Your favorite country mice, Dan and Hannah, head north through San Francisco’s Chinatown on a typically temperate 60-degree morning in March. Just twenty minutes north, the Muir Woods National Monument awaits. Escaping the city by way of the Golden Gate Bridge, we take to the four lane California 101, then exit onto the winding two lane California 1 with its tight hairpin turns and no shoulders. Though the website (http://www.nps.gov/muwo) says parking is limited, we easily find a spot at Muir Woods, less than two miles from the Pacific Ocean.
After just a few hundred steps to the Visitor Center, we take the ranger-recommended hike up Redwood Creek along the Bootjack Trail. Immediately, we are in the midst of the tallest living things on the face of the earth, 250-foot plus redwood trees. Redwoods! Oh, they are majestic, certainly magnificent, indeed breathtaking, regal is no overstatement. You might be thinking, enough already with the inflated adjectives. Well, my impatient readers, please think again. As my college roommate Big Steve would say, these trees are stunning. Feeling like Jack looking for the top of the Beanstalk, we crane our necks skyward unable to see the tops of the redwood canopy.
Through this forest of clustered redwood families is a blacktop or a wooden boardwalk trail, maybe 12-15 feet wide. Among tourists in sandals and street shoes, we warm up for our hike in this lush rainforest where thick, hairy moss hangs from every branch. Ferns abound on either side of the boardwalk with the snow fed rushing waters of the Redwood Creek, just an arm’s length away. With the wet winters and fog off the ocean throughout the rest of the year, this climate is perfect for redwoods.
After a mile of humanity, we step straight ahead on the aforementioned Bootjack Trail, which is muddy and sloppy from last night’s drenching rain. Hiking boots are a must with the trail rocky and crossed by roots as it ascends into the Pacific coastal mountains. The roaring creek makes it difficult to talk; for the next hour we see no one on the trail to break up the hike or possibly make a brief connection with a kindred spirit. As an aside, my life is one part seeking of kindred spirits. Perspiring, I soon remove my sweatshirt; my pant legs are mud-spattered from the trail. Arriving an hour or so later at the Van Wyck Meadow, we lunch while sitting on a rock in the sunshine. Shoes and socks off, we celebrate with homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, apples, and the satisfaction of a day well spent. You got to be thinking, these kids do it right!
Turning left we hit the TCC (Tamalpais Conservation Club) trail for the home stretch which, rather than climbing the canyon wall, cuts into the canyon hundreds of feet above the thundering creek with little elevation change. We soon catch a hiking rhythm just below the ridgeline and the conversation flows. Using hands and feet, we do grope through a 12-foot section of the trail washed out by last night’s downpour.
Though the park information lists this loop hike as plus or minus four hours, we do it under three hours with 15 minutes for lunch. Fact is, we primarily hike for exercise. For Hannah and Dan, a good time on vacation is having our legs motoring and our hearts pumping. Did you know Hannah’s undergraduate degree from the College of Wooster in Ohio was in physical education? Dan, himself, has a Masters in physical education from the Harvard of the West, Arizona State University. (Stand tall, fellow Sun Devils!) We cruise pretty well and smell fewer roses. It’s just in our DNA, but it’s one heckuva good workout.
Find a place for Muir Woods on your to-do list and you’ll not be sorry. All of this is but 30 minutes away from the third worst traffic jams in America (Los Angeles, you are #1 while Honolulu is #2)
(http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-03-08/50-worst-commutes-americas-highways-to-hell/2/). Sorry Washington, DC. You are only #4, but I’m pulling for you next year.
As always when hiking, know thyself, thy limits, and the conditions. Be prepared.
Bootjack Trail loop rating – So very California cool.
Oh, there’s one final joy – cell phones don’t work in Muir Woods. We tried.
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