Traveling to Big Sur? It’s become quite a hike
Trail built to give residents access to cut-off area a draw for tourists
BIG SUR, Monterey County — After flying his family nearly halfway around the world to vacation in California, Tokyo resident Iain Ferguson wasn’t about to miss Big Sur’s renowned beauty — even if a lot of it is cut off by landslides.
So one morning last week, Ferguson and his wife, Chee, trudged with their young children, Riki and Hana, up one of the state’s newest and least expected trails, a steep halfmile footpath that skirts around a washed-out bridge on Highway 1.
The forested trek provides a singular, if backbreaking, link between Big Sur’s accessible north and its largely inaccessible south, where hotels, restaurants and gift shops that
usually celebrate their isolation on the ruggedly scenic coast are now struggling to deal with too much of a good thing.
The trail was built quickly in March as a lifeline for residents stranded when the bridge failed. But since the state park system opened the path to the public last month, the number of locals hauling in food or batteries has been eclipsed by a wave of camera-carrying tourists seeking a taste of the seclusion.
“We wanted to drive the coast road, and I’d read about the closures, and this was the way to do it,” said Ferguson, whose family hiked the bypass trail to a newly opened visitor shuttle, which took them down littletrafficked Highway 1 to the usually popular Nepenthe for lunch.
“It’s actually a good time to be here,” he said. “We walked into the restaurant and got a table cliffside right away.”
The Big Sur coast has long been blessed by the audacity of Mother Nature as well as tormented by her fury. But despite a history of big wildfires and winter storms along the 90-mile stretch where the Santa Lucia Mountains meet with the sea, rarely has the hardship been so extreme.
Several mudslides this year shut down portions of Highway 1, the region’s main artery, often preventing residents from getting to work or school. The adversity has been greatest in the south, where the shuttered Pfieffer Canyon Bridge and a series of slides — including the massive Mud Creek slide that’s likely to keep Highway 1 closed until next year — have virtually trapped residents.
While a slide near Lucia was partially cleared a few weeks ago, allowing people to travel in and out of southern Big Sur via Nacimiento-Fergusson Road to the east, the one-lane route is so long and twisty that it’s largely impractical. For many, the dirt path around the bridge remains the go-to option.
“There are a lot of people in worse condition than I am walking this,” said one sweaty man hustling up the trail last week, self-conscious of his heavy breathing and trying to get to his job at Nepenthe, where he tends bar.
“I kind of look at this as my daily workout,” he said, a change of clothes tucked in a small pack over his shoulder. “I used to ride my bike and do free weights.”
The earbud-wearing bartender continued his climb through oaks and redwoods, taking one of his final switchbacks past a group of women from Texas headed for drinks and views down the coast.
While some of the locals grumble that their inconvenience has become, for others, a source of entertainment, most seem pretty happy to have company in the woods.
A child who lives on the largely inaccessible southern end and who was trekking north to the movies with her dad, smiled is amusement at a family coming the other way with matching, store-bought hiking sticks.
Meanwhile, a nearby resident placed books in a newly built wooden cabinet offering free reading materials at the end of the trail. A handmade sign read, “Welcome to the southside.”
For embattled businesses on Big Sur’s coast, the trail traffic has been a boon. Most of the tourist-driven spots south of the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge had to shut down when the roads closed this spring. Many have only recently reopened, enjoying whatever bump they can get from the visitors hiking in.
Some entrepreneurs, like Bryan Palafox, went into business because of the trail. He and his co-workers, who initially bought a handful of electric bikes so they could cruise the closed-off roads, have since upped their inventory to 38 bikes.
They rent them for $65 a pop to hikers who want to ride to the dramatic 80-foot waterfall at Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park.
“There would normally be like 15,000 cars on the road now,” said Palafox, after posting an ad for his rental outfit on a bulletin board at the end of the trail. “Our guests see maybe 15 or 20 cars. It’s a really an opportunity of a lifetime to be on the coast.”
With so many enjoying Highway 1 on bike or foot, authorities have had to remind visitors that it’s still a roadway. New signs along the shoulder read, “Active highway. Do not walk in the middle of the road.”
That didn’t stop Bill and Beth Koenig of Monterey from traipsing carefree on the deserted pavement. While the two are regulars in Big Sur, they’d never seen it quite like this.
“Being able to walk Highway 1 without any traffic to Nepenthe, it’s amazing,” said Bill, who rewarded himself for the hike with the oceanfront restaurant’s famous $17.50 Ambrosia Burger.
“People say the burger is not worth it,” he said, “but you have to take the view into account.”
Local fisherman and jeweler David Seefeldt was greeting visitors near the south end of the trail, where he was selling jade stones he had plucked from the ocean during one of his chilly free dives.
“I waited about a week after the trail opened to see how busy it was going to be,” he said. “Now I’m doing well, well enough to keep me coming back.”
While Seefeldt is still drawing a paycheck from his jade, which he also sells on commission at upscale shops in Carmel, he’s had to put the fishing on hold because it’s too onerous to get ice to the coast to preserve his catch.
Business on Big Sur’s southern end remains only a third of what it would typically be during the peak summer season, according to Kirk Gafill, president of the Big Sur Chamber of Commerce and a co-owner of Nepenthe.
Many well-known destinations like Ventana Inn and Spa, Big Sur Bakery and Deetjen’s Big Sur Inn remain closed. The landmark Henry Miller Memorial Library opened with the trail in July, but its managers continue to run a new annex in Carmel because of the difficulty getting to the flagship site.
Still, Gafill and other merchants say the trail has boosted business exponentially.
The path, which begins in Pfeiffer Big Sur State Park to the north and winds up a 500-foot ravine to Highway 1 to the south, was opened to residents March 27. California State Parks completed the project in just three weeks with the help of locals who were desperate to travel up and down the coast after the bridge failed.
“In the beginning, we had zero access,” said Kurt Mayer, owner of Big Sur Deli and the adjacent Tap House, which were among the few places that stayed opened this spring despite the challenge of getting supplies. “You don’t really mention what you did, which was either hiking through the state park, which meant a big fine if they caught you, or going through private property.”
Mayer was commonly spotted in the forest carrying a giant backpack of ice cream, newspapers and other groceries.
Once the trail opened, residents who wanted to use it were required to sign liability forms because it did not meet stringent state parks standards.
“Typically when we build a trail, we let it season for a year,” said sector parks superintendent John De Luca. “This trail was built for one reason, for the emergency.”
About 800 people who filled out the requisite paperwork got passes that they had to carry on the trail. Park crews then continued to secure the trail and add safety features, such as railings and stairs. Only on July 1 was the trail deemed fit for the public.
Once the bridge is rebuilt and Highway 1 reopens, scheduled for the end of September, the trail is likely to close.
As temporary as it may be, Olga Macias expects it will have a lasting impact on her well-being. The 50-year-old housekeeping supervisor at the Post Ranch Inn has been using the trail to commute from her home in Seaside five days a week since March.
“For the first few days, I thought I wouldn’t make it,” she said, as she timed her walk up the trail one day last week, trying to beat her record of 24 minutes. “But it’s become routine.”
Macias said her health has improved and, most significantly, she’s given up a lifelong smoking habit.
“All of my kids have been trying to get me to stop smoking for a long time,” she said. “Hopefully, this is it. I won’t go back. They’ll all be so happy.”