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| Hiking | 10.34 Miles |
2,928 AEG |
| | Hiking | 10.34 Miles | 5 Hrs 34 Mns | | 1.92 mph |
| 2,928 ft AEG | 11 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | I really enjoyed this hike in spite of the physical challenge it presented. Gaining 1900' in the first 2.9 miles made for a pretty rough hike, but it was worth it.
I started out at the Stinson Beach parking lot and hiked up through the neighborhood above downtown Stinson Beach to the trailhead at about 400' elevation. The Willow Camp Trail is in very good shape which is good because it just kept going up. There's a brief respite from the steady climb about 2.2 miles in, but the rest tested my fitness.
It was a relatively cool and windy day, but I was pretty warmed up by the time I reached the road, and then descended to Cataract Creek. The creek was going pretty good, but was nothing to write home about. Laurel Dell was pretty crowded, and the upper falls were as well. The best way to see the falls is to get there really early which is the case with pretty much everything out here.
I actually enjoyed the next stretch of the hike more than the falls as I took the Mickey O'Brien Trail up Barth's Creek to the Simmons Trail. The Simmons Trail was really neat as it headed up into a ridge of serpentine rock and Sargent's cypress. Always cool to see rare conifers. I plunged down the southern half of Simmons as the trail steepened and became more rocky.
I made it back to the trail that goes back up to the road in no time, but then there was a little bit of uphill that was not appreciated. My way down from the top on Willow Camp was pretty tame. I enjoyed watching a northern harrier do its thing for about 10 minutes. It was definitely up to something.
Rest assured that portion control and insomnia did not occur later that night. |
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