Hiking the Sonoma Coast trails on Memorial Day weekend is a bit of a challenge with inexperienced RV drivers negotiating the twisty coastal roads, watching for bicyclists and finding a place to park. Since I get out there often, I know all the out of the way places to leave my motorcycle and hike in. It might be a little more walking but that's what I'm there for.
I ran into a couple of young guys at the trail head packing up gear for some bouldering and top roping on one of the hundred foot crags. It looked like they had enough gear to climb El Cap.
My walk started on a high meadow over looking the ocean and entered a thick stand of Bishop pine. Under the canopy of these gnarled old pines the sounds were dampened by the thick floor of pine needles. All I could hear was the whisper of the wind through the trees and the faint barking of the bull seals sunning on the rocks below.
Wildflowers grew in abundance even on the trail which told me this trail wasn't used much. I felt a little guilty for walking right over all that beauty.
The trail came out in a clearing of weathered tafoni sandstone noted for it'd small cave like features. I could spend the day exploring all these bizarre rock formations, but something else caught my eye.
Along the buff were rusty eye bolts embed in the sandstone, relics from another time.
The small bay or cove I was hiking along once was a place where schooners would drop anchor and take on Douglas-fir and redwoods lumber from the old growth forest. The bolts where there for securing the ships while loading. Over a hundred years ago the north coast was a center for logging supplying lumber needed to build San Francisco at the start of the gold rush. Back up on the road there are several run down buildings from that era. One of them a trading post the other a Wells Fargo office.
Following the trail along the bluff, it would take a turn inland to skirt around deep ravines thick with a lush growth of ferns and Calla Lilies.
I dropped down into one of them to get pictures and found a way to reach the beach that doesn't see many visitors. It got so steep and slick with moss that I decided to put away my camera and not risk another fall breaking a lens, again!
The beach had many tidal pools rich with a microcosm of sea life. The rocky shoreline turned into a beautiful sand beach only occupied by seals. I don't think they were very happy with me walking on their beach. Many of them were in the water curiously watching me.
The effort to drop down to this pristine beach was worth the effort, the only problem was climbing out.
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