A Green And Gray Day Above the Bay (Boojack Hike - November 11th)

Unlike our last hike in this area (from Mountain Home to Bootjack on October 28th) when a hot sun shown down on us, today the temperatures dropped nearly twenty degrees as fog shrouded San Francisco and high clouds fanned out over Mountain Tam making for a cooler, but more comfortable hike. After spending 45 minutes slogging uphill on the Bootjack Trail to the Mountain Theater, we paused to reminisce about our favorite Mountain Play productions during years past, including "Annie", "The Sound of Music", and "South Pacific" (replete with WWII vintage aircraft doing a "fly by" during the performance).

Then it was downhill on the Rock Spring Trail to the West Point Inn for a leisurely lunch with a grand, sweeping view across Southern Marin to San Francisco. Lucky for us, the Inn was staffed today so we could get a steaming cup of coffee or tea to go with our repast and take the slightly chilly edge off the day. Because of the Veterans' Day holiday, we were joined at the Inn by hikers and bikers who had the day off from work.

After lunch, we moseyed a half-mile down the tree-lined Nora Trail, passing by small pools in the creek leftover from last week's rain, until we reached the junction with the Matt Davis Trail leading us on the mile-plus traverse across the chaparral growth on the southern flank of the mountain and back to the parking lot at Bootjack.