![]() In the morning, after a leisurely – for me – breakfast, I conceded to my blisters and took a more direct route to the wide and sunny Bear Valley trail. In April, the overnight low reached the low 40’s, maybe upper 30’s. I had to hang my hammock over some pretty steep hillside, but otherwise had no complaints. There is also, unpublicized, a water spicket available for use. Each campsite has a table, fire ring and an enclosure to protect your food from ambitious raccoons. The walk-in campsite has twelve designated sites fanning out from a vault toilet. ![]() Happily, I was less than a mile at that point from Glen Camp, though I likely hiked 6.5 miles overall taking the scenic route. I wasn’t at blisters yet, but I could feel them coming. I snuck off to the side here,and found a place to force my feet into the frigid creek. It cuts back inland to cross Coast Creek via a wooden bridge. The trees open up, and you are in for a heavy dose of sea breeze and sunlight. And humid – I soaked everything in sweat with temps in the low 80’s.Ībout a mile and a half past where I picked it up from the Meadow trail, Skyline winds down the west side of the ridge towards but not to the Pacific. It felt strange climbing the hill, until I realized that I was still at about 700’ total elevation. The rest is extant private ranches and a scattering of state and local parks. The thick canopy of trees and brush are all part of the Phillip Burton Wilderness, which actually encompasses about a third of the total peninsula. Point Reyes is a couple notches of Richter Scale away from being an island. To the south it runs roughly under Highway 1. To the north end of the peninsula, that fault line is submerged by Tomales Bay. The heart of Point Reyes is Inverness Ridge, which has been separated from Bolinas Ridge on the coast be the San Andreas fault. This spur trail cuts steeply uphill to the Skyline Trail, which bisects the main ridge forming the peninsula. So I cut to the right, west, up the Meadow Trail. I headed south(ish) along the Bear Valley trail until I realized this dirt road is everyone’s day hike. Get beyond it, and the little maze of day-use trails wandering around the picnic grounds, and the crowds started to thin, even on a Sunday afternoon with good weather. The Bear Canyon Visitor Center is everyone’s first stop, being where the permits come from, and correspondingly crowded. In the case of the Glen Campground, where I had a ($20) permit, this meant about 5 miles from the visitor center. There are no drive-in campsites in Point Reyes they are all walk-in or boat in. In April of 2018 I scored a permit to camp inside the Point Reyes National Seashore just north of San Francisco.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |