We were awake early and watched the sun rise through the trees at the rear of the cottage. Unfortunately there was still fog down in the valley and although it was bright and sunny up on our hillside it was too cold this early to enjoy breakfast out on the decking. In fact it still felt chilly when we set off for our day's hiking at about 9.30am and Martin "Englishman in California" did not shed his fleece until the temperature rose safely to the high seventies!
Just across the road from the cottage is a place where we can cut down to the Redwood Trail which runs parallel to the Panoramic Highway for half a mile or so and this was the route we followed, crossing the road at the Mountain Home Inn and heading up the Hog Back fire road as it climbed steadily up to the Old Railroad Grade. A short distance along this wide stony track we turned off onto the narrow winding Fern Creek Trail which climbed steeply up through trees eventually emerging back onto the Old Railroad Grade which had meandered up the hillside in a much large and more gentle loop.
Our climb was almost over now and all that remained was the Plank Walk to the summit of the East Peak of Mount Tamalpais at 785m, a fact verified by my GPS which actually recorded it at 784m! We paused here for a drink sitting beneath the fire watch tower and admiring the view. The fog was still thick down in the valley but had cleared slightly and we could now see down to Richardson Bay although the views to the east and north were much clearer. After a short break we retraced our steps down to the parking area and visitor centre and headed back along a short stretch of road before turning onto the Old Railroad Grade and following it downhill all the way to the West Point Inn perched on the hillside at a junction of enticing trails.
Although we had planned a route before we set out there are so many trails inter connecting that we soon deviated from our original plan and at this point we turned off onto Nora Trail for a short distance winding down through trees with the sun dappling the enticing path ahead of us. A right turn took us onto the Matt Davis Trail and we followed this for several miles crossing streams with evocative names like Spike Buck Creek and Rattlesnake Creek. It was incredibly beautiful and so peaceful. Up to this point we had not encountered anyone on the trails, just a few people at the East Peak car park and at the West Point Inn. I could walk for ever through beautiful countryside like this but eventually, as is normal, we were overcome by hunger and being unable to find anywhere particularly suitable to stop for our picnic we waded through some prickly plants (trying not to think about rattle snakes) and perched on some uncomfortable rocks in the full glare of the sun.
There was no doubt about the quality of the food even if the site of our picnic was not ideal. We didn't linger, even for a sun seeker like me it was too hot and Martin resorted to using the paper bag which our sandwiches had been in as a hat to shield his head from the sun.....mad dogs and Englishmen indeed! Shortly after resuming our walk we came to the Bootjack Trail trail head, complete with picnic site, lovely comfortable benches in partial or total shade. We consoled ourselves with the fact that there was one other couple already there which meant that it qualified as being "crowded" particularly since the woman was having a very loud and trite conversation on her mobile phone. The only problem with enjoying so much solitary tranquility is that your tolerance to sharing with other people is lessened...or perhaps we are just becoming grumpy old people.
We crossed the Panoramic Highway and continued down the Bootjack Trail which we were only able to follow until it's junction with the Troop 80 and TCC trails as it was closed beyond this point for maintenance. The Troop 80 trail was the most direct route home....therefore, of course, we took the TCC trail south as Martin said that he wanted to walk another 4 miles (this turned into 7.....) and although my legs were beginning to know that they had done a fair distance it was so lovely that it was no real hardship to continue exploring. The TCC trail zig zagged south and west for several miles (home was north and east of course!) until we finally turned onto the Stapleveldt Trail and thankfully this turned in the correct direction before intersecting with the Ben Johnson Trail and finally the Muir Woods Main Trail. This is such a beautiful forest, the only downside being that we were now forced to share it and met quite a few other hikers.
In our hurry to leave this more populated part of our walk we turned too soon and instead of following a fairly direct route back to our cottage did another huge loop way too far west up to the incredibly isolated Alice Eastwood Campsite and then on up the Sierra Trail. Even after the beauty of the way we had taken so far we were struck by the loveliness of this path....which was just as well because I was really flagging now as we slogged our way up the Alice Eastwood road and finally emerged onto the Panoramic Highway again. At least we knew that we only had a half mile or so to go now retracing our outward steps from this morning...although that seemed a long time ago.
It was a stunning walk and has just whetted our appetites to explore more of this outstanding area... the stats were: 14.32 miles with 1127m of climbing in 5 hours and 48 minutes........
Home sweet home!
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