up the beach to the point that separates Strands from Salt Creek. There is a sort of two feet deep mote that lines the eastern edge of these shallows and dry sand lies just on the other side.
There are a fair number of people here but it is not what I would call crowded by any means. Of course no crowds are great but then again, what is wrong with people? They must not be aware of this paradise that sits right here. Also, the parking is free (as in requiring no money).
I head out to the water and walk through this luscious wet sandy carpet out to the modest surf. Soon I am swimming south. It feels a tad warmer than yesterday and the water might be a touch clearer. There is also less of a current and wind swell today. I would not say that the water is still but more settled than yesterday.
It’s super nice here. It all begins looking like the middle of summer but as I get further south, the sky seems to dim and become more grey. Then after I reach the south end and start to swim north again, it gets brighter. This pattern persists through the entire swim but all in all it feels pretty bright and sunny over the bulk of the distance. The cold is fine, dare I say good, the whole way. This is easy to say right now when I am dry and warm. I wonder if I would say the same thing when I am actually in the water? I’m pretty sure I would because I remember asking myself this exact question today. Or did I? I think I did? Who can keep track of these things?
My body grows fatigued over the final third of the swim. I feel it in my hips particularly but its not too bad. I’m staring at this mass of wispy cloud to my northwest. I stare into it and watch it ever so gradually glide south. All the while that bald cliff face below the Ritz Carlton inches closer and closer. With the weaker current, it does not arrive at the warp speed it did yesterday but neither does it linger on forever.
I get to the northern end of the beach finally and take in the southern view. I’ve been watching ahead north every now and then the entire way up the beach and as I finally turn around behind me, I am almost startled by the beauty I see staring down to Dana Point. The blue of the ocean stretches to infinity. I wonder what all it is covering? So many fish and dolphins and lobsters and kelp. There’s a shark out there somewhere but I’m not thinking about that here in the water now.
Well it’s back to where I started. The shallows were so nice heading out - I’m looking forward to seeing them again. Soon I get to do just that and yes, just as I anticipated, it is terrific. Where is everybody? Evey once in a while I see local weather alerts in my news feed warning of high surf or winds. It seems like there needs to be a similar PSA issued now of incredibly beautiful beachscapes in the southern Orange County area.
