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A California Beach Road Trip
Dave Cole
NOVA 1 checking in for another report on the new NOVA program. For those who aren't aware of this, NOVA is the Naturist Outreach Volunteer Advocate program. NOVA's mission is to visit various locations to represent and promote The Naturist Society.
On the way to the Western Gathering this summer I decided to follow in Mark Story's footprints and make a road trip out of it. Some of you may have heard of Mark, he's written a story or two in this fine publication. The plan was to visit a few clothing optional beaches while driving up the coast from San Diego to Laguna del Sol near Sacramento.
The Western Gathering is held each year for four days, Thursday thru Sunday. I packed the NOVA-mobile and headed off to my home of Blacks Beach on the Sunday before. The Blacks Beach Bares and I host a picnic each Sunday during the summer so I spent the day there. I left the beach at sunset and started driving north with the intent of getting through Los Angeles that night.
I spent the night just north of LA and then drove up to visit Pirates Cove near San Luis Obispo on Monday. I followed the directions on the Web site of the Bay Area Naturists. If you ever need information on any venue in California, this is the place to start. Pirate's Cove is also known as Avila Beach on most maps. There were a few clouds in the sky as I got to the parking lot and a slight chill in the air, but I had nothing but time so I made the short hike down to the beach.
The trail down is very clearly marked and maintained. I thought it was a very mild hill, not very steep or long. Now I am comparing this to Blacks so keep that in mind. This was a beautiful quite beach in a small cove. The tide was high when I was there so the beach was very narrow. Very deep soft sand with a fairly steep slope up from the water. I'm guessing the beach is about 3/4 of a mile long and sitting under some very big and what must be very expensive homes. There is a volleyball court at the South end of the beach and at high tide half of it is underwater.
I did get to talk to a few people and pass out N magazines, TNS brochures, key chains, and pens. For those of you that have never heard of N, it is the Magazine of Naturist Living published by The Naturist Society, I highly recommend it. There isn't any organized user group that I'm aware of, but there is a small group of regulars that seem to take care of the beach.
I left Pirates Cove and drove up to Santa Cruz to visit Red, White, and Blue Beach for Tuesday. This is a beautiful private beach just north of the city. I paid my $15.00 day-use fee and was directed to the parking area. There is a sign at the gate that says "no cameras" and I asked if I could have somebody there take a few photos with my camera for this story. I was told to talk to Larry, so I went to park and then look for Larry. He found me just after I parked and escorted me around for a few minutes to take my photos.
While doing this I found out that I had parked next to Will Johnson who I had met this past winter at the Magic Circle in Quartzsite, Ariz. (my first NOVA mission). It was nice to have a friend to spend the day with so I didn't have to spend the entire day alone. Will was spending a few weeks there before heading on to other adventures. Again being a weekday there were only a handful of people there. I got to talk to one family that had just come from Laguna del Sol (remember Laguna, I'm heading to Laguna) they said they were planning on joining TNS the next week.
The weather was absolutely perfect and the beach was stunning. The main part of the beach is only about a 1/4 mile long but you could walk south out of the main cove for almost another mile. I was told that there is a good crowd on weekends but this was about normal for a weekday. Something really unique for a clothing-optional beach was flush toilets, showers and improved campsites available. Clothing is optional throughout the grounds.
I left in the early evening and drove up to San Francisco to spend the night at some friends that I know from Blacks. In the morning I wanted to see Baker Beach near the Golden Gate Bridge, and since they only live about five blocks from Baker, we walked down there after breakfast on Wednesday morning. I was amazed at the easy access to this beach. There is a parking lot right next to the sand and then you have to walk about a 1/4 mile to the clothing-optional section. There didn't seem to be any markings so I didn't know for sure where it started.
The sun was out but it was still too cold for me to get undressed. There were a few men that were nude while we were there and it was warm enough later in the day but I needed to get on the road. Baker is a wide clean beach but my friend told me that her and her husband have seen gawkers above the beach with very powerful cameras and that seems to keep many people away. I guess this is a drawback of having the easy access. I didn't get to talk to anybody there.
I left in the early afternoon to head over to Laguna for the Gathering. I had a wonderful time while there and then continued my trip by leaving for home Saturday night about 8:30. I drove all night so I could be back at Blacks Sunday morning for another picnic. I did sleep for an hour during the night and pulled into the beach parking lot at 9:30 AM. I remember saying that I couldn't sit down that day because I would just tip over and there's no telling what my friends would do to me if that happened. I was a little tired when I left at sunset again but it was a very good kind of tired.
Thanks to a little inspiration from Mark and a lot of help from TNS, I got to spend a wonderful week naked all over the state of California. I'm really liking this NOVA gig and will have to find someplace to visit next. For more info on the NOVA program contact The Naturist Society.
NOVA 1, AKA Dave Cole, signing off!
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