On August 18, I wrote that I was writing and organizing while my brother was driving down from Oregon. My host and I chose to meet him at Mill Creek. We drove up Howell Drive out of Cresent CIty like we had done when we visited the Titans but this time we stopped at another trailhead.
When my brother arrived with my twin nine year old boys, they were really excited to see me. We climbed on trees and chatted for a while. We settled on the Mill Creek Loop trail and looked at all the stumps and hidden spaces. We found these mushrooms my brother identified as Fried Chicken. Eventually the trail came to a dead end but we found another which took us to a cool swimming hole on Mill Creek proper. After that, we walked to Boy Scout Grove trailhead and then back to the cars.
We drove to the South Fork then. We jumped in the river on the rope swing – I was really impressed with my boys with that one. I managed to get a good shot of one of them. However, we mostly played in the sand. I noted that the swimming hole is all greenstone. I floated around a bit. Our host did a flip from the rope. My brother left a few minutes before us but once he was gone, our host brought us to the confluence of the Main Fork of the Smith before we left.
We drove back to the house on Pebble Beach. I told the boys how I had crashed into the Washington drive overpass the day after the WTO in Seattle in 1999. While we were driving into town.
I started dinner for the boys. The boys peppered our host with questions while we ate and a bit later, they went to bed. We sat up talking for a while and then I went to bed exhausted.
I got up in the morning of Saturday at 9:30 or 10. My host had been to the store already. He was working and there was coffee out. The boys and I slowly rose. We ate and did other stuff. I had had a bowl of cereal.
Later the four of us went for a walk, crossing Pebble Beach Road and descending to the beach. I noted that there’s pebbles everywhere but normally more. There was only one agate hunter that day. There is a sandy beach a rocky beach and as we transitioned between them, we found the tide pools.
My boys got wild looking through the tide pools for hermit crabs and other things. I saw a super cool rock. They built a little dam below the foot of the cliff and spun flat stones – rolling them like a bowling ball. The weather was really muggy.
We walked the cliff back to the house and after getting inside, I made the boys hot cocoa. Then we made a bag and then we drove to the river confluence again, stopping at Hiouchi Chevron. I got some delicious Pilsners. Once past the confluence, we headed out on the South Fokr to Sand Camp Beach.
Our host pointed out his favorite bike ride path, along Little Bald Hills. We set up a blanket on the river’s edge like the day before and had a snack. I had a beer. I noticed that it wasn’t going to get hot. Our host got in the river anyway and a short while later, the rest of us did too.
The river is really deep there.
A bit later we drove back to town and we stopped at Safeway. Our host needed a ton of food because he was preparing for a ceramics collaboration potluck with a kiln and everything that evening. He was in a rush buying everything in the store. I on the other hand had to make the boys dinner. So, I bought stuff independent of him. I needed a toothbrush and a few other things. I got them a new hairbrush.
After our host left with his potluck foods, I made the boys eat some of the fruit he had left behind and did laundry. Later, I made Ramen and used the house made coleslaw in the fridge. It was very garlicky and lemony. Then, when dinner was over I was lazy. I bought bus tickets on the Amtrak website. The boys got packed before going to bed as we were getting up early.
I woke up at 4:30 that morning and I made coffee. The four of us were all ready by 5:15 and left in our host’s tiny Toyota. It was foggy in Del Norte County all the way to the Klamath. We couldn’t see the giant statue of Paul Bunyan as we headed over the Golden Bear Bridge there because it was dark and foggy.
We were up way too early. Our host told us about stuff on that we saw on the road and my boys asked a lot of questions. The ride was wonderful. I appreciated his not driving too fast and he still saved us about 20 minutes. The lagoons were invisible in the fog. I told the one stone lagoon story I knew – where a friend of mine got a spider bite. Sunrise started in Trinidad. I tried to relate how I had climbed the Butte there.
In Arcata, I got coffee and the boys were cute with our host and the bus was on time. The driver almost left without us. I let everyone know that we had gotten on the bus via text and then stayed awake until Garberville. I fell asleep but woke when we got to the town of Laytonville. Later, in Willits, I reminded the boys about our trip to see the Skunk Train there and they remembered.
