THE STORY

This walk was enjoyed on a warm and sunny Sunday at the start of November, back in 1997.  That’s 8 years ago now, so the details are a little hazy, but it’s one of those select walks that seemed pretty perfect and unique.  Mount Tam is the closest mountain to San Francisco, and a popular day trip for local residents.  The ramblers’ map which I bought in a Berkeley bookshop was in its 7th edition, and the number of trails demonstrates the scope for hikers around here, through forest and over open hilltops.

I was staying over in Berkeley, and had to get a succession of public transport services into San Francisco city, through it, over the Golden Gate Bridge, and out to Marin City.  It sounded complicated but provided you followed the directions to where to each bus stop it was OK, and I got there according to plan.  I had picked up information from the Tourist Office in the city earlier in the week, and phoned to check the times of the tourist bus that only ran at weekends from Marin City on the Bay, across to Stinson Beach on the Pacific Coast.  No doubt the bus service information will be different now, and it should be available on the internet. CHECK

The tourist bus dropped me by the road in open country but just above Muir Woods, and there was a zig-zag path down through forest to the entrance. 

Muir Woods was declared a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1908, having been saved from logging by Congressman Willian Kent and his wife in 1905. So, this must the the centenary of its rescue!

According to the blurb on the offical website, Kent asked that it be named after John Muir, the Scot who emigrated to Wisconsin in 1848 and inspired the conservation movement in the US.  Muir was greatly honoured by this dedication.

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Muir Woods lie in the valley of Redwood Creek, and the highest of the trees is over 252 feet tall.  Another is 14 feet wide, and some are at least 1000 years old. Elsewhere, a coast redwood has reached 367 feet tall, but those in Muir Woods are massive enough to make you gasp with awe.  It’s pretty dark on the floor of the forest, and it’s not easy to capture a real impression of the enormity of the forest with a photograph.  I ended up taking two photos lengthwise and sticking them together!

A marked trail with information boards led along either side of the creek from the Visitor Center and car park, where there was also a snack bar, gift shop and WCs. On the return towards the Visitor Center, along the east side of the creek, I took the Ocean View Trail to climb up the steep side of the valley, and reach the Panoramic Road above. 

Turning left along here, I could look down on the thickly forested valley, and ahead towards the rugged outline of Mt Tamalpais. A couple of hundred yards (meters) along the road, a trail led off to the right.  There turned out to be two trails, and I took the one closest to the road, called Hogback.  This provided the most direct approach to the highest point on the mountain – the East Peak.

I recall that this started out as open country, and then I turned left onto a wider one running around the southern slope of the mountain without much incline – not surprising as it was called Old Railroad Grade. A right turn led uphill again, up Fern Creek, and I seem to remember this was through pretty thick, old bush vegetation. This led up to the top of the ridge, and then there was another steep short climb up to the rocky summit, with various vantage points to rest on and enjoy the view.

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From the summit, looking to the north were big expanses of forest and a couple of lakes. The Bay Area extended from the east down towards the south, where the skyscrapers of San Francisco were visible in the distance.  It was a bit hazy in the warm sunshine, with scarcely any wind – brilliant weather for the start of November.

I sat and took it all in, and chatted to other (mostly younger) people who were up there – we talked about how we had come to be there, the kind of hiking we had done elsewhere, and a bit more about our backgrounds.  It was one of those relaxing, enjoyable, sociable situations that crop up sometimes when you’re out walking (most recently I got the same kind of experience when walking through Tiger Leaping Gorge, in China)

It was so warm and relaxing there, I could have stayed all day perched on the rocks.  However, I’d had lunch, and had to move on to see the rest of the mountain.  After clambering back down the steps to the ridge route I headed west, passing the Middle Peak and going on to the West Peak, both slightly lower than the East Peak. Again, the details have become hazy with time, but I’m sure there was one stretch just on the north side of the ridge where I was following a good track through a kind of tunnel of scrubby trees.

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Leaving the West Peak I descended down the ridge to a Mountain Theatre set in an open area surrounded by trees.  There had been plenty of other people around earlier in the day, but now in the early evening it was deserted.  From the theatre it wasn’t much further south down to the road where I’d get the bus back to Marin City, but on the way down the open ridge there was a great view west out across the Pacific Ocean.  The sun was almost setting, so I stopped and sat, and watched as it slipped down over the horizon – a great finale to the day’s walk.

Darkness was descending even more quickly than I was, heading down through the final stretch of woodland to the road, and then walking a short distance to the left up to the bus stop.  It must have been around 6 p.m.  It became rather eerie, sitting on a bench at the bus stop in the gathering gloom, in this big area of parkland, and I wondered if there were large animals around such as bears, but before I had too long to panic the bus arrived!

After the walk on Mount Diablo the previous day, I really felt I’d made the most of my extra weekend in California.  Next day I was flying back to autumnal weather in Scotland (which can be delightful in its own way!).

8 years later, I've just found out about Google's Earth software, freely available, and it's amazing to zoom in on Mount Tam as if in a helicopter, swooping along the ridge and then back to San Francisco - well worth trying out for yourself!

(story written 10 September 2005)

Contributed by: Andrew Llanwarne

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