Weather Update for Tomorrow's "Final Exam" Hike at Tomales Bay State Park

Did you see those clouds floating around in the sky Monday afternoon?

They could mean some rain during tomorrow's "Final Exam" hike.

Here's the National Weather Service forecast as of 3:44 p.m. on Monday, August 29th:

"A slight chance of thunderstorms before 2pm. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 67. West northwest wind around 18 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%."

Click here for an updated forecast.

Tomales Bay State Park "Final Exam" Hike (August 30) Preview

It's the end of "summer school" this coming week when we return to Tomales Bay State Park for our hike.

Here's Wendy's description of the outing: "Bishop pine forest, beach, and a favorite scenic picnic spot over-looking Tomales Bay. Bring something to share for our gourmet potluck lunch, and utensils, plate, and cup."

(Click here to view photos from past hikes in Tomales Bay State Park).

Directions to the trailhead: Take Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. Turn right at Olema and make an immediate left onto Bear Valley Road. (Stop at the Bear Valley Visitor Center to use the restrooms as there are none at the trailhead).

Continue until you pick up Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. Go through Inverness and over the ridge. At the "Y" where the road veers left to Drake's Beach and the Lighthouse go straight. This puts you on Pierce Point Road.

Just BEFORE the right turn that takes you down to Heart's Desire Beach there is a dirt parking lot on the right. If you don't know it you may need to go to the road to Heart's Desire and then turn around. We'll take the Jepson/Johnson loop.

Click here for a Google map that shows the parking lot for the Jepson Trail trailhead. Click on teardrop icon to get driving times and directions from your location.

Driving time one hour from College of Marin. Restrooms before lunch.

Carpool leaves St. Rita at 9:00 a.m.

Weather forecast: As of Thursday, August 25th, the National Weather Service forecast for the hike was partly sunny, with a high near 66. (Click here for an updated forecast).

More on this hike: "G14 Johnstone - Jepson Trails" in the Martins' book, Hiking Marin, shows the area in which we'll be hiking. The trails are also shown on page 4 of the Tomales Bay State Park brochure. The Google Earth image below shows this part of the state park. (Click on the image to open a larger version in your Web browser).

Save The Date: "Dinner On The Pacific Plate"!

The Point Reyes National Seashore Association annual fundraising event, "Dinner on The Pacific Plate," will take place from 2:00-8:30 p.m. on Saturday, October 8th at Bear Valley Grove in Point Reyes National Seashore.

A series of "Hikes, Walks and Talks" will be offered between 2:00-4:00 p.m.

Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres, accompanied by music by La Liberta and David Dascoe, will take place from 4:30-6:00 p.m., followed by a "Hand-Crafted Trail Dinner and Live Auction" from 6:00-8:30 p.m.

There will be a family hike and separate evening program for young people with childcare, dinner and storytelling by Ane Carla Rovetta.

You can purchase tickets for the event online.

For more information, contact Donna Faure of PRNSA at (415) 663-1200 x 303 or donnaf@ptreyes.org.

Creating "Paintings" With Your iPhone

Marin has some very talented en plein air landscape painters, such as Christin Coy.

But even if (like Dick Jordan) you can't make a painting with real paint and brushes to save your life, the Prisma app for iPhone can turn you into a "artist."

Here's an example: One of Dick's photos looking south toward San Francisco that was taken as we turned onto the Dipsea Trail on a Steep Ravine hike.

The Prisma app is free from Apple's iTunes App Store.

Blog Photo Albums Updated!

"If it ain't broke, don't fix it!"

Apparently Google doesn't know that philosophical approach to technology because it recently junked its long-time online photo album service, Picasa Web albums, archiving all of the Meandering photo albums and, in the process, rendering the links to every one of those albums non-operative.

Links to those photo albums that were included in past hike preview blog posts probably won't work, but the correct links will be used in upcoming hike previews.

"Nothing is constant but change," or so thinks Google, so it changed the links to all of those albums, which Dick Jordan now has revised on the Meandering blog's "Photo Albums" page.

Let Dick know if you find an album link that doesn't work properly and he'll fix it.

A Major Player in China Camp's History Passes On

Most years we hike in or near China Camp State Park on the edge of San Francisco Bay, east of San Rafael. (Click here for photos from past hikes in the area.)

Beginning in the middle of the 19th century, the area was a village populated by Chinese who fished the Bay for shrimp. Remnants of that bygone age were preserved and maintained after the area became part of the California State Park system.

But one Frank Quan, one of the central figures in the history of China Camp, has permanently "gone fishing." He died on Monday, just before he was set to turn 91 next week.

You can read more about Frank Quan in this Marin I-J story and on the Friends of China Camp Website which has a wealth of information about the park.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 23RD - NO HIKE

Just a quick reminder that there will be no hike on Tuesday, August 23rd.

Our next hike, and the last  in the pay-as-you-go summer series, will be the Tuesday, August 30th Tomales Bay State Park "Final Exam."

The Fall 1 College of Marin hikes will kick off the following Tuesday, September 6th, at Samuel P. Taylor State park.

