San Dieguito Lagoon

Holy wow, I'm so behind on writing! Hold on, we're going back in time!

I was so focused on my fast-track summer school class that I wasn't doing anything other than reading textbooks. I finally decided I had to carve out some time to get outside and drove up the coast on a gorgeous June day. I stopped on a whim at the San Dieguito Lagoon trailhead off of Via De La Valle in Del Mar and set out along a dusty and exposed service road paralleling interstate 5. I came to a bridge and stood in the cool shade while watching swallows fly in and out of mudhuts underneath, their babies poking their little heads out anxiously looking for food.

The trail is not exactly a nature experience, although there was plenty of flora and fauna to observe. The freeway noise was constant and the screams of children on carnival rides at the Del Mar Fair filled the air. I walked slowly admiring a variety of spiderwebs, bugs and crabs on the marshy banks of the river. In the Del Mar parking lot the overhead lights had large nests woven on their tops, and shortly after discovering them I spotted an osprey perched on a wire surveying the area. While I was ogling him through my binoculars a family on bicycles rode by and bid me a pleasant hello.

I was in awe of the iceplant on the banks of the river. I've never seen it so sparkly before! It looked like sour punch candy coated in sugar! Eventually the plant life gave way to sand and I observed several large fish and a group of jellys riding the tide into a protected slough at the end of the trail. In the distance men were surveying for new trail additions that will hopefully complete the Coast to Crest trail. I walked to the end of a series of boardwalks before turning around and returning the way I'd come. As I neared the trailhead I heard something large in the bushes and spotted a homeless man pulling his bicycle out from under a tree. This, I thought, is urban hiking. Not my favorite but it'll do for today. Any feelings of nervousness I had being followed by the man on the bike were quickly forgotten when I noticed a large boulder pocked with seashells near my truck. It's always fun to find fossils!

While it wasn't a very remote or spectacular hike and while I certainly miss my artifact hunting, it was a nice break from schoolwork and it was cool to check out an area I've never been to before. I think I would like to do the Coast to Crest trail when it's completed, and the San Diego Trans County Trail one day too!