Good News, Bad News Hike (Wolf Ridge)

There was good news, and bad news for our Wolf Ridge hike.

The bad news:  Fog predicted to extend inland in the morning, followed by sunshine (and no shade) the rest of the day.
The good news:  The fog was long gone by the time we arrived at the trailhead and unlike last year when the hot sun cooked our brains this year a slight breeze kept the temperature down to about 70:  A perfect day for hiking in an area with perfect views.  (Click here to view photos taken by Theresa Fisher and Dick Jordan).

 By 10:00 a.m. we had left the crowded parking lot at Rodeo Lagoon far behind and were trudging our way up the Coastal Trail. The first two miles of this 5.1 hike has an almost a 1,000 gain in vertical elevation.

But we stopped frequently to inspect plants growing along the trail and took a rest break at Battery Townsley to look for nesting swallows and learn about the military fortifications in the Marin Headlands.

About an hour after starting out we were climbing the stone staircase that ascends a steep section of the trail with a rewarding view down the coast towards San Mateo.  Ten minutes later the group split in two:  Some took the less strenuous, but poison oak lined, stretch while others kept pushing up the less vegetated path led straight uphill.

More good news, bad news as we peaked out our climb short of the 960’ summit of Hill 88.  The bad news:  A locked gate prevented us from reaching the top and having our annual “Wandering Nomads” (see the top of the blog’s main page) taken while inspecting the remains of the old Nike missile installation.  The good news:  The saddle of the ridge where the Coastal and Wolf Ridge trails meet was a great lunch spot with a refreshing breath of wind and panoramic views to the north and south.

The Wolf Ridge Trail is the best place to see wildflowers on this hike.  Facing north, and with a sheltering overhang, plants grow among the cracks in the old uplifted seabed and in the seeps that extend downhill toward Tennessee Valley.  As with the section of the Coastal Trail near the end of last week’s Green Gulch Hike, there is one spot where Columbine blooms this time of year.

Turkey Vultures soared on currents flowing above the ridge between Hill 88 and “FAA Hill” to the east.  At the intersection of Wolf Ridge and Miwok trails a large raven sat atop a sign warning us to “nevermore” cross the fence into an area where the habitat is undergoing restoration.

From there it was literally all downhill for a mile as we skirted the western edge of the Gerbode Valley and looked south across a low spot in the hills towards San Francisco.  A bicyclist laboring her way up the Miwok warned us that a mountain lion was prowling around at the bottom of the trail, but the puma was nowhere to be seen when we reached the willow shaded creek below.

A half hour later we were back at the parking lot, tossing our gear in the trunks of our cars, glad that this was a mostly good news with hardly any bad news outing.

Although the long uphill and downhill sections of this hike often leave us a bit leg-weary, it is actually a pretty average outing at just over 5 miles.  (The Google Earth image below shows our route).