Point Reyes

2004 February

Point Reyes

It must be said that I am an awful person to shop for, if I don't like a gift you will know about it as Emily found out one Christmas when she gave me a tie. I happened to think that he needed the ties. In front of her parents I was gracious but in private I let her know that I considered this an act of war and future ties would be grounds for divorce (despite not yet being married at the time). He still needed the ties... With this in mind, I suggested that for my 29th birthday we go on a backpacking trip and given our 2-1/2 day window, the time of year, and lack of options other than the Skyline to the Sea Trail we headed from Berkeley to Point Reyes on Saturday after Emily got off work around 2:30 pm.

Sometimes trips go exactly as planned, and that was the case this time. Of course a bit of the unexpected was thrown in to keep things interesting. Our itinerary, planned and actual, is given below the map.

Campsites

All four of the campsites we visited had toilets with paper, garbage bins and even recycle bins! To accommodate this, they are all accessible by dirt roads which means you can ride bikes to any of them. Additionally, Coast and Glen had potable water while at Wildcat the water had to be treated (it smelled like rotten eggs) and at Sky the faucet was broken. Additionally, each individual campsite at each camp has a picnic table, BBQ grill and metal food storage locker. Had we known this we would have brought steaks the first night!

With the exception of Glen, all of the campsites are nice, but it helps to get assigned to the right spot. At Coast, we stayed at site #1 which had dramatic vistas of Drakes Bay from our picnic table. Larger groups can stay in a protected and thus viewless grassy meadow. There was also a great big swinging tree right beside the trail to the beach. Someone has fixed large ropes with loops and knots onto the branches and you can stand and swing from these ropes. A few other people where there when we arrived Saturday night and when we left on Sunday morning.

Wildcat has sites on a bluff overlooking the ocean but to get great views you have to go to the edge, thus no camp is really preferable to another in my opinion, although we stayed at site #5. Much to our surprise, we had the entire camp to ourselves Sunday night.

Under no circumstances would we stay at Glen Camp as it has no views and limited sun exposure. We ate breakfast there on Monday and it was deserted. It also smelled kind of funny. I'm not sure if that's a permanent feature or just that morning.

Sky Camp is quite awesome, with some sites (I won't say here) commanding spectacular views while others have none. Quite frankly, if I was assigned to one of the viewless sites I would be pissed off. When we arrived on Monday and ate lunch all of the sites where empty. I also saw a bunch of quail, so I'm going to look up how to trap quail for next time. Mmmm... roasted quail...

Trails

In general, all of the trails were in good shape and well marked, in fact, every single junction had signs. I expected the trails along the coast to be spectacular, and they didn't disappoint. Along the ridge, on the Sky trail headed towards Sky Camp views were equally stunning. In fact the only area of somewhat "blah" terrain was before and after Glen Camp. It was pretty, but lacking in views.

Alamere Falls

Expectations exceeded ten-fold! Pictures will show why. If you do go to the falls, either to or from Wildcat Camp, consider walking along the beach as it is much shorter (and obviously flatter) than either of the trails I took. Watch out for the tides though!

Maps

When we picked up our permit (that I had paid for and reserved by phone several weeks earlier) at the Bear Valley Visitor Center an overly talkative ranger gave us a double sided, black and white, 11"x17" piece of paper that he called a map. Sure it shows all of the trails and distances but it is missing one crucial piece of information, elevations! Do yourself a favor and get a proper map.

Weather

During the trip we marveled at the perfect weather, blue skies and temperatures suitable for shorts and tee-shirts. We couldn't have asked for better conditions. Then during the first night we both woke up feeling a bit cold so I glanced at my thermometer and was blown away to see that it read 20 degrees Fahrenheit! We ended up sleeping with all of our clothes on, thus sacrificing our clothes pillows, and made it through the night with minimal discomfort. As expected, the next morning everything was covered in frost. On Sunday night we were once again prepared for the bitter cold but it only dropped to right around freezing. Those were the third coldest nights I've ever spent, the first being the Grand Canyon and the close second being the train station in Venice.

Tent

My choice for shelter on this trip was my "Cloudburst" made by "Tarptent". It is the same shelter that I froze in on my solo trip on part of the JMT last year but I attributed that to my sleeping bag which I had just had extra down blown into. Turns out to have been a poor choice. As the temperature dropped water began to form on the inside of the tarptent and it began to sag. As we shifted during the night and rubbed against the tent walls small amounts of water would get on our sleeping bags. Not a big deal for Emily, as her bag has synthetic fill but mine has down and I was worried! Turns out I didn't have to be, for although I did get a bit of water on it, no loss in loft occurred.

Emily and I both thought fondly of my other tent, a "Peak 1" by Coleman that weighs under 4 pounds and cost less than $90 (the same tent that I took on my cross country bike trip). Sure, water would have condensed on its fly as well, but we would have been protected in the mesh tent. I'll experiment a bit more with the Cloudburst before I go back to the Peak 1 but things are not looking good for it. I keep looking back on the trip I took with Henrik to the Ansel Adams Wilderness in August of 2002. That night we went to sleep in the Peak 1 and woke up in the snow. I was not cold at night and I was using my homemade synthetic quilt that has maybe 2 inches of loft.

Food

We did really well on this trip, carrying out only minimal snacks on the last day. We enjoyed all of our food and would bring everything again, only next time, perhaps a bit more Gatorade. Our dinner was a mix of freeze dried vegi chili and freeze dried refried beams bought in bulk from Berkeley Bowl. Two cups of the dry mix poured into 3 cups of boiling water did the trick for both of us although next time we might cut back on the beans a bit and substitute some pasta. We also saved some cheese and salami from lunch and added it to the pot.

Conclusions

Should you go? Yes. Are we going to do this trip again anytime soon? No. Is that a contradictory recommendation? Maybe. Basically, we had a great time but would rather go on day trips to this area, especially to Bass Lake. If we do stay overnight again, we would probably ride bikes to Coast Camp, but who knows. I'd like to do Coast camp with a group next time since it is so close to the beach and the parking lot. You can have a big group there together and bring in a lot of food.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3