We went to the smoothie place in Ukiah at Arthur’s request. (He remembered!) We had a smoothie (Erin says it was his). The ride was kind of boring after that. I figured I had put us on a smart and catch the first SF bus but we got passed by the 1 oh one bus along the way.
We made it home at 3:30 exhausted. A few hours later, I took the boys to pizza and we settled in asleep after TV at 10 o’clock.
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.
Wednesday, May 20, 2026
Monday, May 18, 2026
The Epic Sunset
on August 15, I wrote that the day before I got the code for the lock and rode my host’s yellow bike on Ninth Street and I got yelled at by mean motorists. I went to Safeway and I bought food for the boys for two days.
On the trip home, I rode back to the house and I took bicycle pictures. Made a sandwich bagel. When my host showed up, he lay down on the couch and then I shared my sandwich with him.
Our mutual acquaintance stopped by. I met him in college too, he works as a nurse locally. We had a cocktail and he told us about his friends boat while we sat in the office. My host was still laying down on the couch.
We went to see his new property house when he got up. We looked at the blackberry patch and the excessive roomage. We stood on the roof. We could actually see the sea. The neighbor was out and so we hung out with him drinking on the street.
We all said bye after the epic sunset. My host and I spent the night drinking listening to music and eating samosas.
I made coffee and sandwiches In the morning. My older brother called and told me about the week my kids had had with him in Oregon. He told me that he and the boys were planning to meet us in Smith Redwoods State Park later that day.
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.
On the trip home, I rode back to the house and I took bicycle pictures. Made a sandwich bagel. When my host showed up, he lay down on the couch and then I shared my sandwich with him.
Our mutual acquaintance stopped by. I met him in college too, he works as a nurse locally. We had a cocktail and he told us about his friends boat while we sat in the office. My host was still laying down on the couch.
We went to see his new property house when he got up. We looked at the blackberry patch and the excessive roomage. We stood on the roof. We could actually see the sea. The neighbor was out and so we hung out with him drinking on the street.
We all said bye after the epic sunset. My host and I spent the night drinking listening to music and eating samosas.
I made coffee and sandwiches In the morning. My older brother called and told me about the week my kids had had with him in Oregon. He told me that he and the boys were planning to meet us in Smith Redwoods State Park later that day.
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.
Saturday, May 16, 2026
Bicycles to The Grocery Store
On August 14, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. That morning I tried to get a meal going but only had coffee ready when I had a work meeting. Later I tidied the house. I was doing laundry and decided to ride one of my host‘s bicycles to the grocery store and bring some stuff back for the weekend since my kids were scheduled to visit.
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.
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.
Friday, May 15, 2026
The Elk River Casino
On April on August 13, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. My host and I settled on the Thai food place in town the night before. We rushed to the Thai restaurant. I noted that the eggplant and pad Thai were delicious.
When we were done we were concerned about running out of gas but went to the Gas station and we made it!
After that, I suggested we go to the Elk River Casino. I had a vodka tonic and we argued about tipping before walking around the casino. I lectured him about freedom. I noted that there was “the great compromise” when the country was founded. We had a discussion over how the constitution designates two senators per State.
When we got to his house, we wrote, thank you notes (I asked for random names). After that we put letters in bottles. I talked about an old girlfriend too much (again). Eventually, we went to bed.
In the morning of the day that I wrote this, a mutual acquaintance of ours, a nurse, came by– he was an old college buddy. We sat in the living room until my host and I were done with our coffee. Then we got fishing rods out and readied kayaks and outfits.
We put in on Pebble Beach right across the street. I had a lot of trouble getting through the surf. However, I made it! Unfortunately, I inadvertently broke my fishing pole. I was also really queasy because I hadn’t eaten.
I noted that my college buddy was doing great with his paddling, but the pedals on his kayak were broken. My host caught a small black rock fish but he threw it back because it was too small. We returned to land around 10 am and we settled in to having another coffee at 11.
