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Published: August 20th 2013
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Muir Woods
Tall redwoods Day 7
Early start to the day, pick up at 715. Lachy arrives via cab at the same time as Jason from Tom's Tours to explore Muir Woods.
http://http://muirwoodstour.com/ This trip was really great. Communication with Tom before hand was easy and pickup prompt. There were only 2 others on our trip so it was quite personable. We drove over the GGB and got a good dose of fog and a winding drive to the car park. Lots of eucalyptus trees on the way and some beautiful views. Parked in a near empty car park and spent the next couple of hours on the boardwalk and then up a decent hill onto another track. There are 6 miles of tracks available to walk in the park, there are maps and various resources available if you want to plan specific walks. Lucky enough to spot the barred owl, one of two that is frequenting the woods at the moment. There are supposed to be over 50 species of birds in the park- woodpeckers, owls, nuhatches, etc. If you are a keen birdwatcher I think it would be a great place to spend the entire day- check list below.
http://www.nps.gov/muwo/naturescience/loader.cfm?csModule=security/getfile&PageID=402560 The walk was at a comfortable pace and so nice to be amongst the Redwoods (tallest redwoods > 250 foot tall) and Douglas Fir trees . Trees here estimated at 600- 800 years old!! Quite an awesome spectacle. Also saw and tasted huckleberries! Very serene in the pre-crowd morning. It was quite chilly before we started the walk and for the flat bit but the hill turned up the temperature a bit. Hiked in my new sensible shoes and shorts (determined to wear shorts at least once in the SF summer!) but despite losing one upper clothing layer still kept on my down vest and long sleeve T plus t-shirt.
We finished the hike back at the park cafe and stopped for a coffee. American drip coffee, tea and hot chocolate is the extent of the hot drink menu. It was really busy by this stage so we pretty much drank and ran. The tour was to conclude at the ferry car park in Sausalito. We said our goodbyes and thank you's and explored the main streets for an hour or so. Fantastic views of San Francisco from the jetty and lots of quaint little places to
browse. Jason had given us a packed lunch (sandwich, water and packet of chips) which we ate at a picnic table down by the water. Caught the ferry back to SF, nice ride, super windy on deck.
Tour Summary- great way to get a taste of the woods. On the next trip to SF I will definitely visit Muir Woods again, but spend longer and walk more and bring binoculars.... and probably not wear shorts (although, who knows, it may be warmer in winter!).
So, on return to SF, Lachy headed off to a birthday party so I had another wander through the Ferry Building with the plan then to catch the California cable car back to the apartment. Got side tracked though at a rally going on. It was part of a 1984/Rally for Privacy Awareness group with a number of speakers, an interesting hour. Fairly small crowd. As the group headed up to Rep. Nancy Pelosi's office I headed up to my cable car stop.
http://www.restorethefourth.net/ Jumped off at Hyde. Spent the next hour scouring two second hand stores up on Polk St for some Great Gatsby style clothes (upcoming bd party)- no luck.
Popped into Trader Joes market and bought some supplies then all the way back down the hill to the apartment (via Contraband Coffee shop- i like it there). Quiet night in.
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