After a rainy and stormy winter and early spring, the weather finally turned beautiful, just in time for May Day. We celebrated with another camping trip to Mt Tam and the Pantoll campground.
After setting up the tent, we had to move the car because there was no parking at the Pantoll ranger station. So we drove up towards the grassy hills and found a trailhead for a trail that wasn’t on the map.
It was a contour trail that crossed the hills above the Coastal trail we’d been on before:
It was still green and full of flowers (though no “carpets” of flowers to be seen). We called this the “heart flower” because the petals are heart shaped:
The air was clear with great views across the Bay to Mt Diablo:
And down the Marin headlands to San Francisco:
It was windy and chilly, however. The wind made waves in the grasses and we all enjoyed watching them. 
It was a narrow trail on a steep slope, but Leilani hiked confidently, sometimes leading us by her own initiative:
The morning light was really pretty
Leilani’s minigarden:
Andy gave me a new filter to play with… but I think I’ll do special effects in photoshop and not while photographing
Lily and Jay came to visit:
Jay showed Leilani his new camera. Leilani claims it didn’t work and they had to exchange it. Maybe that was a trick to make us give her a real camera not a kid’s camera (we have since given her the old camera, now that Sonja has new one).
We hikded down the Coastal Fire Road from the Pantoll Campground, with great views of the Marin Headlands and San Francisco. We stopped on a rock to each lunch:
Then we headed into the forest to connect to the Stapelveldt trail that goes by some redwoods in a corner of the Muir Woods National Monument:
It was a long climb back up to Pantoll, but we ended up right next to our tent. We finished packing and then drove to Stinson Beach for some playtime. Leilani made a new friend, and played until all her clothes were wet.
And before driving home, we had a nice dinner at the Sand Dollar Restaurant.
We drove Andy to his rock carving class on Monday – when I turned off Skyline Blvd onto San Bruno Avenue Leilani looked at the Econo-Gas station and out of the blue asked if we needed gas. I looked and it was below empty. Way below empty. I filled Ainalaa’s tank and rewarded my little savior’s with an “It’s It” ice cream sandwich.
By the way – we are boycotting Arco where we used to get our gas, in case you did not know, the ARCO group is part of BP.
Andy adds: The reason the car was so low on gas is that we did a big camping weekend on a single tank. I filled it up and put air in the tires last Thursday, the day before we left. On Friday, we drove to Arroyo Seco, found the campsite, and parked the car. I noticed we used less than half a tank, though like all cars the first half seems to last longer than the second half. We found some hiking nearby (more on that in another post) both days, so we avoided driving any more.
On Sunday, the slow drive out on the steep dirt road seem to put it below half a tank, so I wondered if we’d make it home without refueling. Then there was a strong headwind around Salinas, so I drove the speed limit at 65 mph (105 km/h), and just kept that up all the way home. In the end, we made it home with gas to spare (after 310 miles/500km on one tank). But after driving around all day Monday (another 40 miles/65 km), it was below empty when Leilani asked about it.
In the end, our nice little car got 29 MPG (8.1 l/100km). More importantly, we had an uninterrupted weekend of camping, and even though we did drive far, it was quicker without stopping.
At SFO, leaving for Kauai in April. Note where Andy is sitting:
Mission Peak hike mid-April. On the trail connecting below the peak and the ranch. We “discovered” other beautiful trails in the park, away from the main dirt road that is so popular.
Breakfast… summer’s here… or at least the summer fruit:
Leilani got ahold of Sonja’s iPhone…