I had to do a work job and then the three of us I went to the Mexican restaurant. I had enchiladas. My host and I said goodbye to our companion and then the two of us drove us Gasquet. We parked on the North Smith River and walked to Stoney Creek where we explored serpentine geology. We had beers and he went swimming. We saw one couple on the walk back. I picked up a lot of samples.
We drove to Crescent city. People had texted while we were out of range in the canyon. When we got back I spoke to my brother. I noted that my kids, who were staying with him, had exhibited a lot of independence. He shared pictures
Later, after dinner, I showed my host and I used GIS and USGS portals and other online maps to look at the places we had visited.
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.
When we were done we were concerned about running out of gas but went to the Gas station and we made it!
After that, I suggested we go to the Elk River Casino. I had a vodka tonic and we argued about tipping before walking around the casino. I lectured him about freedom. I noted that there was “the great compromise” when the country was founded. We had a discussion over how the constitution designates two senators per State.
When we got to his house, we wrote, thank you notes (I asked for random names). After that we put letters in bottles. I talked about an old girlfriend too much (again). Eventually, we went to bed.
In the morning of the day that I wrote this, a mutual acquaintance of ours, a nurse, came by– he was an old college buddy. We sat in the living room until my host and I were done with our coffee. Then we got fishing rods out and readied kayaks and outfits.
We put in on Pebble Beach right across the street. I had a lot of trouble getting through the surf. However, I made it! Unfortunately, I inadvertently broke my fishing pole. I was also really queasy because I hadn’t eaten.
I noted that my college buddy was doing great with his paddling, but the pedals on his kayak were broken. My host caught a small black rock fish but he threw it back because it was too small. We returned to land around 10 am and we settled in to having another coffee at 11.
I had to do a work job and then the three of us I went to the Mexican restaurant. I had enchiladas. My host and I said goodbye to our companion and then the two of us drove us Gasquet. We parked on the North Smith River and walked to Stoney Creek where we explored serpentine geology. We had beers and he went swimming. We saw one couple on the walk back. I picked up a lot of samples.
We drove to Crescent city. People had texted while we were out of range in the canyon. When we got back I spoke to my brother. I noted that my kids, who were staying with him, had exhibited a lot of independence. He shared pictures
Later, after dinner, I showed my host and I used GIS and USGS portals and other online maps to look at the places we had visited.
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.
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Lynne Cod and The Petterino Peppers
On August 12, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. The day before I was hard pressed to finish writing because my host and his guest were really gregarious and there was a lot of crosstalk, especially on how preoccupied I was with writing. However, by the time I was done they were really deep into making lynne cod and the petterino peppers and rice really made it good. I got photos and we texted with people living in another part of the state.
We did this game where we drew pictures and wrote poems and I messed with everyone by mimicking everyone else’s responses. We also did a blind taste test where we had two shots and each of us had to guess but we messed it up and I got two rye whiskies and another person got two scotches. As we slowly started to nod off I ended up talking about an ex-girlfriend too much.
in the morning of the day that I wrote this, the both left for work and I slept until 10 o’clock. When I woke up I “worked from home” and made myself some granola. Later I had an avocado and egg bagel.
I called my brother to confirm that the my kids were doing all right with him at his school in Oregon. We discussed the week. I did housework. When my host returned, I was looking at the surf out the window. He took me to the house which he had purchased only a few days before across the street. Then he took a nap while I was writing in my notebook. I made myself a moscow mule.
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.
We did this game where we drew pictures and wrote poems and I messed with everyone by mimicking everyone else’s responses. We also did a blind taste test where we had two shots and each of us had to guess but we messed it up and I got two rye whiskies and another person got two scotches. As we slowly started to nod off I ended up talking about an ex-girlfriend too much.
in the morning of the day that I wrote this, the both left for work and I slept until 10 o’clock. When I woke up I “worked from home” and made myself some granola. Later I had an avocado and egg bagel.
I called my brother to confirm that the my kids were doing all right with him at his school in Oregon. We discussed the week. I did housework. When my host returned, I was looking at the surf out the window. He took me to the house which he had purchased only a few days before across the street. Then he took a nap while I was writing in my notebook. I made myself a moscow mule.
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.
Wednesday, May 13, 2026
Del Norte County
On August 11, 2025, I wrote that I had been staying in Crescent CIty with an old college classmate. The previous Saturday night I had shared my plans for a trip to the north coast with the boys and had them help with preparation. We got up early and walked to BART after breakfast. On the train to SFO, I taught the boys the term “mouth breather.”
We took the people mover and went to the automobile rental office. I managed to get us a Malibu (rather than an SUV). I also made sure that the car was good. While we ended up driving through the city and over the bridge about three hours later than anticipated, I was glad we were on our way.
One of my kids told me to wake him when the fog went away. At the Robin WIlliams Rainbow Tunnels that started to happen, but then he had fallen asleep and I couldn’t get him up. The other boy, however, I noticed does this thing when we’re driving where he just looks straight ahead into the air while the other sleeps in the car. I noted that it is like his way of napping— but he’s not asleep, it’s kind of just a dead stare. I checked on him and remembered that he has not changed in all of the years since infancy. I just haven’t been driving very much lately, so it never occurred to me.
I learned that the Malibu has a lot of power, but it didn’t matter much until Novato at San Antonio Narrows. After that the freeway was much more crowded and had to manage traffic. The boys were both awake by then but they zoned out again. They had trouble with their devices around then too.
We stopped in Cloverdale and got a coffee before riding through the Russian River Canyon. I pointed out bitsin maca and the tunnels I had gone through (it is in my blog post about Frog Woman Mountain). Later, I pointed out where the Mayacama mountains transitions into a fault in Hopland and again in Ukiah. I pointed out the Laughlin Range and the red and green gravels, which show up everywhere in Mendocino.
We stopped at the Skunk Train for pictures after tracing the tracks underneath the freeway. Once we got back on the road, I explained that the Mayacama Fault fades away near Laytonville and that the rails we had been following went over bridges below us in Outlet Creek.
I also explained that north of that point is where the San Andreas system transitions into the Juan de Fuca subduction zone. I kept thinking of it as the Juan de Fuca plate, but it’s actually the Gorda plate. I explained that the continental shelf changes so the earth north of the South Fork of the Eel ends up causing the local landscape to vary greatly. As we headed north from there we started to make jokes about the towns we saw, such as “Ben bro,” “gooberville” and “rude way.”
We stopped at a mineral shop I know near Fortuna where we looked for examples of Garnet. I noted that there was red and green garnet. We found some pyrite and some obsidian and some Jasper. After that, we went through Eureka and Arcata straight away, and I noted that the bike path on the bay and the rail to Blue Lake were both the same rails to trails project and the boys kind of understood.
I had been trying to send my North Country contacts updates and once I got to Trinidad the road cleared out enough that I was able to call both of them. After that, we headed through the Humboldt Lagoons and Prairie Creek. I took a picture of the golden bears on the Klamath River Bridge. The boys kept ignoring me in favor of their devices. Several times they tried to go to sleep, but couldn’t. They also couldn’t drink soda because of the G-forces from the turns.
I made it to Crescent City just before 6pm, which was 10 minutes later than I had predicted. However, I had wanted to be there at 2. When we dropped the rental car off at the airport they told us the plane from the Bay Area was four hours late because of operational issues. That was good news for me because it indicated that the one-way car rental was actually the better investment. For the week prior to our trip, I had been doing many calculations in my mind over whether to take a bus, a car or the airplane. So it turned out that the morning’s delay was not so bad.
My older brother showed up around then and he took us to the only sushi place in town. We discussed our plans for the week. I was very concerned about “dumping the boys“ on my brother but he takes them from me every year so they were used to it. The problem I realized I was actually having was that we weren’t going do any processing about our day and that I was going to miss them.
The boys understood that I wouldn’t be seeing them for a while and did what they could to smooth things over. My brother then left me at the KOA in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods saying goodbye with a sad face and the three of them drove off to Oregon for five days.
