Trump's public trail

Mr. Donald Trump owns a nice golf course on the edge of Rancho Palos Verdes.  By law, a public trail is required and so I was invited to explore (not by Trump, though).  I ventured down with my son and two friends and their mother.  The walk down is steep so good shoes are recommended.  A less able soul might have trouble and slip.  We hoped to spot some interesting creatures in the tide pools and there were some.  They were very shy, though, so we didn't see much.  However, the day was beautiful, so just walking along the coast was enjoyable.



Then we found this:

It smelled horrible.  A few other hikers were there, too, and a teenage girl in another group described this poor creature as beautiful.  I found it sad and somewhat repulsive.  Later, I read some news articles about a naturally occurring algae that was poisoning sea lions, so, undoubtedly, that's what happened here.  I called animal services to report this sighting.  I have no idea whether they carted this animal away, not seeing any news articles about this specific sea lion.  I did read later about a gray whale that washed ashore in Redondo Beach.  The whale was pulled back into the ocean to decompose back in its environs.

Other parts of our hike were quite pleasant, however.  There were the pelicans that circled back and forth.

And many detours off the path:

We created some rock structures:

The hike back up required every muscle in my body, and I was forced to pause every 20 steps or so.  The kids bounded up as though they were running across a playground.  All in all, it was a good workout that I should undertake more frequently.

This view from the top shows how much seaweed was present.  I would think it would deter surfers, but, interestingly, there were two surfers out there that day. 

I neglected to take a picture of the flagpole.  Fans of the Colbert Report are familiar with it by now.  Next time....