Day 118.

Estero Trail at Drake’s Bay, Point Reyes – 6 miles.

The trailhead is in the middle of no where.  There’s a tiny sign that directs you down a long, one-lane road.  Not one-lane like each direction gets one lane, but one lane as in if there’s a car coming in the other direction, one of you is going in the ditch.

We didn’t meet any other cars.

In fact, when we arrived at the end of this road, we were the only car in the grassy parking area.  On top of that, the wind was strong enough that our car was rocking well after we stopped the engine!!!  We debated whether we should just turn tail and drive away at that point, but we made it all the way out there so we better get some walking out of it!

Just as we were layering on our jackets, a guy in a Prius drove up, parked, paused and swiftly drove away.

Once on the trail, the wind was no better.  There were portions (particularly in the cow-filled lowlands) where I’d lift my foot to take a step and get pushed sideways by the wind to along a completely different trajectory.  I’m not a small girl.  Wind should not be doing that.

It was only until ~3 miles into the trail that we got our excuse to turn back.  The sandstone path was completely mired in mud.  At first we tried hop-skipping our way through, but over each muddy turn, a wider/muddier section would appear.  We saw our excuse to turn tail and head back to the trailhead… this time battling into the wind…

Miles walked: 516 | Miles to go: All bonus from here!