A relaxed morning on Mt Tam…
Oh, and Happy Mother’s Day, Sonja!
We drove to Point Reyes to meet Francine, Ruth and Gloria (who had to stay at the Ranger station to wait for airline-lost luggage) Leilani and I looked at the museum and books while everyone else planned the hike (it’s hard to find a hike that suits everyone…). We settled on the 8-mile but easy Bear Valley trail to the coast.
Spring was so beautiful. Writing this now, at the beginning of summer, we see all the dry, golden meadows and remember how green it was. Golden is beautiful too… like ripe wheat.
We had a picnic in a beautiful meadow (Divide Meadow at the “col”):
And finally reached the coast at Arch Rock:
The arch is under the rock, where you can’t see it (only Andy climbed down to explore). Like the larger arch at Honopu (Kaua’i), a small stream flows through it.
Since we hike slower with Leilani, Francine and Ruth went ahead. We took a long rest at the stream…
threw a lot of rocks…
and took more nature photos. This is poison hemlock:
Forget-me-not:
Monkey flower:
In the end, this was Leilani’s longest hike. She walked over 5 of the eight miles by herself. And I will add that she needs less of the story-telling and distractions than she used to (but still some).
As we were driving away from the trailhead, we saw this beautiful blue heron land in the grass in front of the visitor center. What is he looking for?
A mouse! We watched it eat 3 mice, but never got a good picture. Here the tail is still sticking out…
Doe… a deer… a female deer. No two… (Sound of Music is a favorite of Leilani’s, even before she learned this song at her singing class.)
