Introducing Friends to Pt Reyes

One good thing about California’s reliably semi-good (at least) weather is that planning a mini-reunion isn’t that difficult. You just get everyone together in the same place, check the forecast, and figure out what you want to do! This time, we ended up first over at Camp Tamarancho doing some mountain biking on Mt Tam, and then up at Pt Reyes hiking out to Tomales Point (this way).

Mountain biking was a success – no bee stings like last time, and minimal injuries from my first experience with clipless pedals on a mtn bike ride. (Though, to be fair, I did very nearly hug a boulder after not-so-gracefully ‘exiting’ the trail due to some balance and collision issues. Instead I just got a good close look at it from the grass right beside.)

Point Reyes ended up not being super cloudy, which is always a good thing! We had nice visibility up the peninsula and across to Dillon Beach for most of the day. Particularly memorable:

• We got up close (but not personal, which is good) with the Thule Elk herd. They were hanging out pretty close to the trail as we walked by, so we got a good look at them, as well as a couple of nice photos. Having been out on this hike a few times now, sometimes you see them and sometimes you don’t – and rarely do you see them up close, so this was particularly fun!
• As a small testament to how cool a location it is, we witnessed a proposal while eating lunch on Tomales Point! We saw these two folks walk down towards the edge of the cliff (we were higher up) and sit down for small talk. Then at some point, we heard a gasp, saw a hug, and then watched a ring being received and both folks being really happy.  : )  Parker took a couple of photos, and actually ended up taking the guy’s phone to take a couple photos on his phone too. And to top it all off, a different group that was also eating lunch up there sent one of the group’s kids down to the couple to gift them a celebratory engagement beer. Those two are off to a good start.

After the hike, we headed down to the beach on the west side of the peninsula to check out the waves and the cliffs (super crumbly, not good for climbing), and then finished off the day with a stop at Lagunitas.

Lovely weekend. Next stop: Houston in November!