Bolinas Ridge-Randall Trail Shuttle Hike (8/16) Preview

This week we move south and east of Point Reyes National Seashore to take one of our hikes in the GGNRA.

Slightly longer than usual at 6.8 miles, but lots of downhill. We usually find naturalized orchid Hellebore on this hike, and in 2013 the fog drip provided some surprise chanterelles. While Wendy can't promise those, lots of ripe huckleberries and some ripe salal berries are a pretty sure bet.  (Click here for a recap of our hike in August of 2008).

CALL WENDY AT 457-3949 OR EMAIL bdreskin@comcast.net if you are coming!

Directions to trailhead: We’ll meet on Highway 1 at the bottom of Randall Trail which is about 3 miles north of Dogtown and about 3 miles south of Five Brooks. (The Point Reyes National Seashore says to allow 15 minutes for the drive from the Bear Valley Visitor Center, and that it is just under 6 miles from the intersection of Highway 1 and Sir Francis Drake at Olema south to the Randall trailhead.)

Click here for a Google Maps map that shows the Randall Trail trailhead. Click where the Randall Trail crosses Highway 1, and then click on the teardrop icon to get directions and driving time from your location.

Park in one of the large dirt pullouts on either side of the road. The Park Service notes that the sign for the Randall Trail is aligned parallel to Highway 1 on the east side of the road and can easily be missed.

From the Randall trailhead we’ll carpool up the Bolinas-Fairfax Road to Ridgecrest Boulevard and hike along Bolinas Ridge Fire Road and then down the Randall Trail to Highway 1.

No restrooms at either the Randall Trail or Bolinas Ridge trailheads.  Stop at the Bear Valley Visitor Center or at Five Brooks if you need to “use the facilities.”

Driving time from the College of Marin is about 40 minutes. Carpool leaves St. Rita's at 9:00 a.m.

Note that while the Bolinas-Fairfax Road is open eastbound from Bolinas to Ridgecrest, it is closed westbound from beyond Fairfax to Ridgecrest so you can't reach our hike's starting point from that direction.

Weather forecast: As of Saturday, August 13th, the National Weather Service forecast for the hike was patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 74. (Click here for an updated forecast).

More on this hike:  None of Dick Jordan's hiking books describe this hike, but you can find the Fairfax-Bolinas Road, Bolinas Ridge Fire Road, and the Randall Trail in the bottom right-hand section of the Point Reyes National Seashore park map shown below.



Click here to view and print a copy of the map. Use the plus-sign button under the drop-down arrow button to enlarge the map for easier reading If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Google Docs" Web site, click on the "Actions" down arrow and then on "Download" to download the document to your computer).

Laguna Trailhead Hike (8/9) Preview

This week we return to Point Reyes National Seashore.  We explore four habitats: coastal scrub, beach, marsh, and a riparian (streamside) habitat with alders and willows. Lunch at the beach. We may see some of the Tule Elk that have been transferred from Tomales Point. (Click here to view photos from a past hike.)

Directions to trailhead: Take Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. west to Olema. Turn right on Route 1, then make an immediate left onto Bear Valley Road. Continue past Park Headquarters (stop here if you need a restroom --- there is none at the trailhead) and go left on Limantour Road.

Turn left at the sign for the youth hostel. Follow that road until you see a right turn across a bridge to the Laguna Trailhead by the Clem Miller Education Center. Park in the parking lot.

Click here for a MapQuest map that shows the trailhead. Click on #1 to get driving directions and time from your location.

55 minutes from College of Marin. Carpoolers can meet at St. Rita’s Church in Fairfax at 9:05 a.m.

No restrooms at trailhead. Outhouse en route before lunch.

Weather forecast:  As of Friday, August 5th, the National Weather Service forecast for the hike

was patchy fog before 11am. Otherwise, partly sunny, with a high near 67. (Click here for an updated forecast).

More on this hike:

From the Laguna Trailhead we'll go southwest on the Laguna Trail to its junction with the Fire Lane Trail, follow that down to the ocean, take a short “side trip” to Coast Camp to use the “facilities”, then hike northward paralleling the sea on the Coast Trail before turning back inland to the Laguna Trailhead.  Total distance covered should be approximately 5.2 miles.

The “Laguna-Coast Trail Loop” hike in Exploring Point Reyes National Seashore and Golden Gate National Recreation Area by Tracy Salcedo-Chourre describes the route we’ll take.  The trails we’ll follow are shown on the the North District Hiking Map on the Point Reyes National Seashore Website.

You will also find them on the map for hike “G4 Sky – Woodward Valley – Coast Trails” in the Martins’ book, Hiking Marin, although we are not doing that specific hike.

Fall 1 & 2 Hike Details Now Online!

While we've got a few pay-as-you-go hikes left in August, registration is now open for the College of Marin Fall 1 and Fall 2 Hiking Series. (On August 1st, the college's new phone system was down for the count, but online registration was working fine.)

If you've mislaid Wendy's e-mail with the details on those hikes, you can view, download and print them from the Meandering blog:

• Fall 1 Hike Details
• Fall 2 Hike Details (with correct information for the November 8th hike)