. Golden Gate Park

New paths, new things to pick up off the ground & put in Anthony's pockets.

. Muir Beach coastal trail

Come with us now on a pleasant winter walk along the Muir Beach coastal trail.


Out of the parking lot. Past the portable toilets. Hang a right at the sticky monkeyflower.

Who's this?


Skirt the horse corral. Cyclists and equestrians welcome. It's good to be outdoors, isn't it?


Turn right onto Green Gulch Trail. Don't forget to close the gate.


Or the shadowy deer demon will poop on you.


This land belongs to Green Gulch farms.


They make vegetables for San Francisco restaurants like "Greens".


Here's a spiky farm thing they use for farming.


Some parts of the trail are a bit muddy. We'll have to clean our shoes before we get back in the car.



Stop messing about now. We're coming to the Zen Center. What do you think they do with all these pipes?


That's a strange place to have a bath.


We can see the cars on the other side of the valley. I wonder if they can see us.


It's getting a bit steeper now. Don't get left behind.


Try taking longer strides. Open your hips. Lengthen your psoaz. Redwood trees, Douglas fir, coyote brush and cow parsnip. Watch out for the poison oak. Do you know what it looks like?

Neither do I.

Maybe it's growing in here.


We'll stop for lunch soon. Yes, I know I said that 20 minutes ago.
Let's pause a while and enjoy the view. Look how far we've come already.


We've found a little house. There's a bench out back. Maybe we can sit on it while we eat our lunch.


The sign on the gate says private property. But no one seems to be home. We won't be long.


Let's exchange potato chips.


These kettle chips are the color of shoe laces.


Looks like it's time to hit the trail again.


Not much further to the top. 900 feet vertical elevation. You can see our house from here.


What's that moving on the path up ahead?


It's a bobcat.


Pick up the children, wave your arms around, don't turn your back, and throw things. On second thoughts, let's just walk past.

Someone else has been this way.


Cloven hooves. The devil, perhaps.

Never mind that, look at the view.


It's all downhill from here.


Take your time on the way down. There's no need to hurry. The ground is uneven and it's easy to sprain an ankle.


Hey, who's this?


He looks familiar.


See you next time.


It's almost over now. Do you feel a bit sad? You can see the parking lot through the trees. And the portable toilets.


Back on the road. Wait a minute, I've heard about this place. Stop the car!


Cheers!

. Tomales Bay

. A Decade Ago...

Welcome to an exciting new feature of the mothkettle blog called "A Decade Ago..." In it I will be reminiscing about the olden days and talking about how old I am. Now I've written that down it sounds even more exciting than when it was just in my head.

Shall we begin?

A decade ago this month, on the week of my 30th birthday, we went for a walk through Muir Woods with our friends Oliver and Victoria.

Here we can be seen struggling to keep up with new technology called the "self timer".


And here we can be seen having an invisible light saber battle.


A couple of years later I was back in Muir woods walking the coastal trail with my friend Joe, and we were asked by a middle-aged couple going in the opposite direction if we knew where the bar was. We said no we didn't know where the bar was, and after they were gone we laughed about how silly you would have to be to think that there was a bar in the middle of Muir Woods.

Turns out there is a bar in the middle of Muir Woods. So on the week of my 40th birthday we went to find it with our friends Bryce and Jenny. Here is a video documenting that historic occasion.

. 120 Views

. Coastal Branches

. Olompali

Olompali State Historical Park is in Marin, a bit north of San Francisco. The Miwok Indians lived there from about 6000 BC. Then Francis Drake arrived, and they didn't live there much longer.

. Purisima Creek Trail (smells great)

We went for a hike with Diane and found a disturbing number of ladybugs. And a crashed beehive.