11-19-2024 Hike

It was colder in the night than the previous evening but not as windy. Not sure why, but I had to get up a number of times to go pee. We had a leisurely breakfast and sat out in the warming sun for a while, then we decided to go for a hike. I probably would have driven up to Gaviota State Beach and hiked from there, but Ann said there was a hike/bike trail linking our camp with El Capitan State Beach. So we took that hike. The trail was paved and in decent shape initially, but it kept getting more overgrown until we came to a fence blocking further access. We decided to go around the fence and continue, and we found that the concrete path had been washed away by flooding. There was still enough path to continue if we were careful, so we kept going. Got through that part and back onto a disused trail that eventually took us to the western end of El Capitan State Beach. That part of the park was deserted, so we found a picnic table and ate the sandwiches we had brought. We met a cyclist from Poland who had started his trek in New York. He was looking to camp there for the night. Continued on into a part of the park where the restrooms were open, then we walked the same way back. The return hike seemed a lot longer than the outbound segment. We got back a little after 3:00. I had thought about going for a bike ride in the afternoon, but I was pretty tired from the hike, so I skipped it. We ended up hiking a little over 5 miles at an easy pace. Had some hot spiced rum with tea when we got back, and it was pretty tasty. Then we made dinner, jackfruit sloppy joes and bok choy, also good. After the dishes were cleaned, it was starting to get cold, so Ann proposed going into Goleta and getting some donuts. We did, at SloDoCo, they were also good but not great. Ann and I played Yahtzee, and she creamed me, with two Yahtzees. Depressing. Back to the campsite (she drove both ways) and to sleep.