Point Reyes

On September 3, 2022, I wrote that that morning I woke from an OK night lying on the ground sleeping through the night and later the boys moving around in their tent. I had to tell them to be quiet several times. By 7:50 we were dressed and getting ready to eat. Most of the campers in the site were leaving and I sat with the last of them.

I charged my bike battery using the outlet in the bathrooms and we packed the bike until 11:30 am and the couple who owned Bromptons were headed out for a hike then.

We rode to inkwells then just to jump in the swimming hole. I had told a group of people from our shared site about it and while we were there we saw them. While only a few other people were there, more arrived as we were leaving.

We rode to the camp again and said bye to the Brompton couple before peeking at Samuel P. Taylor’s overflow bike campsite and passed Jewel trail head on the way to Tocaloma. I gave the boys my camera. There were a lot of people riding bikes on the Cross Marin Trail but they had clearly driven their cars to the park.

We braved the climb up Drake Boulevard to Olema then. The GSD averaged about 10 miles an hour to the top and we were able to pace a road cyclist almost the whole way. Because of two turns at the top the road is very sketchy so we stopped to take in the view.

We descended to Olema then and had a small snack. Then we went to the Point Reyes National Seashore Visitor Center. We found that we could take the bike to divide meadow but were not allowed to take the bike to the coast. We looked at the exhibits and then we ascended the Bear Valley Trail and at the end we did a short hike. We didn’t get a chance to see the coast because the boys very reasonably asked that we go back. So, we returned to the Visitor Center.

The whole ride and hike took only a couple of hours. I was really happy with it. We rode back through the Olema Marsh and passed Limantour Boulevard. Then we crossed the Lagunitas Creek bridge headed into Point Reyes Station.

I had gotten in contact with an acquaintance there the day before who had agreed to play hostess for us. So after putting in a reservation at the restaurant we went to her house. She was in her garden and set us up in her extra bedroom.

Later we returned to the restaurant. We had to wait for our table in the bar where I gave the boys a coke. Then when we sat at our table the boys established a rapport with the waitress because she brought them things that they liked – grilled cheese sandwiches and quesadillas. She also brought us some dessert that the boys liked. I took a really great photo on the way back.

Our hostess was very hospitable and the boys went to bed fine.

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.