I found myself alone on a Friday night and Saturday as my wife was down in
Southern California reffing a volleyball tournament. I'd have made a longer
outing of it, but I needed to be home when my son arrived for Spring Break on
Sunday. The weather reports had rain in the south and less so in the north,
opposite of the usual pattern, so I decided to head to Marin County
to tag some summits there. They were roughly located around the
periphery of Nicasio Reservoir in the middle of the county, a mix of pastures
and ranchlands, redwood forests and rural developments. Heavy fog hung over
much of the landscape during the evening and morning, but higher clouds
persisted the whole time. The subdued lighting made for mostly poor photographs.
Poison oak is ubiquitous in the area, so sticking to roads and trails as much
as possible is imperative. Ticks, too, as I came to find - one had made itself
at home before I got back to San Jose and would be the source of much
discomfort for the next few days - such is the cost of this hobby...
Black Mountain
Not the highest, but easily the most prominent of the peaks I visited today.
Because it lies on private property and quite exposed to observation, I decided
to visit this one first thing in the morning. I had driven the two hours through
SF the night before and spent the night parked in a large dirt lot on the east
side of Black Mtn, adjacent to Pt Reyes-Petaluma Rd and the reservoir.
Not the quietest of places,
but it worked. There was even another nearby car with the same idea when I awoke
in the morning. After waking, I drove a short distance to a smaller turnout
and started from there. I hadn't realized how steep this was beforehand, more
than 1,000ft in 3/4mi, mostly up interminable grass slopes. The route partially
followed a defunct running up the slope. The morning
light was still weak when I reached the summit at 6:30a. The peak was high
enough to allow me to climb , making for interesting
looking around. Mt. Tamalpais, the county highpoint, was easy to
spot about 17mi to . I was surprised on the decent to find
the grass had pretty good
purchase and not as slippery as I expected, despite it being saturated. My boots
would end up saturated as well and became the norm for the day. I would go
through four pairs of socks in the hopeless effort to dry my feet.
Peak 460ft
This diminutive summit is shown as an island on the topo map, but there is a
a land bridge connecting it on the north side. I drove around to that side to
start at I had gotten from David Sanger off PB. I
roughly followed his route from the gate along an old (now
trail) to the edge of the lake and then across the land bridge. On the other
side is that makes for a convenient landmark on the way
back. From here I sort of made my way cross-country through the waist-high brush
lower down, eventually slipping into thick forest with a prodigious amount of
poison oak. here was very cool and eerie-looking, like
something from the Lord of the Rings trilogy but the darn poison oak keeps one
vigilant and on edge. I found the summit with no views and took a modified way
back hoping for less of the poison oak (it was no better).
Peak 624ft
I drove a few miles further east to park along Nicasio Valley Rd at a ranch gate
signed for No Trepassing. I made a quick dash across the open field on the other
side of the gate to get away from the road and hide myself in the fog and brush
further afield. A steep climb leads to the summit overlooking the reservoir,
only no views this morning, just a handful of the open
top.
Dancing Star Peak
I continued further east on Nicasio Valley Rd through the small town of
Nicasio,
then onto Lucas Valley Rd to a small hillside development. Camino Margarita
winds steeply up through the housing tracts. I turned right on El Mirador Rd and
drove to its end at a residence called . A makeshift
roadblock was found here, leading me to believe the residence up the hill was
still under construction. I parked just down the road and walked up to take a
look, finding the owner walking down the road (possibly to see what was up from
his video surveillance). I said hello and apologized for interrupting him and
told him what my mission was. He was a quiet, kindly fella about my age and
didn't seem to find my request strange at all. We walked together up his long
driveway, introducing ourselves. Risto then told me the story of the name,
Dancing Star,
which refers to an incident that happened soon after he'd moved in seven years
ealier (the home is not under construction, btw, the roadblock was because he
was doing improvements to the driveway). He and his wife had seen a bright
light atop the peak just above their home and went out to see who was up there.
The light then took off in the air, made its way east towards US101, then
shot off into space at warp speed. There was no doubt in their minds that they
had seen a UFO and gave the fanciful name to their property (I then added it
to the peak). Their vehicle license plates suggested UFO fans, though I didn't
ask if they were a result of the encounter or had them beforehand. That would
have been interesting information, me thinks. is actually on
an undeveloped adjacent parcel and would make for a superb viewhome, were one
inclined. I was happy to find it unoccupied with .
