Marin Segment 6

May 17, 2014

Palomarin Trailhead, Pt. Reyes Nat'l Seashore to Bolinas

     It took three tries but I finally made it from Palomarin to Bolinas along the beach.  The key to success was waiting for a tide that was not merely low but minus.  In order to arrive at the choke point at low tide, scheduled for 8:46 AM, I had to leave the trailhead about 7:15 and Benicia around 5:30.  Not much traffic at that hour but the back country route to West Marin is pretty slow at any hour.  When I arrived at the trailhead there were already four or five cars there.  I was on the trail by 7:25 -- close enough to on time for all practical purposes.  The first leg was the 0.6 mile Palomarin Beach Trail.  Distant views of my destination beckoned.

The low flat area to the left of the point is Duxbury Reef.  That fact that
I could see it bode well for success in rounding the point.

     Once I reached the beach it was clearly headed toward a very low tide.  I walked South over beaches that were variously cobbled, sandy, solid rock, and finally the ridged strata of Duxbury Reef itself.  Unlike my previous visits here, there were actually some fellow humans on the beach -- albeit not very many.  Some clear tracks in the sand showed that a deer had been down here recently as well.  A little waterfall ran down to the sea even with a drought in session.

Drought or no drought, more water than last time I was here.

A lot of this to walk on.

And a bit of this.  The deer had been here since the tide went out.

And a certain amount of this.



Until you get to this.  Duxbury Reef.

     Last time I was here, about an hour late for a merely low tide as opposed to a minus one, I had been stopped by a point of land that descended down into the water.  After an unsuccessful attempt to work my way around, I had to give up that day.  Minus 0.8 feet as opposed to plus 0.8 made all the difference.  Getting there at low tide as opposed to an hour later didn't hurt either.  I scrambled between rocks that had been half submerged before.  Ironically, my hat blew off into a tide pool and I then stepped into another; so I managed to get wet even though the surf was 50 yards away!   (I actually had to compare photos to make sure that this was indeed the same gap that had stopped me before.)

September 2013: impassable.

June 2014: what a difference a minus tide makes.

     Once I was past the gap a the base of the point I continued South past a tangle of fallen eucalyptus toward Duxbury Point.  I decided that I had had enough scrambling over wet rocks for the day and headed inland at the Agate Beach Trail.  From there I followed the streets toward bustling downtown Bolinas.

     The roads led me around past Duxbury Point and down a forested hillside.  A log fall piled up on the opposite slope called for a photo.  As I composed my shot I discovered two vultures sunning themselves on one of the fallen logs.  Benicia isn't the only place with urban vultures -- although the word "urban" better fits Benicia than Bolinas.

Duxbury Point Layers: Sky, fog, sea, reef, dry land.

Wait a minute, those two bumps on that log are alive...

Soaking up rays.

Patiently waiting for my demise, no doubt.

     The road into town led me past two quaint churches, St. Aiden's Episcopal Church and a Presbyterian Church dating to 1871.  (Don't quote me and that may be the date for the congregation rather than the building.)

St. Aiden's gateway.

St. Aiden's detail.

St. Aiden's in all its glory.

Presbyterian Church, Bolinas.

     Around the corner from the churches lies downtown Bolinas.  It has all the amenities, including a public library, a bar and a restaurant.  The Coast Café serves excellent huevos rancheros.  I hadn't really planned on eating in Bolinas and had a lunch waiting in my car.  But it seemed like the thing to do.  Good choice because the trip back to the car went awry -- perhaps as insta-karma retribution for the smooth sailing up to that point.

Bustling downtown Bolinas.

Attn. Rosanna: another library for your collection.

"Think globally: Eat Locally."  I always do.
The food would get cold if I had it flown in from Paris.

Besides, they probably do this better in Bolinas than in Paris.

     I headed out of town on the Bolinas-Olema Road.  After a quarter mile or so I switched to a paved bike path that led up the hill to Overlook Road.  It passed through verdant fields dotted with wildflowers and sprinkler heads.  "Stay out of sewage spray area."  Sounds like a good idea to me.  Just -- with this sea breeze -- don't turn those sprinklers on quite yet!  It was on Overlook Road that I made a key error.  The book Hiking the California Coastal Trail suggests a cross country route as an alternate to Mesa Road back to Palomarin.  Well, they're the experts . . . So only a block from Mesa Road, I turned onto Poplar Road.  Actually, "Popl..." according to the remains of the sign.  Street signs aren't a big priority in Bolinas.  I followed Poplar until I reached what might have been the trail.  An extended walk through the grass parallel to the road soon demonstrated that this wasn't the trail.  Back to the road until I found an official US Park Service trailhead.  At least the Federal government believes in signs.