I walked over to site 603 at the campground they had left me at, where my old college classmate was hosting the half of his extended family who couldn’t fit in his house. There were about twenty people there, most of whom I knew.
My old classmate was sitting with a few people I knew pretty well but then I started to recognize his mom, brothers, all of his aunts and a few of his cousins and uncles. I said hi to each one as I saw them. I noted that there were a lot of kids. Some of his family had already left but others were staying another night.
While there I got to know a friend of his family, a geologist, who was new to me. My host had been specific that I should talk to him. We said goodbye to everyone at 9:30 and the geologist and I followed our host back to his house. We stayed up really late looking at rocks and learned how to use a loop and the different tools needed to test rocks. We actually talked about all sorts of stuff.
Our host did a lot of talking and eventually I slept in the lower bunk of the same room as another guest – my host’s brother and his nephew. I woke at 5:45 and got up with the six family members at the house who were headed to the airport. We shared pleasantries and farewells.
After that I was basically just sitting around the house for a few hours. I had brought my work computer. So, I logged in and made some emails. I also did laundry and dishes. I fell asleep too.
When my host showed up again with groceries, We went and got our mutual acquaintance, a nurse, to go to the river. We all rode in my host’s tiny Tacoma and, after a brief stop at the KOA to say a final goodbye to everyone, headed out to the Smith River in the National Park a short distance from highway 199.
We put out a cooler and chatted about river rocks, etc. My companions had snorkels but I wasn’t any good at using the one that they gave me. I could only use the goggles and I ended up hyperventilating. We remembered old times while floating around. The water was amazingly warm. Both of them had visited me several times in the last decade in SF and each of those experiences revealed themselves to me like they were only yesterday.
We swam back to the car and chatted a bit before driving to town. We helped get our nurse acquaintance’s tire off and then we went to the gas station for air and then we had some beer. We also visited a property they discussed buying. There had been a bevy of new auxiliary dwelling unit laws passed which made the investment worthwhile. I found a rock in the backyard.
At that point we considered going surfing but only our host decided to go. Waiting for him to return we sat in the kitchen chatting. When he got back, I started writing. They were making fish for dinner.
We took the people mover and went to the automobile rental office. I managed to get us a Malibu (rather than an SUV). I also made sure that the car was good. While we ended up driving through the city and over the bridge about three hours later than anticipated, I was glad we were on our way.
One of my kids told me to wake him when the fog went away. At the Robin WIlliams Rainbow Tunnels that started to happen, but then he had fallen asleep and I couldn’t get him up. The other boy, however, I noticed does this thing when we’re driving where he just looks straight ahead into the air while the other sleeps in the car. I noted that it is like his way of napping— but he’s not asleep, it’s kind of just a dead stare. I checked on him and remembered that he has not changed in all of the years since infancy. I just haven’t been driving very much lately, so it never occurred to me.
I learned that the Malibu has a lot of power, but it didn’t matter much until Novato at San Antonio Narrows. After that the freeway was much more crowded and had to manage traffic. The boys were both awake by then but they zoned out again. They had trouble with their devices around then too.
We stopped in Cloverdale and got a coffee before riding through the Russian River Canyon. I pointed out bitsin maca and the tunnels I had gone through (it is in my blog post about Frog Woman Mountain). Later, I pointed out where the Mayacama mountains transitions into a fault in Hopland and again in Ukiah. I pointed out the Laughlin Range and the red and green gravels, which show up everywhere in Mendocino.
We stopped at the Skunk Train for pictures after tracing the tracks underneath the freeway. Once we got back on the road, I explained that the Mayacama Fault fades away near Laytonville and that the rails we had been following went over bridges below us in Outlet Creek.
I also explained that north of that point is where the San Andreas system transitions into the Juan de Fuca subduction zone. I kept thinking of it as the Juan de Fuca plate, but it’s actually the Gorda plate. I explained that the continental shelf changes so the earth north of the South Fork of the Eel ends up causing the local landscape to vary greatly. As we headed north from there we started to make jokes about the towns we saw, such as “Ben bro,” “gooberville” and “rude way.”
