Well, the countdown is seriously happening–we did our last “big” training hike yesterday, out at Point Reyes National Seashore, on one of our favorite 20-plus mile loop hikes.  The route we took has everything we want–big hills, awesome mountain and ocean views, and enough uncomfortableness to make it a reasonable replica of what we figure will be the real deal on the CDT.

We parked our car at the Bear Valley trailhead and headed out across the meadow on the Rift Zone trail.  It didn’t take long before we were knee and thigh deep in VERY wet grass hanging over the trail.  (Trail?  What trail?  We couldn’t even see it in all the long grass!)  Our nylon hiking pants were totally soaked, but no problem–we knew they would dry fast.  Then into the cow pastures (short grass, well chewed down) and waved at the cows as we went by.  We’d anticipated a lot of mud there, but it wasn’t as bad as usual.  Along the fire road then–easy going through the beauty of a Point Reyes forest full of magnificent trees, ferns and wildflowers.

The Horse Camp was empty–no horse people there yet–we joined up with the Olema Valley trail, and finally  began climbing the first big hill, up and up till we reached the Bolema Trail at the top of the first ridge.  From there we switched to the Lake Ranch Trail, which passes a lot of interesting territory (including some bogs and swamps) high up on the mountain, before switchbacking down through a lot more long wet grass with the added challenge of large stinging nettles and poison oak.  Sometimes I felt like I was running a gauntlet, trying to avoid the nettles and the oak.   Usually along here we get our first wonderful views of the ocean, but no luck there–it was gray and obscure, since we were actually IN a cloud.  The forest around us looked mysterious, misty and wonderful.

Four hours later, we had come down to the Coast Trail, and one of our favorite lunch spots under a huge old Douglas Fir tree that overlooks a large lily pond.  When I sit there leaning on the massive old trunk, with long branches drooping almost to the ground around us, I feel like a chick under its mother’s wings.  And another bonus–underneath a Douglas Fir, the ground is dry, even if it’s rainy.  And it was rainy–misty rain that didn’t even make raindrop ripples on the pond.

After lunch, we followed the Coast Trail past large, dark, beautiful Bass Lake to the Ocean Lake Loop trail and headed along there for ocean views and more lakes.  Finally we reached  Wildcat Camp and another big hill climb with views (and often wildlife sightings).  The trail wanders through dark forests and sunny meadows, on rough trail and smooth, before reaching its final descent to the clifftops right above the ocean.  (Yesterday, somewhere along there, both Fixit and I picked up some ticks, which we had to deal with later. ) The hike along the clifftops is wonderful–wildlflowers!  Waves breaking on rocks!  Fishing boats offshore!  Finally we made the turn for home onto the Bear Valley Trail and followed creeks up the wooded, ferny valley to the ridgetop, then down the other side.

It made for 8 hours of awesome hiking, with only a lunch break.  We didn’t follow our PCT/CDT routine of stopping every 2- 2 1/2 hours for a snack–just kept walking.  So when we got back to the car, we were pretty tired!   We also discovered that we’d picked up some ticks–they were crawling on my pants (but my gaiters kept me out of trouble).  Once we got home, we did a thorough “tick check” before taking showers and I found two ticks crawling on Fixit and one teeny tiny one crawling on me.  But crawling was all they were able to do–we got rid of them, pronto!  Oh well, my motto this time of year is, “When the grass is green, the ticks are seen”.   As long as they don’t “bite in”, we’re fine!

Our CDT boxes have left our house and gone to live at a friend’s house–he will be mailing them for us!  Now we are down to all the “little stuff”–I still have more modifications I want to do on my pack, and we need to make sure our garden irrigation system is working OK.  And we are getting ready for our final big Awana event–Awards Night!