Highlights since September: the final chapter

It all started with the REI used gear sale. I found a 300 dollar backpacking tent (the Rei Quarter Dome T3) for 30 bucks. I bought it, but it had some problems, including a 2 inch rip in the rain fly and a missing pole. I went back to REI and found a vestibule for another REI tent that had some poles that looked similar for 10 bucks and was going to buy it, but when I explained the deal to the employee working the used gear sale, he marked the price down to 99 cents. REI is the best!!.

The pole wasn't the right size, but after some creative problem solving and some dremel work I had a working pole system. (I also used some seam sealer--actually quite a bit of it--to fix the rip in the fly.

Now that I had an awesome backpacking tent, I wanted to put it to use and that's where the idea for a Thanksgiving break backpacking trip began.

The plan was further aided by the fact that due to some contract negotiations between my school district and my union, we got the whole week of Thanksgiving off.

Speaking of vacation time, The one goal I wasn't able to accomplish this summer was to take my family on a backpacking trip. For the last two summers we've been able to do an overnight backpacking trip, so I really, really wanted to keep the tradition alive. In fact, I wanted to kick it up a notch; I wanted to make it a 3 day trip instead of just an overnighter. I started researching places to backpack and decided upon Point Reyes.

The plan was to start Monday November 22 at the Point Reyes Hostel, camp at Coast Camp, about 3 miles out, hike to Wildcat Camp the next day and then hike out to the Palomarin trailhead on Wednesday.

We invited a bunch of people, but the only ones crazy enough to go along with us turned out to be Sam and Olivia who brought along Isabella and Ava and Olivia's sister Julia as well as Lennon's friend Sam (who's one of my Webelos).

Unfortunately, the weather didn't cooperate. During the week before the trip, the forecast continuously changed, giving us hope, crushing it, offering up more hope. On the Sunday before we left, there was like a 90 percent chance of rain on Monday, but Tuesday and Wednesday were perfect, so we decided to start on Tuesday at the Palomarin trailhead, hike to Wildcat Camp and then hike back out the following day, and that's just what we did.

The sky was clear and sunny, but it was super windy on the way there. The views were Awesome!

We didn't know it when we took this picture, but the beach in the photo is Wildcat beach right by our campground.

Meghan enjoyed the view.

Lennon used the rest stop to practice his Avatar pose.

Here's the kids playing on the top of a hill.

This was the view looking back the way we had come. That's Alamere Falls a little above and to the left of the middle of the picture.

We didn't start out with Sam and Olivia, but they caught up to us at camp and they brought a friend:

The horse and its owner didn't actually arrive with Sam and Olivia. The guy rode right into camp, got off his horse, walked up to me and started showing me pictures he took. While he was talking to me, the kids all went over and started petting the horse. I thought it was all pretty random and crazy, so as soon as I could break away, I grabbed my camera and started documenting.

After the guy and his horse left, Sam and Olivia told us that they had met the guy on the trail and had talked to him for a little while then, so it wasn't as random as I had thought--but it was still a little crazy.

We checked out the beach as the sun was setting. Abby used the time to vandalize the beach:


Rachel and I used the time to pose for a cute couple photo:


The sunset was pretty awesome:


It got pretty cold after the sun went down, so we all went to bed pretty quickly. Because we went to bed so early and because of my weak bladder, at around 2 AM I woke up and had to go to the bathroom. I decided that I would take the camera and go out in search of raccoons. (One of the things that I had read about camping at Point Reyes was that you had to be careful because raccoons were all over the place. I was excited at the chance of seeing one).

As you will note, there are no photos of raccoons. I was unsuccessful.

The next morning I went down to the beach and took some pictures of the pretty scenery:
This one's looking out to the right.

And this one's looking to the left. There's the falls.

Meanwhile, back at camp:
We were waiting for our jetboil to cook us up some omeletes in zip lock bags. The jetboil does awesome at boiling water, but we learned on this trip that it's not so great when you try to do anything more fancy.

Here's a picture of the tent that started it all.

While playing next to the campsite, the kids found an assortment of deer bones.

We decided that before hiking out, we should go on a little adventure and try to walk along the beach to Alamere Falls.

Here we are, on our way.

We made it:

Lennon found a dead crab,

and I found a crabby girl:
In her defense, she had done a lot
of walking in the last couple days and she did a great job. She just had her moments.

The rest of the girls did great.

On the way back to camp I saw evidence of what I had failed to find in the middle of the night:
Raccoon tracks. They were there. They just didn't want me to see them.

After lunch we started the hike back:

Meghan was happy again and flying up the trail.

We passed a lot of nice vistas, like this one:


I haven't really commented on Lennon and Sam (the friend, not the uncle). Aside from annoying the girls occasionally, they spent most of their time finding things to interest themselves and they were awesome hikers. They led the trip back. Here's a couple of shots of the manly hikers:

At this point, Ava and Sam the uncle were able to catch up with them.

On the hike in, we passed a bunch of puddles and I looked for newts (something else I had read about), but we didn't see any. At one point, we passed an older couple who asked us if we had seen the newts in a puddle further back on the trail. We hadn't and I was a little sad that we had missed them. I was hoping that we might see them on the way back, and we did.

As we were nearing the end of the hike, we found ourselves split into four groups. Lennon and Sam Keller were in the front (Sam had some business to take care of at the trailhead--or more specifically at the bathroom at the trailhead); Rachel and Julia went after the boys to kind of keep an eye on them; I walked with Meghan, Abby, and Bella; and Sam, Olivia, and Ava brought up the rear to make sure that no one got left behind.

The girls and I had fun.
We enjoyed the vistas,

and the flowers

and crossing a bridge

And before we knew it, we were back.

But, even though we had been walking all day, we weren't done yet. We loaded into our vans and headed for the Point Reyes Lighthouse. Unfortunately I wasn't aware of the Elmer Lighthouse Curse. Apparently, Sam and Olivia have tried to visit the lighthouse a few other times, but it has always been closed.

This time was no exception. We did get to see the lighthouse lit up from a distance and that was cool.

We were also able to reenact a photo that Rachel has when she visited the lighthouse with some friends and posed for a picture in the jaws of a whale skull. Each of the kids followed in their mother's footsteps and here are the pictures:

Definitely a highlight.