Awake, O Bright One! Rouse yourself from your long sleep! Breathe deeply and kindle your brief triple fires. Awake! Come out from your gloomy den into the new day! Awake and warm yourself, ease the night's stiffness. Waken, and move! Let us sing together of motion and time in the damp cold dawn. Sebastian arrives with a cardboard suitcase Sealed with a kiss from his mom... Sing, sweet Sebastian Sing so sweet that your melody lingers on. -- Paul Stookey, "Sebastian" All the streets are wet and clean. Sunlight slides in under thin clouds to the east but Santa Monica is clear. Most people are still asleep, dreaming of the electricity about to be transformed into roasted turkeys and mindless noise from illuminated boxes. Out over the Pacific puffy clouds define the fog level; above them is radiant blue. Cold air collects in canyon bottoms, bringing tears along with intense scents of sage and other plants. With altitude comes warmth and light, both greeted ecstatically. Rain has washed the land and every plant sparkles. The mountains end in roiling white, and a river flows hundreds of feet deep in Malibu Canyon. Vagrant breezes puff against my cheeks, ruffling my hair, and a circular rainbow sparkles. Rising wisps of mist bound up the mountain, drawn to dissolution by the new sun. The world is rimmed in ice. Range after range, separated by shadow, rising to a skyline whitened by the fast storm. With a plunge the sun is replaced by cold gloom and occasional rain. Roadbound rocks hide until the last moment down in the big canyon's bottom. Brightening heralds a return to day, promise fulfilled in a long climb against tilted rock planes. The scented world warms and widens. Rippled water spreads singing to the hoizon. Big ships plow it, bigger islands stationary causing refracting patterns and crowns of clouds. Blue here, green there, sparkling, moving. Its song is too slow to hear but with altitude it becomes apparent, a song that includes islands and ships. Where the song meets rock it is audible with booms and whispers. It can be tasted, salt and iodine, seaweed and life, on an easy southward ride. At altitude again, hidden songs come forth. Small water glints, territorial coots squabble, ducks mumble contentedly and hummingbirds seek nectar, with dragonflies sparking. Under old mossy oaks new grass glows amid the old and last year's leaves rustle. The mountain spreads its boney length across a warming gulf. Down and around and south the shining bay unfolds, its long curving line defined by Pacific song with Santa Catalina holding down the world's far edge. Beyond is the blue water. Down and down and east, motor song and ocean song merge under the warm zenith sun. Sleep again, Bright One. Sleep, but not too soundly. Sing to yourself of new roads and ways not taken. Yet. Route Summary

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Route Summary The entire route is within the Santa Monica Mountains of California. From Santa Monica, California, USA: Pacific Coast Highway west to Las Flores Canyon North and west to Rambla Pacifico North and west to Piuma Road North and west to Las Virgenes Road (Malibu Canyon> North to Mulholland Highway West to Yerba Buena Road North and west to Deer Creek Road West and south to Pacific Coast Highway East to Decker Canyon North to Decker School Road West and south to Nicholas Flats Retrace route to PCH via Decker Canyon East on PCH to Santa Monica Top of Page

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