Escape from the Bay-to-Breakers
SF gets cut in half on Bay-2-Breakers sunday as the thousands of drunk runners make there way along the route. Kevin & I had been wanting to check out Alamere for some time, and with the heat of the past three days, what better time to hike the coast trail. We got out of town before the race closed the streets north — drove north up One to Bolinas and up to the Palomarin Trailhead. The park rangers there ticketing illegal campers and dog walkers told us the fog would clear at 11.
Per my good friend Matt’s instructions, we took the first “posted” trail to the left after passing what we thought (based on time and distance) had to be Pelican Lake through the fog. The trail led us around the lake then upwards to the cliff about 1000′ over the breakers, then an odd fellow came out of the fog to tell us that we were at an awesome overlook had it not been foggy. He also let us know that we had cut off the trail about 30 feet too soon, true.
We finally found the right trail, posted as “Alamere Falls – trail not maintained” with a hand written note “Poison Oak,” and made our way down the creek to the top of the falls just about 11, the time that the ranger told us the fog would clear…..
Just after our arrival, the fog lifted a bit that we could see the Point Reyes seashore below the ceiling, but certainly no sun.
The creek leading to the top of the falls is actually more interesting looking on your way out. We decided we needed to come back some time when the sun is shining and there has just been a heavy rain . . would enhance the experience.
On the way home, the fog started to burn off. We noticed that at Bass Lake, people were Tarzan swinging on a rope into the lake, then treading water for some period of time . . . makes me think that it actually might have been warm water…
Of course the sun does finally break through at the end of the hike… but hey, we didn’t get burned, either.