Marine Life of So Cal

Garibaldi

It's been awhile since I have been in the water, and I am really craving some nitrogen right about now, but I have a cold that has been kickin my ass for a week. So I thought I would post some pictures I have taken over the last 6 years in Southern California. This the state marine fish, Garibaldi. Aside from not tasting good, they are also protected, and they know it. They are not that afraid of divers and if you get to close to their egg nest they will try to fight you off. I've had them try to bit my mask.

Green Moray Eel

Despite their fearsome looks, they are really timid. People think of them as dangerous, well if you stick your hand in their mouth, yes they will bite you. I took this picture off of Catalina. You can also notice all the red rock shrimp hanging around him taking full advantage of their symbiotic relationship. He promises not to eat and keep the fish away if they eat the parasites.

Abalone

The abalone are finally starting to make a good comeback along the coast of California. Divers used to get them by the bag loads in the 70s and 80s. They were all but wiped out. Now that they are protected, you can see them more frequently. It took me 2 years of diving before I saw my first one. Now I see them all the time.

Octopus

The octopus is one of my favorite animals to see underwater. They are far more intelligent than you ever realized. And masters of disguise and escape. They mainly hunt at night, but you can see them during the day if you know where to look. I took this picture while shore diving in Laguna Beach at Shaws Cove.

Pacific Angel Shark

The most asked question from students when I'm teaching at Sport Chalet is "What about the sharks?" Truth is, ask any diver, and they will tell you they love to see sharks. Despite all the movie and tv hype, sharks are not aggressive. And sharks are not too fond of divers, we are so loud breathing underwater that they know where we are before we are even close enough to see them, and so we usually don't see them. But there are 3 types of sharks you can see regularly in So Cal. The angel shark is one of them. They like to lay in sandy areas and cover themselves. If they think you don't see them, you can get pretty close to them. The most common shark you will see is the horn shark. This little guy likes to lay on the bottom, usually in rocky areas. They get their name from the horn that is sticking out right infront of his dorsal fin.

The third type of shark you will see is the Leopard shark. I don't have any pictures of them. But they usually are 1 to 4 feet long and hang out in the very shallow water, especially in the eel grass. All of them are timid and non aggresive.

Scorpion Fish

These are cool fish to see, but also on of the few poisonous fish of So Cal. If you put your hand on their back and touch one of the spines on their dorsal fin you will wish you didn't. They like to hide out in the rocks, so you have to be careful where you put your hands, especially when lobster diving and trying to get that bug back in a hole. They are pretty docile and if you move slowly you can get close to them.

Sheep Crab

The biggest and ugliest crab you will find in So Cal is the sheep crab. I have seen one where his body was about a 18 inches across, and with those long legs, it looks even bigger underwater. Here's a tip, if you put one on your head to make your buddy and students laugh, you might want to rethink it. Atleast one that is big enough to wrap his legs around your head and pinch your neck.

Sea Lion

Sea Lions are the dogs of the ocean. They love to play and will come to divers looking for someone to play with. They will blow bubbles to be like you and hang around you for as long as they want. If you are taking pictures, be prepared to only get pictures of them, because they will scare off any and all other fish and marine life around you.

If you would like to see more pictures that I have taken around So Cal, Caribbean and Australia you can see them here.

Long Way To Idyllwild

Normally you go camping to get away from it all. But you dont feel like you are away from it all until you get there. You load up your car or truck, sit on the freeway, usually in traffic on the weekend and you cant wait to get there. Your trapped in your car not looking at the scenery, whats there to see on the freeway anyways. Finally you pull off the freeway and get to where your going, and then finally you can start to unwind.

But when you take your motorcycle to go camping, you are away from it all as soon as you throw your leg over it and sit down. This weekend Mike and I rode our bikes to Idyllwild. And we took the longest route we could, and enjoyed every second of it. According to Yahoo maps, if you take the freeway its 96 miles to Idyllwild. The way we took was over 160 miles and we didnt get on one freeway. Mike rode over to my house early Saturday morning and we headed south on PCH to San Juan, stopping for coffee before taking the Ortega Hwy over to Lake Elsinore. Mike fit almost everything into his storage box, I tied down my sleeping bag, tent and mat to the back of my Duc and fit everything else into my backpack.

After another good ride thru Oretga we stopped at the Lookout for a Rat Bastard Root Beer and to stretch our legs. Enjoying the fact that we were taking our time and taking in everything that we could.

Once coming down the mountain and hanging a right on Grand until got to Clinton Keith rd, the ride got even better. Picking roads I found just by looking around on Google Earth, we pieced together a route to get us up and around to Idyllwild. It was full of twisties, hills and just about everything. Roads running thru fields of avocado trees, orange trees and wine vineyards.

There were plenty of signs like this along the way, and every time we saw one we couldn’t help but smile.

We stopped for lunch in Anza at the Cahuilla Mtn Market along the 371. It’s a cool little family run place that serves some awesome bbq. We checked the map to see how far we have gone and even started planning our next trip.

Once we started to go up the mountain it was cool to see the scenery change, and feel the temperature change and the smells change. Just simple things you never experience in a car.

We finally got to camp around 3pm. Idyllwild sits at about 6000 feet so it was definitely cooler up there. Mike made us reservations at a cool campground called Dark Canyon. And in the morning you realize why they call it that. Its tucked in a little canyon and surrounded by tall trees, so not a whole lot of sunlight will actually hit your camp site. Once we got there we set up camp right away and just rested a bit. I brought along my tent, Mike brought his camping hammock which was pretty cool. It comes with a screen to keep out the bugs and a tarp to cover you as well.

After resting a bit we rode down the road a little bit and loaded Mikes storage box full of firewood. We actually got enough firewood for the whole night on one trip. You cant beat a good Enduro with lots of storage room.

For dinner we went to town and ate at the Greek Place. Really good greek food, a bit pricy though. The ride back at night was really cold, at least for me and my summer jacket. But going thru the blind corners and twisties in the mountains at night was something you just have to do atleast once. In the morning we pretty much just packed up, got breakfast in town and rode the same way back. By far it was once of the best trips either of us have ever been on.