Baby, It Was Cold Outside (Lake Lagunitas, Dec. 8)

The sun was shining brightly when we left home for the trailhead, but it had disappeared behind a thick veil of clouds by the time we reached Lake Lagunitas, dashing any hope that temperatures during the hike and our post-hike "Final Exam" luncheon might top 50 degrees. It fact it was so cold that we skipped our usual pre-hike recap of our activities during the last week, just shouted out our names, and then hit the trail to get blood pumping into our limbs before frost-bite set in.

When we reached the dam, only a couple of Double-Crested Cormorants were hanging out on the logs floating on the lake, instead of the usual crowed of these birds air-drying their wide-spread wings. Presumably the rest of the flock had found a warm fire to gather about. No newts were bad news, too; apparently these slithering little guys decided to stay snug under logs rather than freeze their tails off in the cold morning air. A lone fisherman stood hunched over his pole along the lake, but any fish lurking under the water could well have been turned into frozen fish sticks by the chilly weather.

Mud puddles formed in depressions in the Lakeview Fire Road by the recent rain had frozen over. A smattering of snow still hung under the summit on the north side of Mount Tam, and coming down the Eldridge Grade we got a clear view across San Francisco Bay to snow-clad Mount Diablo. But the wind remained calm and the rain held off, so as long as we kept moving, it was a decent enough almost-to-Wintertime hike even though "Baby, It (Was) Cold Outside" as the song goes.

As usual for this time of year, mushrooms in many varieties were abundant along the trail and we found some especially large ones under the trees on the south side of the Lake View Fire Road. Too bad we couldn't have taken them back to the picnic area and made ourselves a giant mushroom omelet for lunch.  Birds weren't too abundant, although we saw Acorn Woodpeckers and Coots along the south side of the lake.

There were nearly twenty of us to participate in the "Final Exam", but we still couldn't manage to finish all of the food and drink we'd brought to share. Silvia sang a solo number as a tribute to Dick (who brought "Secret Santa Soup"), and then led us in our traditional "Twelve Days of Meandering" holiday sing-along.
(Click here to view photos that Dick Jordan and Theresa Fisher shot during the hike and post-hike luncheon).