Today we intended to loaf around for most of the day and we were pretty successful. We got in long showers in our shower pipe, had a big breakfast and settled down for some protracted lounging. After a while, however, we got bored so we hopped into the truck for a local spin.
Not too far down Watsonville Road from our campground there is a side road that takes you a back way up Hecker Pass, which we have repeatedly traversed on our way southwest on CA-152 to Watsonville. We turned off Watsonville Road onto Redwood Retreat Road for about 150 yards when we spotted a big flock of turkeys not far from the road. The males must be getting a bit frisky because they are offering up gorgeous displays of their full, breath-holding size and fanned tail feathers for the females. The females seemed pretty uninterested and merely continued their busy pecking for treats in the grass.
Not 300 yards further we spotted another flock of turkeys numbering more than 30 that were calmly strutting along with the females showing their usual disdain for the males’ exuberant displays and showboating. Another quarter mile up the road and we spotted half a dozen deer browsing around some farmer’s pasture. They looked pretty robust for wintertime. There seems to be no shortage of wildlife in this tiny valley.
We soon turned off Redwood Ridge onto Madonna Mountain Road which initially looked great with real paving and yellow lines running down the center. Very quickly, however, the yellow lines disappeared because the road became too skinny to support two lanes. Not too far after that, the paving quit. We continued up the dirt road for a mile or two before chickening out, turning around and retreating back to the house for a sip and a puff. The turkeys had split by the time we passed their former location so I was glad we got to see them on the way in.
For pictures, click here