Point Reyes

This post should catch me all up :). Over this last weekend I did a two night backpacking trip in Point Reyes with Donna. August has been a crazy month of camping and backpacking and all the preparations in between. Great way to end the summer.

This would be Donna's second time backpacking. Her first trip was only 1.2 miles in, downhill, but with a ton of insects and generally not a very good experience (post 'Eaten Alive by Lions'). Lucky for me she was willing to give it a second try in a cooler coastal setting, but 4.6 miles to camp.

Taking off for Glen Camp at just before 5pm from the visitor center parking lot, the sun was still very hot. It was shady most of the way, but not breezy enough to keep from overheating. The first 1.5 miles is a very gradual uphill and then 1.5 miles of almost level downhill.

Three miles in the Glen Trail splits off and goes uphill steep. It was a little hard on the legs and the going was slow but I took comfort in the fact it was going to be nothing like the uphill I experienced in the Ventana Wilderness the weekend before. Plus hiking out from camp would be much more enjoyable than in.

We got to our camp with about 1 hour of daylight left to set up and cook. The campground has 12 sites, a water spout, and a pit toilet. There is a picnic table at each site, which was nice. Our camp was on a hill overlooking most of the other sites and surrounded by bush for a little privacy. It looked like one of the best sites there.

During the night we could feel the moisture in the air and I was either cold or very hot, there was no happy medium. We woke up to a ton of fog around us and in the trees. The fog never cleared during the trip, which made it a sort of strange fantasy land. We took off for a hike after 9 AM but the fog made it feel like it was hours earlier.

The photo at the top was taken during this trip. There is no color processing done to it and you can see what I mean by fantasy land. The hike took us to the coast and the area known as "Arch Rock" which you can supposedly get down to and walk through. It was near high tide and if there was any beach area it was now under water. We managed to climb down to the arch but the water was very violent moving through it and we could not get very close.

Determined to get to a beach we set off on another trail north, hoping the beach on my map was actually accessible. We were in luck. It was a small beach and very private. Nobody else was around. I took the opportunity to set up a tripod with the camera, turn it to auto fire, and propose to Donna on the beach.

I wasn't sure it would work out because moments after I set up, the tide came in and decided to try to help me level the sand around the tripod.

The entire weekend was perfect. Although the moisture in the air meant drying anything was near impossible, it kept us nice and cool.



oh and she said yes. :)