IMPORTANT UPDATE ON JAN. 20TH "FINAL EXAM" HIKE

Good news, bad news, for our January 20th "Final Exam" of "Winterim" hike from Sky Trail to Bear Valley at Point Reyes National Seashore (instead of Sky Oaks to Deer Park on January 27th as originally planned).

The bad news: Wendy's mother will be undergoing heart surgery so Wendy is flying back to New York and will not be with us.

The good news: Wendy has arranged for Sharon Barnett of Marin Nature Adventures to lead the hike. (Sharon also leads the College of Marin's "Beginning Hiking" treks, and serves as a volunteer Naturalist for SPAWN).

Note the early start time to allow for the car shuttle: Meet at 9:20 a.m. (instead of our usual 9:45 meeting time) at the dirt parking lot next to the picnic area at Bear Valley. (Carpoolers meeting at St. Rita's should be there by around 8:30 am since it takes about 35 minutes plus to drive from Fairfax to Bear Valley). Remember to bring your plate, utensils, cup, and of course your contribution to our gourmet feast!

We'll leave all of the food and beverages for lunch and some of the cars behind at Bear Valley, then carpool to the trailhead for Sky Trail where the Limantour Road crests on Inverness Ridge. We’ll need some people who are not in a rush to drive people back to Sky Trail after lunch. (Restrooms at Bear Valley, none at Sky Trail trailhead, but some as we pass Sky Camp and again at Divide Meadow).

Dick Jordan is in charge of organizing the carpooling from Bear Valley. Please e-mail (rhjordan@earthlink.net) or phone (415 485-0537) him to indicate whether you or not you are coming, if you are driving a car out to Bear Valley, and how many folks you expect to bring with you in your car.

Here's Wendy's description of the hike: This is a lovely trail any time of year (click here for a recap of our July 15, 2008 hike), and especially in the "green" season! If it’s rained there should be mushrooms! We’ll go down Old Pine Trail (which doesn’t have any old pines!) to Divide Meadow and back on the Bear Valley Trail. Note that this hike is 7.3 miles long. Here's the description and map for this hike from the Martin's book, Hiking Marin:

Sky Trail to Bear Valley Hike and Map

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Other hiking trail

(Click here to view and print the hike description and map. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

Weather forecast: As of Friday, January 16th, the National Weather Service forecast for Olema is mostly sunny with a high near 63. (It may be slightly cooler when we start out near the coast; click here for an updated forecast).