We stopped at a mineral shop I know near Fortuna where we looked for examples of Garnet. I noted that there was red and green garnet. We found some pyrite and some obsidian and some Jasper. After that, we went through Eureka and Arcata straight away, and I noted that the bike path on the bay and the rail to Blue Lake were both the same rails to trails project and the boys kind of understood.
I had been trying to send my North Country contacts updates and once I got to Trinidad the road cleared out enough that I was able to call both of them. After that, we headed through the Humboldt Lagoons and Prairie Creek. I took a picture of the golden bears on the Klamath River Bridge. The boys kept ignoring me in favor of their devices. Several times they tried to go to sleep, but couldn’t. They also couldn’t drink soda because of the G-forces from the turns.
I made it to Crescent City just before 6pm, which was 10 minutes later than I had predicted. However, I had wanted to be there at 2. When we dropped the rental car off at the airport they told us the plane from the Bay Area was four hours late because of operational issues. That was good news for me because it indicated that the one-way car rental was actually the better investment. For the week prior to our trip, I had been doing many calculations in my mind over whether to take a bus, a car or the airplane. So it turned out that the morning’s delay was not so bad.
My older brother showed up around then and he took us to the only sushi place in town. We discussed our plans for the week. I was very concerned about “dumping the boys“ on my brother but he takes them from me every year so they were used to it. The problem I realized I was actually having was that we weren’t going do any processing about our day and that I was going to miss them.
The boys understood that I wouldn’t be seeing them for a while and did what they could to smooth things over. My brother then left me at the KOA in Jedidiah Smith Redwoods saying goodbye with a sad face and the three of them drove off to Oregon for five days.
I walked over to site 603 at the campground they had left me at, where my old college classmate was hosting the half of his extended family who couldn’t fit in his house. There were about twenty people there, most of whom I knew.
My old classmate was sitting with a few people I knew pretty well but then I started to recognize his mom, brothers, all of his aunts and a few of his cousins and uncles. I said hi to each one as I saw them. I noted that there were a lot of kids. Some of his family had already left but others were staying another night.
While there I got to know a friend of his family, a geologist, who was new to me. My host had been specific that I should talk to him. We said goodbye to everyone at 9:30 and the geologist and I followed our host back to his house. We stayed up really late looking at rocks and learned how to use a loop and the different tools needed to test rocks. We actually talked about all sorts of stuff.
Our host did a lot of talking and eventually I slept in the lower bunk of the same room as another guest – my host’s brother and his nephew. I woke at 5:45 and got up with the six family members at the house who were headed to the airport. We shared pleasantries and farewells.
After that I was basically just sitting around the house for a few hours. I had brought my work computer. So, I logged in and made some emails. I also did laundry and dishes. I fell asleep too.
When my host showed up again with groceries, We went and got our mutual acquaintance, a nurse, to go to the river. We all rode in my host’s tiny Tacoma and, after a brief stop at the KOA to say a final goodbye to everyone, headed out to the Smith River in the National Park a short distance from highway 199.
We put out a cooler and chatted about river rocks, etc. My companions had snorkels but I wasn’t any good at using the one that they gave me. I could only use the goggles and I ended up hyperventilating. We remembered old times while floating around. The water was amazingly warm. Both of them had visited me several times in the last decade in SF and each of those experiences revealed themselves to me like they were only yesterday.
We swam back to the car and chatted a bit before driving to town. We helped get our nurse acquaintance’s tire off and then we went to the gas station for air and then we had some beer. We also visited a property they discussed buying. There had been a bevy of new auxiliary dwelling unit laws passed which made the investment worthwhile. I found a rock in the backyard.
At that point we considered going surfing but only our host decided to go. Waiting for him to return we sat in the kitchen chatting. When he got back, I started writing. They were making fish for dinner.
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.
Tuesday, May 12, 2026
Drakes Head
On August 3, 2025, I wrote that I caught a Golden Gate Transit bus at Bush and Van Ness. I arrived quickly in San Rafael where I transferred to the 68. My trip up Drake Boulevard involved many of the same kinds of loops as the other rural buses in Marin.
