Trekking to Coast Camp

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We got up packed, threw our backpacking gear in the car and headed two and a half hours to Point Reyes for our overnight backpacking trip. I had originally planned to do this trip over Mother's Day back in May, as my first backpacking trip with my daughter. But she ended up getting the flu- so that didn't happen. The next available permits weren't until October unfortunately. That being said, I've decided October is an awesome time to backpack in this area. The weather is super mild.

On our way there, we started hearing reports of a massive fire in Napa and Sonoma. We were headed in that general direction so I did some quick research on my phone. Yup- the whole Valley was on fire and massive evacuations had started in the middle of the night. Point Reyes is actually just to the west of this area on the ocean (maybe 50miles away?). So we figured we'd be okay. It definitely was smokier the more north we drove but heading to the coast it was clear. No sign of fires at the Point Reyes Bear Valley Visitors Center, where we were picking up our permits. No warnings either, other than not using our charcoal grills at the campsite. I also got a map of the area and asked the ranger if he could point out scenic places we could drive to and stop at after our overnight. "Where's all these trees people take photos of?" "Where's the lighthouse?" He pointed them out for me, and then we we headed back outside to eat lunch. I packed us tuna sandwiches and fruit, which we ate at a nearby picnic table. It was beginning to look like fall- the ground was scattered with leaves.

We then drove 20min to the Hostel and parked on the road nearby the Coast Trailhead. Five minutes down the trail, the toddler already had to pee. We're at the tail end of potty training. She rarely has accidents during the day, and generally only in the car or when she has to poop. Which means when she says she has to go, we have to listen. Chris tried to help her squat and being of limited experience with squat peeing himself, he did it wrong and she peed on her pants. Well, already down one pair of pants. I only packed her two so she literally can't have an accident in this second pair. Chris chastised me for not packing more spares. "How many extra clothes were you expecting me to lug in my pack?" I asked him. And later, once I stopped seething, "You need to learn how to help her squat pee." Pft.

It took us about 2hrs to hike from the trailhead to site #6 at Coast Camp. This is, ofcourse, toddler speed. Chris and I could have easily done it in an hour otherwise, lol. She likes to stop, pick up sticks and rocks, dawdle, you know. Toddler stuff. So we just bribed her with a cookie to keep her going. At some point as we were hiking along the ocean (definitely the prettier part of the trail), she started complaining of a stomach ache. Chris immediately thought flu, and omg, she's going to puke. I just made her keep walking. She had zero other symptoms, and sure enough, she started farting eventually. Yay for the need to poop!

Chris started setting up camp while I took Arya to the bathroom. This is luxury backpacking once again. All the sites are surrounded by thick foliage, which gives you privacy. Only the first two sites actually had ocean views but you could certainly hear the waves. The camp is uphill from an easily accessible beach. There's a water faucet with potable water and two pit toilets that are a bit of a walk but they're there! Arya ate her hiking cookie reward while Chris and I set up the tent. She was much happier to be done hiking for the day. It was close to 5pm and the sun was already setting, so we headed down to the beach. On the way we passed a GIANT tree with a rope swing tied to a branch! So we took turns swinging on it. With the exception of one other couple, the beach was deserted. It's pretty rare you have an entire beach to yourselves in California, which is one thing I love about backpacking at Point Reyes. We watched the sun go down for awhile, Arya played in the sand. The sun was fairly red from all the smoke from Napa burning. Thankfully we had chosen this part of early evening to sit out there because at actual sunset, the sun entirely disappeared behind thick clouds (smoke?). We had thought there might be a sunset finale so we went back to camp, cooked dinner, and brought our food back to the swinging tree to watch. Boy, were we disappointed when the sun vanished, lol. Oh well, we set on a log and ate dinner anyway. I had packed us kid-friendly dehydrated spaghetti. I had meant to grab a few rolls at the store but forgot. I did, however, remember the canned wine again. Delicious stuff.

Back at camp, I cooked my dessert (there's this really good dehydrated raspberry crumble with chocolate cookie crumb topping) while Chris took Arya to the bathroom again. They left with the sun up, and returned in darkness. The sun, once it set, went away fast! I was sipping my wine and trying to read my book. We ate dessert, cleaned up and crawled into our tent. Arya passed out asleep in two minutes, Chris listened to an Audiobook on his phone (and headphones) and I read my book with a headlamp for about an hour. Then it was time to pass out. Our camp was repeatedly inspected by wildlife all night long, particularly raccoons, mice and rabbits. Glad I brought ear plugs.

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Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Point Reyes is amazing
Beautiful