Note: Most of the photos here are thumbnails - clicking on them will take you to a more interesting (and larger) view. Some of them are composites of several photos spliced together.
T: Sunday morning seems like a cruel joke - in the wee hours of the morning,
we hear the rain against the windows and the wind howling...what happened to
the great weather we’d had all week? Later in the morning, a patch of blue to
the west gets my hopes up, and we continue with our plans - though not without
making some adjustments in packing warmer clothes.
S: So, we fill up our packs. Terrie carries the "kitchen" and I get the "house." Minimal clothing; layers for adding, mostly. Each with our own sleeping bag. Handy waistbelt packs, which are a nice new acquisition for this trip - they each have insulated "holsters" for two water bottles, with a central pack with zippered pockets for sundry close-at-hand articles (camera, munchie stuff, maps, etc.).
I wish we could've weighed the total package - I figure about 60 lbs., with water, for me, and not much less for Terrie.
T: Being nervous about the weather makes the morning seem to stretch out for hours upon hours for me, but finally we load the car and are on our way. It continues to at least seem clear in the west, though as we actually enter the Point Reyes area we can see banks of fog.<.p>
Our first stop was Bear Valley Visitor center, where we needed to pick up our permits. We'd already reserved two nights at Wildcat camp, and here we added a night at coast camp. We also picked up a permit for beach fires. The camping sites at Point Reyes include grills, but you must pack in charcoal to use with them - no gathering of wood is permitted. For a beach fire, you can burn driftwood that is gathered on the beach. We considered bringing charcoal and items to grill, but the weight seemed too high to add to our packs (oh, weight: I'm guessing closer to 40 lbs. on the packs - the sleeping bags weigh over 4, and it's hard to imagine carrying 8 or 9 of those). Since both campsites are adjacent to beaches, we opted for beach fires. Getting the permits seemed to take longer hours.
Next stop, Perry's deli to pick up our veggie sandwiches for the day's lunch. This, too, we survive. So far we've gotten through the worst of the trip without even needing our knives. Things are looking up.
Finally we get to the parking lot of the Hostel, and are quickly instructed to vacate the parking lot and park by the trailhead instead, which we grudgingly do. The car has been emptied of everything that's not attached, anyhow.
Luckily, as we are parking, Steve's friend, John, pulls up - our shuttle to the trailhead, some miles away. We toss our stuff in the back of his truck and head towards the south end of Pt. Reyes, Palomarin… 
S: …trailhead, near Bolinas. I think John is impressed by our preparedness, and kinda maybe wishes he was going too. However, he can’t go, because I’m using the backpack I borrowed from him.
At about 11:20 a.m. Sunday, we head out towards Wildcat campground, 5.5 miles distant. The sky is overcast, vaguely threatening rain, but we're fairly certain we won't get a downpour - more likely the misty suspension of moisture in the atmosphere that we sometimes call 'rain.'