A Whale Of A Gale (Almost) - Chimney Rock (April 7)

Eight of us April Fools (plus Wendy) were a day late and a dollar short venturing out to Chimney Rock to hunt for seals, salamanders, whales, and wildflowers. (We saw them all, but if we'd come a day earlier we would have been hiking in our shirtsleeves instead of rain gear).

When we reached our carpool rendezvous at St. Rita's the skies were gray, and nary a drop of rain fell while we waited for Wendy to arrive. But by the time we made a "pit stop" at the Bear Valley Visitor Center a half hour later in was raining in earnest, and the wind began to pick up as well once we crossed Inverness Ridge and passed the side road to the Estero trailhead. As we took the turnoff to the Chimney Rock parking lot the cloud bottoms were nearly touching the roadway giving us little hope of being able to see very far beyond our feet, let alone across Drake's Bay to Limantour. A caravan of homeward bound cars carrying hikers who had thrown in the the (wet) towel and canceled their planned trek hurried by in the opposite direction.

We gathered in the "bus shelter" by the Porta-Potties to discuss whether to go home or try to do at least park of the like. We decided we'd first hike down to the elephant seal overlook before making up our minds about going out to Chimney Rock.

Wendy found some salamanders enjoying the wet weather. One had lost nearly all of his tail. Although this wouldn't necessary limit his ability to engage in "S-e-x" (assuming he could find a lady salamander who was attracted to bobtailed boys), he would expend so much energy growing a new tail that any amorous adventures in which he might engage would not produce any offspring. On the other hand, seal offspring (prior year juveniles, this year's "weaners") were "basking" on the beaches along Drake's Bay, impervious to the downpour. And Douglas Iris were in full bloom everywhere along the trail to the overlook.

By the time we had returned to the parking lot from checking out the elephant seals, the rain began to let up. So we continued to head southeast, into the "teeth" of the petering out storm, and toward the end of the headland. We stopped near a white house to look for a Great Horned owl which Susan said always seems to be roosting in the nearby grove of large Cypress trees. The big bird took flight shortly after Molly began hooting away in her best imitation of a GHO, but unfortunately disappeared again before some of us could spot him. A little farther along the trail, a Savanna Sparrow contentedly posed for a picture as we strolled by.

The rain stopped after about an hour, so it was dry during most of the walk out to Chimney Rock. By then, the wind had "clocked" around from Southeast to Southwest, so it was pretty calm on the Drake's Bay side of the point of land that extends from the parking lot to Chimney Rock. But on the ocean side of the point it was blowing half a gale. (Unfortunately, no one had a camera to photograph Dick, his green poncho madly flapping in the strong breeze, making him look like a small pup tent being blown across the landscape with its hapless occupant trapped inside).

Because of the weather, we scrubbed plans to hike down to the historic Lifeboat Station sitting below us along the western shore of Drake's Bay, although we got a clear view of the building as well as the fish docks to the north from our vantage point above the water. While Wendy and most of the group went over to the ocean side of the point, Dick continued straight out to Chimney Rock where he saw a flock of Pigeon Guillemots (perhaps the same ones seen the day before by the Monday Meanderers) fly by on their way towards the Point Reyes Lighthouse.

We spent some time by Chimney Rock futilely scanning the horizon for flukes and spouts since some of us thought we'd seen one of the last of the northbound migrating Gray Whales heading back form Baja. The only sightings we could confirm at that spot were rafts of kept floating over the wind waves, but later during the leg back to the parking lot we managed to catch sight of at least one whale just offshore. It started to drizzle again during the last 15 minutes of the hike as we descended the trail from the point, passed the white house and the Cypress grove, retracing our steps back to the parking lot.

We started at 10 am and didn't take a lunch break along the trail, so we finished hiking the 2.5 miles (including the side trip down to the elephant seal overlook) by 12:30. On the way back home we stopped at the Busy Bee Bakery in Inverness Park ( it was closed --- the bakery worker bees were apparently busy elsewhere) so we went next door to Perry's Deli to get some hot drinks and additional food for lunch which we ate at tables and a bench on the "front porch" of the building. As we munched away, we could hear the incessant singing of birds somewhere just out of sight. As we pulled out of the parking lot of the deli to drive home, we saw the source of the bird songs --- a large number of Goldfinches swarming what appeared to be feeders full of suet hanging from the eaves of a house just across the street.

This was no Spring Fling, but a true winter day's outing. The ambient air temperature was a little over 50, although with the windchill, it was much colder. But we managed to stay pretty warm and dry and have a good time in spite of the foul weather.

(Unfortunately, Theresa Fisher missed the hike so the following Google Earth image does not show our route. We don't have a profile for the hike either, but the Martins' book, Hiking Marin, says there is a 50 foot elevation change on the hike down to the elephant seal overlook, and only a 100 foot change on the trail out and back to Chimney Rock).


(Pictures taken by Dick Jordan during the hike are on-line. You can view them in the mini-slideshow window in the "Meandering In Marin On Tuesdays" blog, or by clicking here to go directly to the Picasa Web album of photos from the latest hike. Albums of photos from our hikes can be accessed by clicking on the links on the right-hand side of the blog).