Backpacking Weekend in Point Reyes - 17&18 Jan 2009

After a very successful backpacking weekend in the Sierra last summer, Calipidder was thinking of organizing a new "GBA" backpacking trip in Point Reyes.
Back in November, she managed to book a campsite at Wildcat Camp for a weekend in January 09. This was quite a gamble weather-wise. It is common in Northern California to have long periods of nice weather between two storms, but it's really unpredictable.
Well, this gamble really paid of as the weekend was probably the best weekend we could have. Perfect blue sky, not a cloud, no fog on the coast, and spring temperatures. Calipidder said she also arranged for the weather. I think I believe her.

The backpacking trip itself was awesome. There were 7 of us. Calipidder (Rebecca) and her Drunken Marmot (David), Airsax (Chris), Pavla, Triplep220 (Jeff), bthomas (Ben), and myself.
We started at the Bear Valley visitor center and hiked about 6 miles to reach the camp. We arrived at the beginning of the afternoon and set up our tents before having lunch. The beer that Dave brewed and carried (2 gallons keg) was tasted and very much appreciated. We then hiked a few miles to Alamere Falls. The stream runs on the cliff and then falls right onto the beach. Interesting sight. On our way back to the camp, we collected a lot of drift wood for the evening's fire we would make on the beach.
Attempts to fly a kite were not successful as there was no wind at all. In Point Reyes... In January... Who would have thought?
After dinner, we went to the beach and had a nice fire. Some people were looking for driftwood in the dark and had a hard time finding some. Ben conducted experiments trying to figure out the best way to start a fire. I think his conclusion was: "matches".
That night was fabulous. We could see Venus' reflection in the ocean. We even saw a shooting star.
Wind picked up in the middle of the night, shaking our tents, and the the kite finally agreed to fly at sunrise.

After breakfast, we packed everything up and hiked over the hill to reach Arch Rock via the Coastal Trail, before heading back to the Bear Valley visitors center through Bear Valley trail. It was about 7 miles long.

As a perfect conclusion to a perfect weekend, we had a great late lunch/early dinner at the Moyans brewery in Novato.

My pictures are here.
Jeff's pictures are here
Rebecca's pictures are here

Rebecca's blog post is here.

Day 1 - Interactive track log:


Day 2 - Interactive track log: