Yesterday, I went down to the Big Sur area with a friend to hike in Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. We thought the warm, sunny weather we were having in the SF bay area would be ideal for hiking. However, when we arrived at the park it was foggy and chilly. Unfortunately, we couldn't see the ocean when we reached the summit due to the fog, but there were some good views of other parts of the park. Logs had fallen across some sections of the trail, making for some interesting climbing and crawling. Overall, it was a good, if tiring hike. (My leg and thigh muscles are still aching a bit.)
After lunch, we stopped off at Carmel-by-the-Sea for something hot to drink, then a walk on the beach. The fog never burned off, and it was still chilly. There were a fair amount of people on the beach, plus a couple of surfers. Afterwards, we headed over to dinner at a fish place near Asilomar.
On the way back, we got into a debate about the difference between CA and east coast highways. My friend's contention was that CA highways don't have nearly as many mileage signs, call boxes, rest areas, etc. She was very critical of I-5, which I think is a bad example to use, because it passes through some very sparsely populated land as it makes its through the Central Valley. It's been almost nine years since I've been on I-5, but I recall there were usually mileage signs about every ten miles. Even if there were none, I never felt like I didn't know how far I had to drive, since I'd made the run from the SF bay area to/from LA so many times I could tell by how far I'd driven how much further I had to go. Anyway, to confirm some of my points, I found an interesting site called WestCoastRoads that has, among other things, a full list of I-5 exits, including many pictures. I also learned from usenet that some parts of I-5 in the Central Valley don't have call boxes because they are cell phones, and there is no cellular service in those areas. I wonder if that is a well-known fact. I imagine most people who use I-5 and have cell phones figure they can use them to make emergency calls if necessary.
After lunch, we stopped off at Carmel-by-the-Sea for something hot to drink, then a walk on the beach. The fog never burned off, and it was still chilly. There were a fair amount of people on the beach, plus a couple of surfers. Afterwards, we headed over to dinner at a fish place near Asilomar.
On the way back, we got into a debate about the difference between CA and east coast highways. My friend's contention was that CA highways don't have nearly as many mileage signs, call boxes, rest areas, etc. She was very critical of I-5, which I think is a bad example to use, because it passes through some very sparsely populated land as it makes its through the Central Valley. It's been almost nine years since I've been on I-5, but I recall there were usually mileage signs about every ten miles. Even if there were none, I never felt like I didn't know how far I had to drive, since I'd made the run from the SF bay area to/from LA so many times I could tell by how far I'd driven how much further I had to go. Anyway, to confirm some of my points, I found an interesting site called WestCoastRoads that has, among other things, a full list of I-5 exits, including many pictures. I also learned from usenet that some parts of I-5 in the Central Valley don't have call boxes because they are cell phones, and there is no cellular service in those areas. I wonder if that is a well-known fact. I imagine most people who use I-5 and have cell phones figure they can use them to make emergency calls if necessary.
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Actually, this isn't true. First, Caltrans is moving towards exit numbers, but even without those, there are loads of milage markers, if you just know where to look. Take a look at this page from my site for information on the post-mile marking system.