Our Harrowing Journey

On the twenty-fourth of May I noted that my companion was napping while I finished writing. Later we rode further down the paved Cross Marin Trail to the rocky Jewel Trail.  We noted that from the camp to the top took 45 minutes and it took us another 30 minutes to get to Olema on the highway.  Once there we decided to push on to Point Reyes Station and locked up at Station House Bar and Grill.

We noted that the bartender kept forgetting everyone's order.  We thought it was funny that we had to remind her that we had the buratta coming and that everyone at the bar had in fact ordered it too.  After that we headed to Bear Valley Drive.  I noted that the Giants were losing by one.  A lady honked at us and this caused us to miss our turn.  At this point everything became confusing and we had to sort things out in the middle of a really busy intersection.  I wanted to talk to my companion about it but we broke up.  I caught up to her at the next intersection though and we were able to talk there.

Later we stopped at a horse trail to rest and after that we saw a ranger cop in hot pursuit of a speeding motorcycle.  When we finally returned from our harrowing journey to Olema we ordered some grilled oysters and tacos.  When we finished there we picked up some items at the corner store as the warriors started their game.  I noted that the ride to Cross Marin took twenty minutes and wasn't especially bad.  Back at the campsite five new people are there. Two girls and three guys but we didn't catch any names.  I noted that the guys had a gust of beer.  I did some preparations and we had miso before sleep at ten.

In the morning of the day that I wrote this I got up late because the down from the sleeping bag gave me allergies.  We were packed and headed out by ten.  I noted that the extra five campers had gone but the original two had been planning to stay for another day.  They bid us a good trip and then headed to Five Brooks in Point Reyes.

When we had packed we got back on the Cross Marin to Sir Francis Drake Highway and made the Bolinas Ridge Trail by 11.  From there we climbed past the Jewel Trail and into the wild.  The ride was incredibly difficult because of the pitted ground.  I wrote that we noticed that we had very little water while we were climbing.  To remedy the problem I asked passersby along the way to help us fill our bottles.  Meanwhile, we made some good progress and eventually found ourselves at a green picnic table around twelve noon.  Upon looking at the maps we noted with derision that we hadn’t gone very far because of the poorly maintained trail.

Here we also noted that the picnic table essentially meant that we had crossed the rear of Samuel P. Taylor Park into the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.  A little later we passed a pond and many cows and we caught up to a couple that had been ahead of us the whole way.  About twenty minutes later we ended up at a second picnic table where we caught up with a second couple but they were on mountain bikes.  We noted that we had entered the Marin Municipal Water District lands at that point.  We also found that the trail and our time had improved.

We continued to ascend and passed the Shafter Grade, which is also known as the Ridge Trail Connector.  I had been looking at this location on the map every time I noted our time had been lagging.  When we saw the state of that trail we decided that we should have taken it.  The map indicated that it was a likely shorter distance to our location from our campsite and the trail itself was far better quality.  We also noted with satisfaction that the trail became a road.

Sure enough we arrived at Randal Trail around 1 and McCurdy at 220.  I noted that the sign there said we had gone 7.7 miles since 11 and I calculated we had been going 2.4 mph.  We were fully in forest at this point but there was also mud—my companion had gators on her bike.  We still had some nasty climbing to do too.

Halfway between McCurdy and Ridgecrest Bl we stopped for a snack because we were totally winded.  There we estimated that we had actually hiked ten percent of the ride.  In fact it was only short while later that the road descended and then climbed back up to our previous elevation.  However, that was where we passed some people and caught a great view of Bolinas.  We were excited at this point because we had reached Ridgecrest Bl, which was paved.  However, we quickly learned that there was no water so pushed on.

We entered Mount Tam at that point and it was almost instantaneous that the landscape turned to grass land.  We noted also that the cars were especially accommodating.  We passed a few cyclists at this point.  We had tricked ourselves into believing that we were approaching the top every time we turned a bend in the road but it turned out our estimate of being at Pan Toll by four was correct.

My companion told me that we were bonking at that point.  I think that this wasn’t far from the truth since we saw some emergency vehicles around then.  We passed a cyclist on the side of the road then that said his riding partner had had a spill for similar reasons and had needed medical attention.  Thankfully, he also told us the guy was alright.

When we got to the top we just kept going onto Pan Toll until we got to the ranger station.  The ranger gave us some apple juice and told us—miraculously—that she could accommodate us.  However, we decided to check Bootjack and were lucky as my companion had found us a good spot.  I ran down and paid.  We were sitting exhausted when another ranger came by to check the site.

My companion checked to see if her old roommate would visit but he said no.  We made food and finished our whisky. We tried to remember our trip but had a disagreement about whether the pond or the second bench was first. We finished the chocolate and she went to bed. I did a bit later around 830.

This is an occasional series chronicling my life. This Notebook Analysis series is meant to be contemporaneous piece developed as an agglomeration of my notebook pages. In each of these posts I used my notes to develop my recent thoughts.