The End, and a New Beginning (Sky Trail to Bear Valley, January 20th)

As eight of us drove towards Point Reyes National Seashore this morning to embark on our "End of Winterim" hike from Sky Trail to Bear Valley, another ending took place: After eight years, George W. Bush followed his father into history and became a former President of the United States. Another beginning took place, as well: the first term of the first African-American U.S. President started when Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to Barack H. Obama, former Senator from Illinois, as we turned off Bear Valley Road and into the Seashore. We listened to part of Obama's inaugural speech as we sorted out our gear from the food for our potluck lunch later in the day, decided which cars to leave behind and which to drive to the trailhead, and made our way up Limantour Road to Sky Trail. A little before 10 am we left Presidential politics behind, shouldered our day packs, and set off to the south. Under sunny skies, but with a cool breeze blowing strongly, we opted to leave on jackets and fleece for the first hour or so of the trek.

With Wendy back East caring for her ailing mother, Sharon Barnett of Marin Nature Adventures took over as our "substitute teacher". While Wendy's forte is mushrooms and plants, Sharon's is birds and "scat" (not the kind belted out by Ella Fitzgerald, but the variety left along the trail by assorted wild critters). Our at our first "poop stop" of the day, we decided the specimen had the hallmarks of the Gray Fox. While musing over this trail-side "deposit", we listened to Robins and Wrentits twittering away. Along this stretch, where there are still scarred snags from the 1995 Vision Fire, we spotted our first blooming Douglas Iris of the year.

When we hiked the first part of the trail at the end of January last year it was a damp, blustery day and during our trek along the same route all the way to Bear Valley last July fog hung over the coast and the sun did not make an appearance until about 1 pm. Today, we had views (albeit through the forest most of the time) all of the way towards Chimney Rock and out to the Farallon Islands, and back east to Tomales Bay and Black Mountain. We followed the same path as our July route, skipping the side trip up to Mount Wittenberg that is part of the hike outlined in Hiking Marin, and continuing straight to Sky Camp where we took a break and snacked on Cranberry-Nut Bread before resuming our southward journey.

In a little over an hour we reached the junction with the Meadow Trail where last summer a woman backpacker from Europe had asked us if there were any bears still hanging about in Bear Valley. We debated whether to take the shorter path down the Meadow Trail back to the Bear Valley parking lot, or continue on as planned to the Old Pine Trail. Given the glorious weather, we opted to follow "Plan A" and we strolled along Inverness Ridge for another mile-plus before veering left about 11:30 am and beginning our slow descent toward Divide Meadow.

An hour later we reached the end of the Old Pine Trail and stopped to fortify ourselves with brownies which Dick's friend and SPAWN naturalist, Megan, had brought along. Megan recalled seeing a Bobcat in Divide Meadow on a previous hike and as if conjured up by magic, either Bob (or Bob-Bob-Bob-Barbara Ann) the Bobcat got up from a haunched position under the trees on the east side of the meadow and began to prowl around. (Efforts to summon up an Elephant, Mountain Lion, or T-Rex via similar incantations failed).

At 1:45 pm, the table was set for lunch, and we raised our glasses of sparkling wine in a toast to the first day of The Obama Presidency, to a great hike in great weather, and to a delicious meal waiting to be devoured. When we had feasted until sated, and three bottles of wine had been consumed, we packed up our plates, utensils, and left-overs, and said our good-byes until our new beginning: The first hike of the College of Marin Winter Session next Tuesday.