Pantoll Quad Hike #4

Last Pantoll Quad hike: Muir Woods.

It was a really beautiful hike, with lots of redwoods and creeks.

I was laughing at everyone taking a picture of the same little waterfall.

So cute.

We found a ton of mushrooms, too.

And a banana slug (or two.)

This might be my favorite of the 4 hikes.

Anytime we can find weird fungi, I'm a happy hiker.

And we found so many different mushrooms that day.

5.5 miles of mushrooms.

This hike goes from the Pantoll Station down into Muir Woods to the farthest bridge.

The creek was roaring.

And there were lady bugs wintering.

More mushrooms.

And so many pretty forest trails.

We had some good rain early in the month and especially on the coast, it's been wet.

Love that all these kids will join us on these hikes.

They make it fun.

Our family stopped by Muir Beach afterwards.

We didn't stay long, but had time to relax on the beach for a little bit.

Such a great day!

A New Hiking Challenge

A friend stumbled across the Pantoll Quad Hiking Challenge a couple weeks ago and we've decided to take it on--4 hikes, all beginning from the Pantoll Campground in Marin county. They vary in length and elevation change, but all offer some amazing views and forests to walk through.

We started with the second shortest (4.7 miles) and the least elevation gain (500 feet) which hikes a loop to the West Point Inn.

Gorgeous day for a hike--and we got 3 moms and 3 kids out on the trail for the day.

The view from the deck at the inn was fabulous. This is a hike or bike-in spot, but what a great place to spend the night!

There was quite a bit of variety in the terrain--fern-filled forests, open hills with views of the bay. I'm excited to see the rest of these hikes!

And then we followed it up with a couple hours at Stinson Beach and dinner at Sol Food, which is one of my absolute favorites whenever we're going to be in the north bay.

Escaping the Smoke

The Air Quality Index has been so high in our area that we've been stuck indoors, so when we checked the coast and realized that there was a small pocket of clean air north of San Francisco, we decided to go for a hike.

It was really foggy and cool when we got there--which was a nice reprieve from the crazy heat we've had.

Although this little Peanut was freezing--should have pushed for him to wear pants, but it's hard to convince people that it might be cold when it's already heating up into the 80s back home.

But other than a pretty cranky littlest guy, the rest of us enjoyed the wet hike. It was raining in the trees from all the fog collecting there--just like we get in the redwoods. And not being able to see anything around us was actually really fun. 

The fog cleared some before we finished and the kids were disappointed to be able to see into the valleys instead of just imagining what was actually down there.

It was also crazy windy in a couple spots--notice Peanut hiding just down the hill. This crest right here, which was between two hills was the worst and it was all we could do to get him to walk through it to continue the hike. Luckily, it did get better once we got out of the little dip right there, but it took some convincing to get him to see for himself.

The final decent to get back to the car went better--snacks and a promise of stopping for Taco Bell on the way home got him through the end. I would have stayed a lot longer to enjoy breathing fresh, clean air, but we'd pushed him long enough.

 

Birthday Adventures

This year especially, it seemed like a day of outdoor adventures was the perfect way to spend my birthday. We packed up a bunch of food, and after an early church with Rara, we drove to the Marin Headlands, with a little unscheduled stop in the city. Peanut was feeling carsick when we were driving through the Presidio, so we thought it was a good time to show Daddy-o and Bean the Yoda statue over there. It made a nice little stop, and kind of set the tone for the day--lots of random little explorations.

First stop, the Point Bonita lighthouse. I had seen online that it had hours from 12:30 to 3:30 on the weekends, and thought I was going to finally get to see this elusive lighthouse (we had a field trip here last year, but at the last minute, they changed us to the Nike Missile site--cool, but still not the lighthouse.) Well, once again, it wasn't to be. Google maps was not up-to-date with their info and the lighthouse, including the tunnel to get to the outside of it, was closed. At least we saw dolphins in the water on the walk out there, and it is still a beautiful area.

Next up, we took a short hike, explored the remains of a bunker from the Cold War era,

and did a photo shoot. 😂

We walked out to this look out above Bird Rock. 

And found this cool catepillar.

We were all starving by then, so we cooked ramen in the parking lot. Not something I ever thought that I'd do, but it was kind of fun doing a little "day camping". And the warm food tasted good--it's amazing what a temperature difference their can be between the inland areas and the coast in the summer.

After lunch, we drove over to Rodeo Lagoon so we could hike around the lagoon and visit the beach there, and we saw this coyote just hanging out near the road. It was actually in a parking lot when we drove by and then had moved to this small field by the time we got over to that area. We love wildlife sightings, even if they sometimes seem a little tame.

This area has so many amazing memories for me--6th grade science camp, volunteering at the nearby Marine Mammal Center one summer in college, and many hikes and visits with friends and family. We hadn't been for several years, so it was definitely time.

Of course the kids found some rocks to climb. 

It was pretty windy and chilly at the beach, and we were all getting tired by then, so it was time to figure out the next step.

And the next step ended up being a spontaneous stop at the houseboats in Sausalito.

The boys and I had been here once before for a geocache when we were killing time after a field trip, so we wanted to show everyone else. It's such a fun community. I don't know if I want to live on a houseboat, but I think it would make for a fun vacation.

I don't have any pictures of the rest of the evening, but we got take out from Sol in San Rafael, which is one of my favorite restaurants. And while we waited for our food, we walked over to the mission, found a geocache, and a couple members of the family peed behind a shipping container (I'm not saying who, but it IS hard to find bathrooms that are open to the public these days.)

At home, we had ice cream, which is pretty much the perfect finish to a long, fun day. It may have been random, but we spent a big part of the day outside, hiking around with views of the water, and got eat good food--a lot of my favorite things.

 

And with that, I'm another year older, and the third member of the family to celebrate a pandemic birthday.