Point Reyes

This past weekend was spent in California, a decent enough place to warm up in Jan. Although the locals complained the whole time of how bad the weather was (rain, wind, temps in the 50s). The original plan was to get out on a bicycle tour. Many things prohibited that from coming to reality- lack of time, travel logistics, family health related issues on my biking partner's side, wedding planning (also Ed's of course), and a bike not yet purchased. Not a problem, we'll just go hiking we said. True. Edward and I headed up to Point Reyes National Seashore for some trail experience. We day hiked two days (should have backpacked, but the food in town was really good) in the rain and wind of CA January shorelines. It was great. The Park staff told us we wouldn't have any fun and that not many people were heading out at all. They then asked where we were from. I said MN. They then replied- "Oh, well then you'll have a great time." Our winters precede us I suppose. The Bay area folks are spoiled and only like to hike in sun apparently. We did run into a couple hearty hikers while out though, including one dude who was hiking from Point Reyes all the way down to San Francisco via the shoreline/hills. Nice. Said he had a week and a half's worth of food and not much of a real plan. Freedom.

We hike just over 20 miles over two days. Not a spectacular distance with day packs, but enough to get out a see some things and feel like we'd gone somewhere. The first day we hiked the Sky Trail to Mt. Worthington (no view at the top, not sure I recommend it, but nice walk through the woods on the way, especially in the fog/rain). There were better views lower where there wasn't as much tree cover. Later in the afternoon we headed down to Limantour Beach and hiked out to Coast Camp and back. Windy, rainy, sandy, and sweet. Be careful of the tides however. There were recently two missing people in the park, both presumed to be swept to sea nearing high tide by sneaker waves. Read up on beach safety before hiking for sure.

The next day we hiked from the Bear Valley Visitor Center down to Arch Rock, and explored some excellent beach area. We had everything from mossy forest with deer (and apparently mountain lions according to park staff) to starfish and clams. Variety.

It was a nice weekend in a part of the Bay Area of CA newly discovered to me.

Hiking the Sky Trail...

Running from waves on Limantour Beach...

Where Bear Valley meets the Coast and Arch Rock...

Arch Rock and the Beaches below...

These starfish seemed to be sneaking off to somewhere important....

Up on Arch Rock...