Steve and Terrie's Vacation
S: Around 3.5 miles, the trail takes a sharp downward turn, and we round a promontory to see Arch Rock. The trail crosses a little bridge over a rushing stream and meets up with the Bear Valley Trail. We’ve been here before - this is one of the most-traveled trails on the Point (and one of the only ones on which you can legally ride a bike) - it’s about five miles to the Visitor’s Center from here. If we wanted to quit, we could make the right turn and get to "civilization" in a few hours.
We eat lunch atop Arch Rock; crackers, cheese, and smoked salmon. Some stuff just never tastes as good as when you carry it a significant distance and eat it outdoors. Some sort of chemical reaction occurs in the pack; the juices and flavors get rearranged by the incessant jiggling, and released, amazingly, when you bite into it. This applies especially to (a) Clif Bars and (b) dried fruit we brought. A tiny sparrow (wren? tit?) and a big-ass raven watch us eating, obviously used to getting handouts from hikers, but they get precious little from us.
T: Though the wind is still blowing at Arch Rock, the sun is making an appearance and there's more visibility in general. We head back up the coast trail, towards new territory. This part of the trail travels through more of the coastal scrub areas. There's still plenty of lupine and other flowers. Saw some tracks which I think were bobcat - wider/rounder than dog, no claws, but no special appearances were made. I keep falling behind, sometimes from stopping to look at things, sometimes just zoning out. Eventually I realize that Steve is looking as worn out as I feel. We take a break in the middle of the trail, Steve getting out of his soggy socks and into a dry pair. (Later note: obviously we were zoned out and forgot we were carrying a camera along this route...never fear, we remembered later)
S: I realize at this point that I’ve been carrying about an extra pound of water weight in these thick, wet socks. The light, dry socks feel like they subtract two miles from the day’s walking.
T: I like the little turns along this trail, into small valleys where a creek is flowing to the ocean, usually with a small bridge over the creek at a point where the valley narrows considerably towards the inland side. It varies the view, as you're not sure what's around the next corner and there are subtle changes. For its size, Pt. Reyes has an amazing variety of terrain and geography.
S: More often than not, the foliage is so dense you’d really have a struggle if you needed to get to the creek – you can hear it, and sometimes see it, but it’s heavily protected by an arsenal of poison oak and blackberry brambles.
T: As we round into one of these coastal valleys, we're suddenly in the fire zone. The fire in 1995 started near the top of Mt. Vision and raced all the way down to Limantour beach; though the area is a profusion of regrowth now, the evidence of the fire is clearly visible in the charred black skeletal remains of trees.
S: My initial thought is that the trees look like smoke – gray, with charred undersides, wispy branches denuded of leaves...
T: I think we only saw one person along the entire way from Arch Rock to Coast Camp - an older gentleman with camera in tow, going the other direction.
Further up we see the turnoff for Sculpture Beach, so we know we're getting close - less than a mile to go. More irises appear along this stretch, and both yellow and blue lupine. The first time I saw lupine, it wasn't in bloom - the leaves alone were interesting enough to get my attention - pale green with silvery outlining. I can't remember seeing as much of the blue variety before, though it is often photographed with the bright orange poppies.
S: From the wildflower booklet, we’ve learned that lupine is of the pea family. Some of them actually have little pods and they smell like peas. I’m wondering if they are edible… wildflower booklet strangely silent on the subject.