My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.
According to the weather predictions, it was supposed to be 110 degrees Fahrenheit in Clarksburg on Memorial Day. Selina had the day off so we decided to get out of town. The Sacramento Valley can get pretty hot over the summer, but it’s just a couple hours away from some pretty awesome places in a variety of directions. We weighed our options. We wanted to do something fun that included something active enough to justify the inevitable libations. It looked like Tahoe was going to be hot too, so I googled fun places to hike on the coast. Mount Tamalpais kept showing up as a beautiful place to hike, and when Uncle Stu’s best friend, Jimmy (who lives in the Bay Area) confirmed that it was one of his favorite places to bike, the plan was set. He even offered to look up some trails for us! Selina’s cousin, Alicia also had the day off, so she came along too!
We set out early heading West on I-80, got off to curve around the windy twisty roads (careful to give the bicyclists plenty of room without hitting oncoming traffic) until finally we came around the bend to see my old friend, the ocean.
Wow. I hadn’t even realized that it had been over a year since I’d seen that big body of water that I’d lived on top of the previous couple of years. We wove our way down to Stinson Beach where we found a magical parking spot right at the Matt Davis trail head that Jimmy had suggested. The temperature was perfect. We donned our sunscreen and set out. Within feet we were surrounded by greenery.
This forrest (not sure it’s a forrest) reminded me of the hikes I’d found in New Zealand.
It was so pretty everywhere we looked!
The trail pretty much went straight up. I was huffing and puffing behind these girls who were still in their 20’s. Luckily, there were plenty of places to stop and enjoy the view (and catch our breath).
We had an Instagram photo shoot on this ledge (let me define this experience for those of you who are not Millennials- you find a beautiful place, and then take about a million photos at various angles until you find one perfect shot, which you then filter to post on Instagram so everyone can be jealous of your awesome life. I don’t really know how to use the filters. I just picked this photo out of the dozens that were taken on this ledge. I can’t even guarantee that it is Selina’s or Alicia’s favorite. I myself had no idea that so much work went into those posts).
We decided to climb until my watch counted 30 minutes of activity (that just means my heart-rate was elevated for 30 minutes, we might have actually been climbing slightly longer).
Of course it took a fraction of the time to make our way down (though none of us could say we preferred a steep down to up). We wandered through the tiny town and strolled along the beach.
After our hike we had worked up an appetite. We stopped at a place that had beer and wood-fired pizza on a patio that reminded me of a very similar place I’d been in Colorado. We marveled at the spectacular-ness of the day.
There was a lot of traffic on the freeway as we headed back home. There had been an accident on the other side that had completely closed off the freeway so that ambulances and a helicopter could rescue the injured.
It was the first of a couple of times that day that we took a moment to be grateful not only for our perfect day, but also for our health and safety.