It Helps to Know the Secret Shortcut!

Driving home from work and errands, about 7:45 at night. Uh oh. One of those orange lighted signs is set up in Laguna Canyon, announcing that PCH is closed at Bluebird Canyon. Huh? How can that be? PCH does not just CLOSE!

Found out later that it was due to a - YUK! - sewage spill. As in raw sewage seeping out onto the highway. OK, I guess I would rather not drive across that, and it would be nice if they got it fixed. But how to get home? Up ahead, gridlock. Turn this way, trying for another way, gridlock. The problem of course, is that PCH is a 4-lane highway and the only alternate is a 2-lane street.

I just KNOW there is a way around this mess... and it has something to do with going up the hill and into the winding maze of hillside streets that make up Arch Beach Heights, and then coming back down to PCH. I find the street to turn uphill, and sure enough, there is a snake of cars with the same idea. Up the hill, down the hill. A reminder of how crazy it is that people build houses that seem perched on the edge of nothing. It is nice that the moon is rising as I climb, and as I head back down, what a nice view of the ocean. I never have any reason to drive into this neighborhood, and it really is pretty amazing.

I have no idea if I actually saved any time with my secret shortcut, but at least I got to MOVE, right? Here's a map that shows my detour around the nasty sewage spill at the red X.

Here's a view of the traffic the next morning. Oh yes, I had to do the same thing in reverse to get to work this morning.