Up High Towards the Sky and Above the Bay (Tennessee Valley, Oct. 27)

Fifteen of us kicked off the Fall 2009 hiking series, Part Deux, on the last Tuesday in October with a hike high above Tennessee Valley.  After doing our usual recap of our activities and adventures during the past week, we set off on a mile and half steady climb up the Marincello Trail hitting an elevation of almost exactly 800' above sea-level.  Along the way we stopped to enjoy views back towards Mount Tam, east across Richardson Bay, and south down the coast past San Francisco, while Wendy filled us in the history of  Marincello, a new city planned, but never built, in the Marin Headlands. 
While a strong, cold breeze hit us now and again, the curve of the hills sheltered us from the wind during most of the walk, and we enjoyed a comfortable lunch at mid-day under sunny skies sitting in the lee of a rock outcropping 600 feet above the bay below us.  As she usually does on the hike falling just before Halloween, Silvia once again played the Ghost of Anne Boleyn, tucked her "head" under her arm and sung a sad song about a young girl who had the back luck to marry King Henry VIII of England.

After walking about a half-hour north along the Alta Trail from our lunch stop we left the open spaces above and headed down a steep trail into Oakwood Valley.  Luckily, the land had dried out after the recent rains or we might have been slip-sliding our way downhill on our backsides.  Eventually the trail bottomed out and widened as as we walked through a grove of eucalyptus, crossed the paved Tennessee Valley road, and then hiked westward up the narrow Rhubarb Trail to make our way back to the cars.  (Click here for Wendy's list of flora and fauna we saw).

(Theresa Fisher created the following NPS map of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area overlaid with the route of our hike).