Nacimiento-Fergusson Road

This is the junction that matters. Nacimiento-Fergusson Road leaves the coast here and climbs east over the Santa Lucias, the only road across the range between Monterey and Cambria, and the way my family's generation first came to this coast, by trail, before there was any road at all. Twenty-four miles, steep and narrow, over the summit and down through Fort Hunter Liggett, an Army post, to Jolon and the Mission.

There is no mileage sign at this end. The first one is seven miles up, at the summit, and its miles are counted from there, so add seven to anything it says for the distance from Highway 1. From there it is Highway 101, north to King City or south to Paso Robles.

When Highway 1 is cut, this is how you get out; check that it is open before you count on it. There is a companion guide for that road in this app, King City to the Coast, and it begins right here. If you came over from 101, or you mean to leave that way, take it along.

It tells you Jolon, the Mission, the Hacienda and the summit the way this one tells you the coast. The mail came over this mountain on horseback before there was a road, and my husband Ed carried it. His own story of the trail: his horse came up on a rattlesnake, and what a horse does next is not up for discussion.

It bolted off the trail and over the ridge and out of the country, and left Ed standing in the dust with the mail and a long walk. A good while later he found the horse, and the horse was fine; a horse's leg is a lot of horse for a little venom. The mail got where it was going.