Your mom and I were on our own for the holidays this year, and that suited us just fine. I'd just gotten back from a visit to Colorado for my brother Ian's funeral service, and in other ways it'd been a long-ish year, so some time to truly unwind on our own was needed. We decided to reprise a couple nights in one of our favorite places, Point Reyes National Seashore. We stayed at the hostel and spent the weekend in quiet nature.
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| We blew through Point Reyes Station on the way out to the hostel, and your mom joined me for a pint at The Western Saloon, one of our regular joints, at this point. The fire was cozy. |
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| Your mom got me some new hiking gear for Christmas! That jacket is a legitimate weather proof coat with that puffy, insulated lining which you can zip out on its own. She completed the set with a new hat and gloves, things I didn't even have yet. |
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| It was Christmas Eve and we decided to do a short walk along Limantour Spit, a thin stretch of land between the ocean and the wetlands just south of the hostel. It was cool and beautiful outside. |
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| As is tradition : ) |
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| The spit was covered with long grass, sandy earth, and an odd collection of trees. There were deer prints everywhere along the soft path. |
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| We finally stumbled on a small group of deer at the very end of the spit. Trying not to disturb them too much, we turned around there to head back the way we came. You can always count on some close encounters in this part of the world. |
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| Your mom also got us that new backpack for Christmas, one of those packs with a pouch tucked in and a hose you can get water from as you go. It really came in handy! |
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| The hostel is appointed with succulents all around, and this one was particularly colorful and interesting. |
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| We planned out our Christmas Day hike using our handy trail guide. |
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| Once we were able to check in we made ourselves some dinner and picked out our bunks. The days were short and we found ourselves ready for bed early in the night, especially thanks to all the walking around we'd done during the day. |
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| Our home for Christmas. I was really enjoying Cannery Row during that trip and your mom was reading a book I got her as a Christmas gift, Ghostland, which is like a history book but tells the story of America via supposedly haunted and cursed places. I thought it'd appeal to her interests in ghost stories and sociology. |
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| Part of our Christmas hike overlapped with the path we took with Spenser and Holly back in March, but we went quite a bit further this time in order to get to the cliffs off Drake's Head. |
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| The winter sky was beautiful all day, and though it was quite cold outside, we were warm in our appropriate gear and loved every vista offered. |
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| It was also really remote and peaceful. We only saw one other person, a speck in the distance, at the very farthest point of the big loop. Otherwise it was nothing but surf, breeze, and the many diverse sounds of birds both near and far. |
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| We bothered some cows along the way since they seemed to walk along the same path we were. They snorted in disapproval as we skirted by. |
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| Near the top of our loop, we sat for a snacky lunch and hot chocolate which really hit the spot. It stayed very chilly, but we did well keeping warm and cozy, even when stopping for a break. |
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| Drake's Head is a piece of land stretching to the sea and bordered on the easy by an estero, which makes for a lot of wetlands near by. Once we got back to the ocean front, we could see forever south, including the spit where we walked the day before. |
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| Then north we could spot the gorgeous Point Reyes lighthouse in the distance at the point. It took a few hours to get this far, to a new spot on this beautiful coast we'd never been before. |
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| My partner through it all. You'd think we'd run out of things to talk and chat about as the hours went on surrounded by nothing else but nature, but we don't. We joke and solve the world's problems as we go, step by step. |
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| Because the trail was a big loop, we were able to see some new views on the way back. |
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| The sun was beginning to get low and the landscape shifted with it. |
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| We were treated to some beautiful skies as we made our way back. It got dim but never dark, and more wondrous by the minute. |
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| These places take on a magical quality, being so distinct from our daily lives tucked into cities, apartments, offices, and classrooms. It was just the retreat we needed to end this year. |
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| Near the end of our walk we finally stumbled upon some elk, an invariable feature of our trips to Point Reyes. They watched us carefully as we passed by. We counted what we'd seen this round: elk, deer, so many flocks of derpy quails, Great Blue Heron, a coyote, even a small burrowing owl! Oh, don't forget the cows. We also spotted some tracks which we swear looked exactly like the field guide said otters make! |
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| We were a hop, skip, and a jump away from our bunks. It was only very early in the evening but the 14 mile hike wore us out! |
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| Another wonderful time in this pleasant, calm, beautiful place. We wished each other another Merry Christmas after an early dinner and were probably passed out in our bunks by 9:00! |
