Point Reyes

Just spent the last two days at Point Reyes park. It's about an hour north of San Francisco and since I had a car and a couple of days to kill (I'm back in the bay area) I decided to head out there. I was carrying my tent and sleeping bag so that I could camp out there for one night. Since it was a sunday afternoon, it wasn't too busy and the ranger at the visitor centre told me I could camp almost anywhere. Parked my car, packed my stuff into my smaller backpack and headed out with a map following a trail and encountered this pretty soon.



Walked on and found the first campsite (the one I had a permit for) after a decent 2-3 hour walk. Decided it was a bit boring and hiked up another trail towards the beach. It was a pleasant walk and since it was overcast I didn't sweat much either. After another hour or so of walking came up to the edge of some cliffs over the water and found another campsite and decided this was it - even though I didn't have a permit for that site. It was right next to the ocean and apart from one other tent it seemed very quiet and not busy at all. Pitched my tent with a great view of the ocean and walked down to the beach.





Crashed around 9 as it was pretty dark and went off to sleep with the sound of the ocean waves crashing furiously against the rocky cliffs. Woke up early to catch the sunrise. It was too overcast to see anything so I went back to sleep and then woke up hearing noises next to my tent. Poked my head out and saw my old friend.



He didn't seem to bothered by my presence but after I came back from my morning routine he was gone. Walked up along the coastal route and since it was a monday morning it was absolutely empty. Found a huge rock in the middle and had lunch consisting of two energy bars and a bottle of water. After another 2-3 hours of walking I reached my car and then drove out towards the lighthouse on the southern side of the park. It's not in service anymore but is very pretty especially as it juts out into the ocean.



It was almost 4 so I decided to head back to Berkeley. On the way back I missed the Bay bridge towards Berkeley and ended up on the highway towards the Golden Gate bridge. Driving over the Golden Gate bridge was a nice experience with the huge red columns and the SF skyline on the left. At the toll booth, I asked the attendant about getting towards Berkeley and she gave me some directions. Since I'd spent 3 days in San Francisco and walked all over I was familiar with the city so I had no problem following her directions though I hit some really bad traffic and was also running out of gas as I didn't think I'd need to refuel before reaching Berkeley. The freeway was bumper to bumper traffic and I also didn't have a cellphone so I had to make some very bold moves across three lanes to take the right exit for Berkeley. Am back in A & L's apt and ready to pass out. Heading back to LA tomorrow and then flying out to New York the next day.