An exceptional 9-day forecast for SoCal: Three unusually cold Pacific storms in 5 days, a 2-day rest, then storm number four. Today's opening act for the 1st storm: A strong NW wind and high surf under partly cloudy skies.
By tomorrow (Thursday), San Diego County could get snow down to 1,000 ft in elevation — only 5-10 miles inland in places. Then torrential rain from an atmospheric river (aka Pineapple Express) swept in from the central Pacific on Friday.
And that prospect made today the perfect day to start my new career as a 2-wheeled Pacific storm-chaser. To appreciate the combined power of wind and sea in these systems, you really have to be near the water -- hence the 8-mile 2-beach loop reported here.
First vantage was a bluff 60 ft (18 m) above North Ponto Beach. The short periods of the storm waves on parade here meant that their source region wasn't far offshore. (I've shown this view before, but not under these conditions.)
This wide-angle shot from nearly the same vantage last fall shows longer-period fair-weather swell from storms hundreds if not thousands of miles out to sea.
Next came a pleasant 1.6 mile bluff-top ride south through the largely deserted Carlsbad State Beach campground. This brought me to a very steep paved ramp down to South Ponto Beach. Decided to walk the bike down through the loose sand drifts already accumulating on the asphalt.
From the bottom of the ramp, I rode the beach south to the South Ponto Jetty at the mouth of Bataquitos Lagoon. My route here followed the "gutter" between 2 parallel beach berms — a pure loose gravel berm seaward, and the packed sand and gravel berm on the left. In between were pockets of loose sand of varying depth. More about riding the gutter later.
Always interesting to watch the lagoon outflow and the incoming waves duke it out between the jetties. The outflow was strong today, but the storm waves were definitely winning.
To improve my rusty offroad skills, I took a 2nd crack at the gutter in the opposite direction. The inner slope of the wave-stacked loose gravel berm (on the left now) is close to the
angle of repose (about 30°) – meaning that it's ready to slide at the slightest provocation.
Riding the gutter without stopping meant staying on the Goldilocks mix of sand and gravel directly in front of my 2.3" hybrid tire here. Too far into the pure gravel at far left, and I might as well have been riding on ball bearings. In the pure sand on the right, I was lucky to get 20 ft before bogging down.
Next it was back up the ramp and onto the Coast Highway to continue south past the beach I was just on. Temporary warning signs like these are impossible to capture in either video or stills. The message here was, "DRIVE SLOW, SAND ON ROAD".
Road-level beaches like South Ponto lose some of their charm in strong onshore winds like today's. Wind-blown sand drifts like these make me especially glad that I swapped the bike's original city slicks for hybrids.
The haze in front of the black van parked at top center was actually a delightful mix of blowing sand and salt spray. By the time I got there, my eyes and nose were full of both.
First order of business at home was to wash the sand and salt out of my eyes. Next was lunch with an Aperol Pellegrino and fresh guac from the farmers' market. Then a good read.