Perhaps due to the patriotic (or political) nature of this area, I had President's Day off this week. Since the weather was nice, I packed a picnic lunch and struck out for Muir Woods. As an educational note, Muir Woods is the last remaining grove of Redwood trees in the Bay Area. There are other stands of Redwoods up and down the CA coast, but the rest of the ones in this area were felled by loggers in the early 1900s. Muir Woods is named after John Muir, who started the Sierra Club and was instrumental in making the Yosemite area a national park. Now we all know, and I've heard that "knowing is half the battle."
On the way to the park, I used a large bridge to cross whatever they call the body of water just north of San Francisco Bay. Part of the way across the bridge, I noticed that there weren't any lanes of traffic going the opposite way. I foolishly began to think that I was on a one-way bridge, which seemed strange. At the other side, I discovered that the opposing lanes were running beneath me. I thought this was pretty cool, since I don't remember being on a double decker bridge before (maybe it doesn't take much to entertain me). Shortly afterward, I began to wonder if I'd been on the bridge that partially collapsed during the earthquake that delayed the World Series back in the late '80s. Later research informed me that I had traveled on the Richmond-San Rafael bridge, and the damaged bridge was the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge. Evidently these large bridges are expensive to build, because $4 is the going rate on the two I've been on. They were both free to return on, which may mean that there's nothing worth paying to see where I'm starting from.
Having solved the mystery of the multilevel bridge, I pressed onward toward the big trees. However, one more enigma lay in wait. After exiting a freeway, I was stuck in traffic with several dozen other vehicles. I could see a police car blocking access to the intersection below, and people near the police car were waiting outside of their vehicles. I suspected a major accident out of site beneath the ramp. Then I began to notice pedestrians milling about on the sidewalks of the road I was trying to exit to, and police cars started coming by from one direction. Eventually, a clue appeared in the form of a large group of bicyclists, followed by little cars with extra bikes on top. It looked like a miniature Tour de France, which it was (Tour de California). Grace looked it up for me on the internet, and, sure enough, I'd blundered into the race route that morning. Unfortunately, these cyclists were heading the same way I wanted to go; so my drive to Muir Woods took ~45 minutes longer than expected.
I finally made it to the park, had some lunch, and got some good hiking in. I also made it over to a couple of beaches (Stinson and Muir) on the Pacific. Since I was in the area, I headed over to the Golden Gate National Recreational Area and caught my first live views of the Golden Gate Bridge. They must be proud of that bridge here, because it costs $5 to cross. It does look impressive. Since it was dark (and I need my $5 for gas), I chose not to venture over into San Francisco that day. I returned home to prepare for my three day work week. :-)
Here are pictures of the Redwoods; some are even taller than Matt!
Coast line views and beach stuff:
This is where the Karate Kid went to get the bonsai tree.
Vulture waiting for me to fall off the cliff
These birds brought their own picnic.
I need some training on being able to format these pictures in with the verbiage. It seems harder than it should be. I give up for tonight.
