Monterey, an accidental Pilgrimage…

It’s a beautiful place in color and…



…in black & white.  

It's also a place that I've wanted to visit for a long time, ever since it first popped up on my radar many years ago via Steinbeck’s novel Cannery Row.  I fell hard for that one, in love that is.  In love with Steinbeck’s writing which was not a first for me, but this book, this book with it’s magical setting by the sea and the all the wonderful characters; the schemers, dreamers, the madam & whores, the handicapped & wounded, lost & forsaken, the bums, barkeeps and business men and the mad central character of Doc; the self taught marine biologist, entrepreneur, scientist, art lover, heavy drinker, lover of classical music and women with a heart of gold.  All living and thriving in their own way by the edge of the sea, like so many beautiful sea creatures who live in the near by tied pools and which served as such a rich an vivid metaphor for the ecology of the place and the greater world that the real life Doc Ricketts is credited with discovering.  

When I first fell in love with the novel I had no idea how much of it was based on a real place and the very real people who once lived there.  Slowly, over the years some bread crumbs of knowledge lead me to the very excellent biography of Ricketts written by Eric Tamm;  Beyond the Outer Shores: “The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell” which is simply one of the best biographies I’ve ever read.

So we are finally here after one previous attempt to visit sadly failed.  That happened a couple of years ago when Bev and I were traveling down the coast on a road trip from our home in Eugene Oregon.  

We were headed down to the Baja at the time in my old minivan loaded with camping gear, kayaks, mountain bikes and a thirst for adventure.  Naturally I wanted to stop in to Monterey to visit the famed Cannery Row.  Sadly like all things, it had changed.  It’s now a highly visited tourist spot but still we persevered.  We managed to get one of the last available campsites just a few miles from town.  We then tied to drive to Cannery Row.  There were so very many people and so very many cars that travel was difficult and frustrating and parking was forget-about-it bad.  So that’s what we did, we forgot about it and moved on down the coast.  The experience was such a non experience that I did’t even think about it on this trip down the coast, that is until we were near by, just about 75nm north of here.  Originally we were planing on heading right past Monterey to the Chanel Islands but a very narrow weather window, which only allowed us to travel comfortably only as far as Monterey and what a fortunate misfortune that turned out to be.  

The magic of arriving by boat kicked in right away and we ended up at one of the best parking spots for Malo we could have ever hoped for; right on the beautiful Monterey waterfront and within mere minutes of Cannery Row and the Aquarium, surrounded by seals, sea lions and sea otters. 



We had heard from friends that the Monterey Aquarium was fabulous, so we checked that out and I’m delighted to report that it’s is in fact, at least “fabulous”, probably even better…

On our walk back to the boat we came across Doc Ricketts old laboratory and sometimes home.

  

I was beyond thrilled and even more so to discover an unlocked gate that lead to the back of the place.



Here you can see the Doc's outdoor specimen tanks and his back porch just beyond that.  

This is view the from his place to his beloved tide pools and out to the ocean beyond.  

There is an interesting circular connection that happens in my story.  It was John Steinbeck along with his friend Ed Ricketts that originally got me interested in the Sea of Cortez.  In 1940 the two men charted the Western Flyer, a 77’ fishing boat and her crew to take them down to the Sea for a voyage of discovery.  During the trip, they traveled 4,000 miles of coastline and discovered 35 new marine species.  When they goy back Steinbeck produced a book chronicling their journey; The Log from the Sea of Cortez and it's that book that got me hooked on The Sea.  For me it was much more than the science that got me, it was rugged and austere nature of the Sea along with the tremendously broad and reach sea life it contains. 

On our trip, Bev and I will be traveling in their wake, traveling in the wake of giants and I can’t imagine a better wake to follow anywhere…