Our Walk

Today, we went to Muir Woods and hiked to Stinson Beach. The hike to the beach was 5 miles long with beautiful views of valleys, Redwoods and the ocean. It took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. We had lunch at a restaurant in town and then walked down to the beach. It was overcast and cold, but there were lots of freaking crazy people in swimsuits and some were in the water. Ed and I watched for a few minutes while we shivered in our windbreakers and then headed back.

We decided to take a different trail home. From the map, it looked like there was a mile of really steep climbing and then a couple miles of relatively flat trail along a ridge, and finally a couple miles of down hill back to the car. It turned out that the steep part was actually 3 or 4 miles of switchbacks. I was really happy that we weren't climbing straight up and the trail and the views were really spectacular as we made our way up a ravine filled with all kinds of vegetation. It was a gorgeous section of trail. By the time we got to the ridge, I was REALLY tired (I was pretty tired when we got to the beach in the first place). My legs and back were killing me and my legs seem to be getting heavier and heavier. The views along the ridge continued to be really pretty, though - the trail alternated between open, dry expanses and dry stream beds with lots of vegetation.

Finally, we started going downhill for the last couple of miles back to the car. I was feeling better and we moved pretty fast. The hike back took 3 hours and 15 minutes and we figure that the whole thing was 12 or 13 miles with about 3000 vertical feet of climbing. Luckily, the weather was pleasant and not too hot, or it would have been pretty miserable.

If you come visit us, we'll take you to see some Redwoods (but we won't make you hike 12 miles).