Seeking Cache, Birthday Backflips, and 10.9 Miles to Arch Rock
Recently, rain and fog offered cover for the suspicious-looking geocache seekers. As the muggles carried out their daily routines, J, V and I sought out a few caches around town. Our names logged, we realized how fun it would be to leave some of our own.
Wednesday, I finally became a man. It took 31 years to get over my fear, but I can finally do trampoline backflips. The progress was in stages over the hour J, V, Shanghai A, and I spent at House of Air. First, I worked on falling backwards. Then from the back bounce I propelled my legs over my head and did awkward little flips from a lower position. While it felt unnatural to flip backwards like this, I knew that I had to try the real deal. Up and over my legs went as I crash landed. But my initial fear was overcome, and I flipped and flipped again until I was able to land on my feet.
I was elated. The rest of the night, I felt woozy with happiness. But it might have been because my brain had been rattled.
Searching for a cache with V in Chinatown.
Stool.
Door buzzers.
A man gets a cut in a back alley basement.
Wall detail.
Prayer supplies are golden and red.
The stool people.
Grey chicken for sale.
Free admission.
J standing next to a towering tomato plant.
Next to it was a healthy looking cannabis.
Signing a log on Hyde.
I was surprised to see a bus shelter ad for Coke that I made a year ago in China. I didn’t think it would ever be seen on these shores.
$18 of asian produce.
A leaning tree in an off limits section of The Lands End Trail.
Woods on the way to Fort Miley.
Old building.
A room with a view.
Graffiti.
Bars.
Stairway to purgatory.
Fort Miley.
Rusty door with security stones.
Off limits hospital storage bunkers.
Secret garbage.
Planting on a fresh sand dune.
Foggy went a courting.
On Thursday, the trampoline posse met for colon stuffing burritos before heading into Marin for a hike Shanghai A raved about.
Arch Rock is located on the ocean in Point Reyes National Seashore, and it’s reached by the Bear Valley Trail. The trail passes through a variety of temperate zones: mossy trees, mushrooms, ferns, brush, grassland, coastal crap, vast salt water. The hike is around 11 miles roundtrip from the parking area.
We started hiking in the afternoon, so daylight was in short supply. The group reached the top of Arch Rock at sunset. A seal was diving amongst numerous stands of floating seaweed. The steep trail to the left was impassible at the bottom because the stream was too high.
Our walk back was mostly in the dark. Despite the small LED clip-on reading light I had attached to my hat, it was still hard to avoid puddles of water, mud, and horse manure.
I scanned the brush to our sides, fearful of seeing the glowing eyes of a predator cat. Not a mountain lion or bobcat was spotted though.
The start of the Bear Valley Trail.
Spanish moss, a tree’s aphrodisiac.
Ferns, everywhere ferns.
A trail view.
A clearing brings thoughts of urination.
Hoss the Mountain Man soaks up the sun.
What light through yonder trees would illuminate as brightly as this light here?
Spider webs with dew issues.
Branches.
This tree isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Streaming audio.
Puddle topped with plants.
Mossy trees.
A bend in the trail offers a view of the setting sun.
Tree tunnel opening.
Fungus amongst us.
Out of the woods.
J’s eternal brown braids.
Shanghai A and V approaching the sea.
Arch Rock cove.
Looking north towards the cliffs.
This hillside is so wet.
The rushing water inside the canyon prevented us from going under the arch of Arch Rock.
The torrent.
Time to head back.
But first, another look at the might Pacific!
Two days of exercise and seeing seeing an “old foreigner” friend back from China was a great way to leave San Francisco.
I’m off to Tennessee and Texas for the holidays. I feel torn between the two Ts like the I in “tits.”
This is the last post until the new year, so savor it like you would a fresh dense fruitcake. I’ll be back and better than ever.