A Long Winter's Lake-to-Lake Hike (December 16)

A week ago we we hiking in our shirtsleeves out by Muddy Hollow in the Point Reyes National Seashore; today there was no mistaking it was nearly winter (which officially arrives in a few days) --- it was 39 degrees when we eleven intrepid (a euphemism for foolish --- the smart Meanderers stayed snug in the homes, no doubt drinking brandy-laced eggnog) hikers met up at the parking lot by the Bon Tempe dam and the temperature never got much about 40 degrees during the entire hike. Kathy thoughtfully brought along a basketful of gloves for those who needed "hand warmers", and dressed in our rain and winter weather gear, we soon took off for the trailhead.

We saw small patches of snow along the Bolinas-Fairfax Road as we drove west to the Catatract Trail trailhead, just beyond the dam that created Alpine Lake. Not exactly a "White Christmas" setting, but ample evidence of how chilly it had gotten overnight. We never saw the sun, but we had some weather karma: No icy wind blowing down our necks, and except for the steady drip, drip, drip of water dropping off the trees during part of the walk, and a few minutes of rain showers during the last half-mile of the trip, we didn't have to deal with winter precipitation.

We deferred our usual pre-hike "roundtable" discussion of the past week's events until we had warmed ourselves up by walking about half of the initial steep, uphill leg of the outing, following the Cataract Trail in the direction of Laurel Dell. After stopping for our "confab" at a level spot near the creek, we continued up stone and wooden steps, strewn with fallen folliage of Big Leaf Maples, until we crossed the stream and swung east onto the Helen Markt Trail. Then we began a gentle traverse across the hillside until reaching a sharp ridge and plunging down a drainage, then up the other side: we'd end up repeating this slow roller-coaster style of hiking for most of the rest of the day, crossing streams and climbing up and down ridges of the mountain that extend like fingers downward into Alpine Lake.

It was easy to tell that this is a damp, damp part of the watershed --- ferns and mosses, along with mushrooms (and a solitary snail) and a fairly dense forest, lined almost the entire route. The one real open space was our lunch stop where we sat out on a point overlooking Alpine Lake. Before we packed up and continued our walk after filling our bellies, Silvia led us in a sing-a-long. (She should produce a CD of her Meandering songs).

Just after lunch, we spotted a giant "Prince" mushroom which Wendy had seen when the Monday group did the same hike last week. Since we were now down at lake level, we thought maybe we'd have an easy stroll along the shoreline until reaching Bon Tempe. No such luck --- back to the rollercoaster, up and down, up and down, for over another hour until we reached a dirt road and the trailmarker telling us we only had a half-mile before we'd get to the Bon Tempe dam. Before long we had finished the last Meander of the year and were back at our cars, wishing each other happy holidays and good times until we meet again in January.