Point Reyes National Seashore

Date: April 19th 2008

Time: 8:30 am - 12:00 Noon

Distance: 8 miles

Elevation change: ~1500 feet

Weight: Mehul 22 lb

It was Saturday evening, and I was alone. Priya and Ved are still in India, actually just leaving for their return journey. Kamal / Vandana were busy with Vandana's grandma, so when I didn't receive Kamal's call the night before, I didn't bother to disturb them in the morning and started my solo journey to Point Reyes National Seashore.

I've an attraction for Pt. Reyes somehow! Especially the road that leads to the location is very beautiful. On the way to the Pt. Reyes, I went thru SF, Golden Gate Bridge and Hwy 1. Driving on GG Bridge at 7:00am reminded me of the SF Half Marathon. Enjoying the beautiful view of seashore on highway 1, arrived at Bear Valley visitor center of the Pt. Reyes at 8:30ish. I grabbed the map from the visitor center and started hiking on Bear Valley trail. Temperature was about 46 ⁰F and it was a bit windy, so I put on another layer of clothing on top of my running attire.

Bear Valley trail is an almost flat trail that leads to the seashore – roughly 4 miles from the visitor center. The vista at the seashore where Bear Valley trail ends is gorgeous – the creek creates an arch in the rock and meets the ocean. But I wanted some elevation training, so after going just 0.2 miles on Bear Valley, I turned right on the Mt. Wittenberg trail. Besides, I’ve been on the Bear Valley trail may three or four times, so wanted something new. Mt. Wittenberg trail was totally awesome – sudden elevation gain (about 1350’ of gain in first 1.6 miles), much denser douglar fir forest and barely a foot wide trail. I was feeling the 22 lb on my back! J

After about 2 miles of uphill, I reached the Sky Trail, which goes on the top of the mountain ridge. It was very windy, but due to thick forest not much wind was felt at ground level. It would be a mini storm at the Pt. Reyes lighthouse. Well, I continued my hike towards the Sky Trail south. I met a few hikers / back-packers on the way. After about a mile on the Sky trail, I took right on the Woodward Valley trail that goes directly west to the ocean. I continued on this trail for a about a mile – and at 10:30 am or so, I stopped. I had some time constraints, so didn’t go all the way to the ocean, instead enjoyed the view of it from the top, roughly a mile away from the shore and returned. At the junction of Woodward Valley and Sky trails, I found a nice cut log and had a mini breakfast on it. I got rid of my “plastic pants” as it was getting hot.

Then I started my journey way back on Sky trail. I was feeling very energetic and lots of creative, positive thoughts were popping in my head. It’s amazing what a 2 week India vacation and nature’s company can do J. Sky trail was not so wide in this area and I yielded to an elderly couple that was coming on the way. I just had shorts at that time and I brushed my right leg with a small plant. It gave me a very burning sensation though! It didn’t look like poison oak, but the burning was such that I realized that it’s not just a bruise. I poured some water on it and rubbed a bit. Another group of on-coming hikers told me that the plant was so-called “stinging needles”. It has a lot of microscopic needles that would cause skin irritation. The burning sense was gone after 15-20 minutes but there was a strange sensation and the area was extra sensitive for the rest of the day.

Anyways, on the way back, instead of taking the same Mt. Wittenberg trail, I took the Meadow trail on my right. The elevation loss was again very sharp. There were indeed a few meadows on the way. It met the Bear Valley trail on a junction of small creek meeting Bear Valley creek (“triveni”!). That spot was 0.8 miles away from the parking lot. There was a constant natural music of the creek flowing parallel to the trail up to the trail head.

I finished at Noon – so the whole 8 miles were done in 3.5 hours. I noticed that I had to stretch hamstrings, gluts and few other muscle groups. Right leg was complaining a bit. It felt funny after I removed my backpack for a while!