Barefoot In The Dunes: My First Contact With Thru-Hiking
This is the story about my first encounter with the idea of thru-hiking. On a random weekend social hike through the dunes with some coworkers, I made a fateful decision that forever changed how I viewed backpacking. And changed the trajectory of my life to set me up to be a long distance hiker, ultralight backpacker, and blogger. This post includes a short story, a photo journal, and advice for hiking the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Complex.
How it All Began
One of the coworkers on this fateful hike was Blake, aka Chunky Chuckwalla before he earned the name, who at the time was more of an acquaintance than a good friend. One of the other guys was Simon, who was a future adventure partner for both me and Blake. The other fellow I don’t remember ever having seen before or after the trip.
On this day hike, Blake first introduced me to the meaning of a “Thru-Hike”. I can honestly say I didn’t believe him when he told me about people backpacking thousands of miles, doing 30 mile (or 50 mile!) days, or having less than 10lbs in their packs. He waxed poetic about trail names, some of his favorite celebrity hikers (think: Darwin) and going stove-less. It all sounded absurd to my uninitiated self.
During this adventure, Blake mentioned he was looking for a backpacking partner to complete the Tahoe Rim Trail with: a 165 mile hike around Lake Tahoe. Right then and there, and without thinking as hard as I probably should have about it, I told him I would do the trail with him! This was how it all began.
And so the plan to complete the much shorter weekend backpacking trip of The Hurricane Deck began. We wanted to get more familiar with each other, our hiking styles, and shakedown what gear we had and what we needed. Subscribe to my blog to hear about our shakedown hike on the Deck when I post next.
A Photo Journal: Hiking in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Complex
Planning on visiting the Rancho Guadalupe Preserve?
40°F
The park is only open from 7am to dusk, so backpacking and camping are not an option. Due to endangered snowy plover breeding season, you can only visit between October 2nd and February 29th. Off-roading, firearms, pets, etc are also not allowed.1
The preserve boasts the tallest sand dunes on the west coast, standing 550 feet tall. Nearby are also the Santa Maria River, the Chevron Restoration Site and the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge.1
Check out the Dunes Center at 1065 Guadalupe Street, Guadalupe, CA 93434. Adults $7, Seniors $6, Youth <12 Free (as of December 2023).
You can hike the 2.5 mile stretch of coastline to Mussel Point (aka Mussel Rock), or set out to explore the rest of the 600+ acres of dunes in the preserve. Other options for recreation include fishing, swimming, birding, wildlife and landscape photography, and nature connection.1
Interesting animal species you might see include: “the California least tern, western snowy plover, northern harrier, American Avocet, white-tailed kite, red-legged frog, western pond turtle, mule deer, mountain lion, bobcat, coyote, black-tailed jackrabbit.”2
Interesting and rare plants you might see include: beach evening primrose, magenta or beach sand verbena, beach morning glory, surf thistle, beach spectacle pod, dunedelion, giant stinging nettle, poison oak and poison hemlock.1
Keep an eye out for the rest of the story!
Coming soon is a post about our shake-down hike for the Tahoe Rim Trail. I’ll tell you about what we learned, how we prepared, and share a little about the Hurricane Deck Trail.
Please subscribe to my blog to hear more! If you miss the email, you can always head to the landing page of my blog where all my posts end up.
Resources
- The Dunes Center: https://dunescenter.org/visit-the-dunes/points-of-interest/rancho-guadalupe-dunes-preserve-county-park/
- Trip Advisor: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g32462-d270503-Reviews-Rancho_Guadalupe_Dunes_Preserve-Guadalupe_California.html
- US Fish and Wildlife Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/guadalupe-nipomo-dunes/visit-us
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Kirsten is an enthusiastic, bilingual naturalist with 11+ years of experience as a non-formal environmental educator, 6+ years as an outdoor recreation guide, 6+ years as a content writer, and 13+ years as an eco-friendly horticulturist and landscaper. She has designed and maintained 2 websites dedicated to public-facing environmental and outdoor education information for community consumption. Successfully taught 5 online, multi-week zoom workshop series to 5-10 regular participants on an international scale.
One Comment
Rachelle G
If you meant to leave us hanging…you did! Lol love the pics!