At Fairfax, I downloaded to my map cache to get a better look at all of the different driveways and turns along the way. The drive followed a lot of road cyclists and I felt the driver was very polite, turning out in several places.
At Olema, I learned my friend was nearby so I got off the bus and got some coffee. I was there for barely a second before getting into her car. We drove to Inverness Park. She got us a sandwich and a Coca-Cola. Then we continued our drive, climbing past Pierce Beach Drive.
While we were driving, I noted that the trees around Tomales Bay are a source of inspiration for an artist I am acquainted with in the town of Point Reyes Station. The trees are generally funny looking and she had done a lot of true-to-form vernacular paintings of them.
At Estuary Drive, we packed my backpack and descended to Drakes Bay on the Estuary Trail. I noted that Open Street Map calls it White Gate Trail.
On the walk-through a small forest, we encountered a man with a bike and a companion, who said there was a boy of ahead of us whose mother is using chocolate to bribe him to catch up. Sure enough, about a quarter mile ahead we encountered a boy taking his time and his mother waiting ahead. We decided to jog by him.
After that, we encountered a small bridge and while crossing we found that the estuary was going through a slack tide. We didn’t stop but instead ascended a small hill and descended to another lagoon. This one had a levy and no bridge.
We then ascended to a loan eucalyptus and we tried to set up for a small snack, but it turned out there were bees underneath the logs there. So, we moved onto to the next lagoon – our third this time – and onward to the Drake‘s head trail fork.
That highpoint was Drake’s Head proper, but the trail takes you down to the prominent point from which you can see much of the estuary. Unfortunately, we didn’t take the fork over Drake’s Head but instead descended into what I later learned is named Sunset Beach. This caused uncertainty since at the time we thought we were going to Sunshine Beach.
We passed between a series of small ponds and as we moved along there were a bunch of spots where the gating was designed to channel cows away from the trail edge. I noted that it was a kind of natural grading. As we descended into Sunset Beach we passed a lagoon and a few people on the trail.
This was clearly the end of the trail. We ended up between the head lands out near Lemantour and Drake’s Spit which seem tantalizingly close but are actually on the other side of the estuary. We sat on the rocky shore there and ate our sandwich and drank our Coke.
My notes called it a beach but it was a rocky shoreline. There was some sand but the spot we were at was obviously a marginal location, and more or less was the end of the trail. We looked at rocks. Everything was sandstone. My companion pointed out a phenomenon called tafoni, where the ocean’s action causes pitting in the rock. She explained that the seaweed was actually called eel grass. We also identified the carcass of a seal or a sea lion.
We could’ve continued down the shoreline around Drake‘s Head to a point where both spits are visible and even eventually connect to the Drakes Head trail. However, we concluded that it would be best to turn back. Had we wanted to go to Sunshine Beach that we should have gone left before descending from Drakes Head.
Walking back we noted that the seagulls were fighting over stuff in the estuary as the slack tide switched to a rising tide. Back on the trail we told everyone we saw that the trail had petered out for us. We returned to the lagoon and while climbing the trail we noted how the cows had left their mark everywhere. We saw giant black stink bugs.
Back on top of Drakes Head, we passed a lady with a stroller which puzzled me given how far we out we were. I noted, as we passed the trail fork, that turning right would take us to Sunshine beach, which was my companion’s memory at that point. However, we were done and going back to the trail head.
I noted that there is no trail to Sunshine Beach on the Google app. However, we did not have any cell phone service. We walked back past the small ponds and the three lagoons. We also passed cyclists and discovered we were only a few steps behind a couple.
The last two hills were really difficult so afterwards we stopped at the bridge. The air was nice there. The slack tide had clearly ended.
The rest of the walk was pleasant and quiet. We packed up and drove to Inverness. I looked at Mount Vision on the map. I noted that the hills are impressive and obviously made of something more substantive than sandstone. I couldn’t figure it out though.
We passed through Inverness, stopped in Inverness Park and continued into San Rafael to eat at Sol Food. The meal was really good – even the hot sauce.
