Over 500 miles of trails

Someone said that there are over 500 miles of trails in Marin County. I'm going to hike all of them. Want to hear more? Read on...

Name:
Location: Woodacre, California, United States

Well, I hike, obviously. I read, without retaining, lots of stuff but mostly classic and contemporary fiction, history, and science. I look at birds and plants. I play my guitar far less than I ought, and watch movies far more. I like to ask people questions, but only if they ask me questions in return. I aspire to honorable behavior and am mostly successful. I'm on the cusp of a career change, with bird research in my past/present and academic librarianship in my future. Occasionally I bust out and cook six course gourmet meals for my friends; for some reason it's always six and never seven or five. Enough about me. What about you? Stranger or friend, drop me a line!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

This hike is from last Thursday, 7/27. I'm starting to run out of hikes at Point Reyes National Seashore- I think I have maybe three or four major hikes left there, and a couple of out and back to the beach hikes still to complete.

Thursday was my short day at work. We had a meeting that day that was productive overall but that was marred by what I perceived as foolishness on the part of one of my coworkers- he was making assertions based on his own wishful thinking rather than on the available facts. I called him on it, probably a little too sharply. My other coworkers perhaps didn't think much of it, but it stayed with me the whole time I was hiking and I kept replaying it in my brain (I'm unused to confrontation... can you tell?). I thought about it so much that I gave myself a headache. It was one of those times that it would have been nice to just have an off-switch in my head. Grrr.

The hike was nice despite my preoccupation. I started from the Sky trailhead, hiked down the Fire Lane Trail, down to Coast Camp, and back up the Laguna Trail,which goes by the youth hostel and some sort of environmental education center. It was a greyish day on the coast, which was quite welcome after all the damn heat we'd been having. The hike was 8.2 miles, all told.

Young California quail are out in force. I probably saw six or seven families on the trail between Coast Camp and the youth hostel. The quail are a lot easier to get close to when they've got babies around.

I also ran into a group of six or so 14-year-olds that appeared to be backpacking on their own. They were doing really well... they seemed like they were keeping a good pace, their packs looked to be in good order, and all the kids seemed like they were happy to be there. The lead kids shouted back to the kids coming up behind that someone was on the trail and that they should stand aside. Nice to see manners in the young folk. I was thinking how cool it was that these kids were entrusted with the responsibility to do an overnight trip on their own, but then a mile or so down the path I ran into the rest of their group, which had adult supervisors. Oh well. If I ever have a kid I think I would like to send it on solo or small group (with other kids) overnights at a youngish age (preteen to teen), if that's something that they were into. I think kids in a lot of cases can handle more responsibility than we give them, and develop responsibility by being entrusted with things.

I made a cake for my boss' birthday, which we are celebrating at work tomorrow. Now I am going to go frost it. There are two more hikes in the hopper... I will report upon them soon.

2 Comments:

Blogger Kelly said...

I knew you would see that original post, with your fancy direct-blog-mailing technology. But there are other folks who read this who actually know the people involved. So I thought, best to keep it a little more general. Only a few short years ago, there's no way discretion would have won out in this situation. I must be losing my edge.

11:51 AM  
Blogger AphotoAday said...

Hi Kelly,

Yep, even though I haven't had to punch a time-clock for a couple years, I still catch myself mulling over every error I have ever made at work, or debating every conflict I have ever had with my fellow employees and horrid bosses... Oh, the mulling can go on for way longer than it should -- until I finally catch myself... I guess it's sort of a way to beat-up on myself -- maybe I should seek some professional help...
But let me tell you -- work is definitely the biggest waste of time I know of... There is SO much more in this world to do -- SO many better things to do, even if it is doing absolutely nothing...

Ah yes, birthdays at work means CAKE... It should be a law... Oh, they can overwork you, disrespect you, tell you lies, underpay you, and NEVER tell you are doing a good job -- but cake makes it (almost) worth it...
Oh, and an actual home-made cake, such as the one you baked for your boss REALLY does sound good... At the hell-hole I worked we had about 20 employees, so for me that meant 20 cakes a year... Yum...

Glad to hear you and Arty are back out hiking... I really enjoy hearing about your adventures -- just wish I could keep up with you... My hikes are much shorter...

... All the best to you... Don and Kitty

7:40 PM  

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