Roys Redwoods Peak
Technically this one's on private property, though all but 1/3mi can be
navigated through , found at the junction of Nicasio
Valley Rd and Sir Francis Drake Blvd. An winds steeply
up the the north side of the OSP. I found a ranger and at
the top of the road here. He was
looking for a cow that was said to have gotten through a gap in the fence, but
found nothing. Fog had obliterated the views from the top of the preserve here,
so I told the ranger I'd wait five or ten minutes to see if it cleared. Really,
of course, I needed him to leave before I could duck through the fence onto the
private lands. He enthusiastically showed me pictures of the views he'd had
just a few minutes earlier, so my excuse was highly plausible - it really might
just clear (it didn't). After he drove off, I went through
and along the continuing road to . Just as I was cresting
the last rise I
was surprised by a figure sitting in a low beach chair staring off to the west,
90 degrees from my southern approach. I backed off down the road out of sight
and pondered what to do. It occurred to me that if his eyes were open he surely
would have seen me in his periphery, so I guessed he was probably asleep. What
was he doing there? Waiting for the weather to clear? Waiting to catch
trespassers? I had no idea if he was a landowner or trespasser like me and
finding out seemed unwise.
I very stealthily circled around to the highpoint from behind him.
I was probably only 10ft from him at my closest point and could have given him
quite a fright. He never moved a muscle the whole time I observed him. I decided
to leave sleeping men sleep and quietly tip-toed my way back to the preserve.
French Ranch Peak
To the west, across Nicasio Valley Rd from Roys Redwoods is French Ranch OSP
whose highpoint I was after. I used off Sir Francis
Drake Blvd at the western edge of a golf course found there. The public trail
passes through some before rising above this and
into the OSP. This had no private property and made for
a pleasant hike through until reaching the
. Here the views disappear as redwoods and other
conifers take over, the winding along the crest.
The highpoint is found a short distance off the roadway with poison oak making
things tricky. There was a use trail of sorts stomped through the underbrush to
get me near the highpoint with minimal PO exposure, then some gingerly prancing
to find
of nothing in particular - silly hobby. This was the most relaxing of the hikes.
Deer Point/Peak 1,066ft
I drove west into Samuel P Taylor State Park, parking just outside
to Devils Gulch. The paved road leading into Devils Gulch
has no day use parking, just access for the group campsites found up the road a
bit. I walked the road that follows to the
pavement's end, then along for a short
distance before selecting an open, grassy slope on the left to .
Although steep, reaching the first of these two, , is pretty
straightfoward up .
The second is located less than a mile to the
northwest and another 100ft higher, but getting between the two is no easy
feat. I followed the connecting ridgeline that drops to a low saddle, but
the northeast side of Deer Point is a brushy, forested mess with the worst of
the day's poison oak waiting underfoot and overhead (as vines), some newly
leafed, some still cloaked as simple brown branches. Awful mess this one, and
probably going to lead to some PO outbreaks in the next day or two. Once at
the saddle things get easier as then lead up to
of
Peak 1,066ft. It lies at the northernmost tip of the park, the surrounding
areas part of the Golden Gate NRA not open to the public (grazing lands). I
returned to Devils Gulch and the park road via a more direct descent off Peak
1,066ft. I still had to negotiate some poison oak understory at the bottom,
but I stumbled upon made this considerably easier.
Once back on , it was a simple walk back to
in about a mile.
Peak 620ft
This last summit lies along Bolinas Ridge in the northern part of GGNRA that
appears to be open to grazing but not the public. If it weren't for the hundreds
of grazing and the effort expended not
to disturb them, this would make for a very scenic hike along a pleasant,
grassy ridgeline with nice views to and along the San
Andreas Rift Zone. I parked outside an unsigned,
but locked gate, jumped over, and spent the next hour plus hoping I wasn't
going to get in trouble. After gaining the low ridgeline, I kept mostly to the
west side out of view from the roads and ranch buildings. There seems to be
little vehicle traffic up on the ridge, but I was still nervous most of the
time because of the exposure to view. Crossing multiple fencelines along the
way, I eventually made it to the grassy knoll marking the highpoint, took a
few pics, and returned. The cows seemed to pay me far more attention during the
return, walking towards me, lowing, almost tripping over each other to be the
first in line for handouts they now suspected I had for them. They got nothing
of course, but the noise they made got the next batch of cows along the ridge
interested in what I was about and the cycle continued even after crossing a
fenceline. Silly cows. I finished up the day around 4p, pretty tired. Though
no particular hike was very difficult, the sum total of all eight made for more
than 5,000ft of gain and 18mi - kinda like doing a day of the Sierra
Challenge...