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.
At Fairfax, I downloaded to my map cache to get a better look at all of the different driveways and turns along the way. The drive followed a lot of road cyclists and I felt the driver was very polite, turning out in several places.
At Olema, I learned my friend was nearby so I got off the bus and got some coffee. I was there for barely a second before getting into her car. We drove to Inverness Park. She got us a sandwich and a Coca-Cola. Then we continued our drive, climbing past Pierce Beach Drive.
While we were driving, I noted that the trees around Tomales Bay are a source of inspiration for an artist I am acquainted with in the town of Point Reyes Station. The trees are generally funny looking and she had done a lot of true-to-form vernacular paintings of them.
At Estuary Drive, we packed my backpack and descended to Drakes Bay on the Estuary Trail. I noted that Open Street Map calls it White Gate Trail.
On the walk-through a small forest, we encountered a man with a bike and a companion, who said there was a boy of ahead of us whose mother is using chocolate to bribe him to catch up. Sure enough, about a quarter mile ahead we encountered a boy taking his time and his mother waiting ahead. We decided to jog by him.
After that, we encountered a small bridge and while crossing we found that the estuary was going through a slack tide. We didn’t stop but instead ascended a small hill and descended to another lagoon. This one had a levy and no bridge.
We then ascended to a loan eucalyptus and we tried to set up for a small snack, but it turned out there were bees underneath the logs there. So, we moved onto to the next lagoon – our third this time – and onward to the Drake‘s head trail fork.
That highpoint was Drake’s Head proper, but the trail takes you down to the prominent point from which you can see much of the estuary. Unfortunately, we didn’t take the fork over Drake’s Head but instead descended into what I later learned is named Sunset Beach. This caused uncertainty since at the time we thought we were going to Sunshine Beach.
We passed between a series of small ponds and as we moved along there were a bunch of spots where the gating was designed to channel cows away from the trail edge. I noted that it was a kind of natural grading. As we descended into Sunset Beach we passed a lagoon and a few people on the trail.
This was clearly the end of the trail. We ended up between the head lands out near Lemantour and Drake’s Spit which seem tantalizingly close but are actually on the other side of the estuary. We sat on the rocky shore there and ate our sandwich and drank our Coke.
My notes called it a beach but it was a rocky shoreline. There was some sand but the spot we were at was obviously a marginal location, and more or less was the end of the trail. We looked at rocks. Everything was sandstone. My companion pointed out a phenomenon called tafoni, where the ocean’s action causes pitting in the rock. She explained that the seaweed was actually called eel grass. We also identified the carcass of a seal or a sea lion.
We could’ve continued down the shoreline around Drake‘s Head to a point where both spits are visible and even eventually connect to the Drakes Head trail. However, we concluded that it would be best to turn back. Had we wanted to go to Sunshine Beach that we should have gone left before descending from Drakes Head.
Walking back we noted that the seagulls were fighting over stuff in the estuary as the slack tide switched to a rising tide. Back on the trail we told everyone we saw that the trail had petered out for us. We returned to the lagoon and while climbing the trail we noted how the cows had left their mark everywhere. We saw giant black stink bugs.
Back on top of Drakes Head, we passed a lady with a stroller which puzzled me given how far we out we were. I noted, as we passed the trail fork, that turning right would take us to Sunshine beach, which was my companion’s memory at that point. However, we were done and going back to the trail head.
I noted that there is no trail to Sunshine Beach on the Google app. However, we did not have any cell phone service. We walked back past the small ponds and the three lagoons. We also passed cyclists and discovered we were only a few steps behind a couple.
The last two hills were really difficult so afterwards we stopped at the bridge. The air was nice there. The slack tide had clearly ended.
The rest of the walk was pleasant and quiet. We packed up and drove to Inverness. I looked at Mount Vision on the map. I noted that the hills are impressive and obviously made of something more substantive than sandstone. I couldn’t figure it out though.
We passed through Inverness, stopped in Inverness Park and continued into San Rafael to eat at Sol Food. The meal was really good – even the hot sauce.
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.
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