Jog left at the robin, follow the bike path up the hill.

Sewer spray fields never looked better.

Poplar Road: paved with good intentions and not much else.

This is Bolinas' idea of a good street sign.  Most streets just do without.
The sticker says "Pesticide Free."  The sign?  The fence?

What was the First Noble Truth?  Now I remember:
"All life is suffering."

       From the official trailhead I followed the trail (official trail this time) out across coastal grassland.  But there was supposed to be a way through the eucalyptus grove and attendant gully to my left.  None ever appeared.  Backtrack to the coastline where there is, according to the book a trail around the seaward end of the grove.  Well, sort of.  At first, it was definitely a trail with steps down the steep parts.  But then it got really sketchy.  Can I really get through here?  Yes, I suppose I can.  By the time I was down to the beach I had come to think of this as the WTF Trail -- the W standing for both "what" and "where."  Now all I had to do was re-ascend the hill and get around the next grove/gully.  Simple, eh?  The Buddha warned us -- life is suffering and a blasted illusion, too. 

Your tax dollars at work: an official trailhead.

Tide coming in -- the whole reef was exposed a few hours ago.

We've seen this before from a better -- less vertical -- angle.

This is a trail?  The part between the branches was especially amusing,
Note how the bushes stick out over the trail...

      A steep trail ascended the opposite side of the gully.  I passed through a gate which is indicated on the map.  Then it was simply a matter of following the cliff line (at a respectful distance) till I came to the second eucalyptus grove.  Now just find the way across that gully. But there wasn't a way through here either.  Backtrack again to the gate.  I followed a fence line parallel to the first grove until I came to the theoretical path from the first grove to the second.  Only there was no such trail.  So instead I followed a second fence line at right angles to the first until I was able to cross the shallow upper end of the gully.  Finally I reached the Old Farm Road, the way out to Mesa Road.

What is that human doing out here?  Lost, probably.

Just follow the fence line till you reach another fence.
Then follow that fence line until . . .

You arrive at the Old Farm Road which is where you want to be.  At long last.

     Technically speaking I was never totally lost as in "where on earth am I?"  I was merely lost in the sense of having an approximate idea of where I was, a very clear idea of where I wanted to be, and no idea how I was going to get from one to the other.  Well, all that was past now.  I followed the Old Farm Road to Mesa Road, passing through the midst of award winning cows outstanding in their field.

In Red River the cattle bound out of the way as John Wayne passes through
the corral.  This lot were not easily impressed.

Archetypal rural scenery.

If I had taken Mesa Road instead of the overland route,
I'd have been here an hour earlier. 

      Once I was on Mesa Road it was a simple matter of following it for a couple of miles to the Palomarin Trailhead.  The road, as I noted in a previous post, is about as wide as a two car driveway.  This might be dangerous if there were any appreciable traffic -- which there isn't.  The Coast Guard has a communication and navigation station here, so they claim.  But as a Monty Python fan I suspect it's really a cat detector station.  ("I never seen so many aerials in me life.  The man told me their equipment could pinpoint a purr at 400 yards.") The last mile and a half is unpaved.  Which doesn't make much difference when you're walking.  The lot, which had been empty at 7:20, was now full with the overflow stretching a hundred yards or so down the road.

Mesa Road and US Coast Guard.  Or is it?

"I never seen so many aerials in me life."
With this array, the NSA knows the location of every cat for 400 miles.

Back to Palomarin Trailhead.  A lot more cars than 8 hours ago.

      I was tired and aching in every joint from the soles of my feet to the sutures in my skull.  A nominal 10 miles had stretched out into 12 or 13.  But I had completed the Bolinas segment which had twice eluded me.  On the way back to Benicia I stopped for coffee and a scone at Toby's in Point Reyes Station.  As usual, PRS offered an unusual automobile to admire and with that picture I conclude my true story of how I walked from Palomarin to Bolinas (and back) when the tide was out.

MG sedan.  You don't see those every day.  Except, perhaps, in West Marin.