Mount Wittenberg - Meadow Trail loop, July 22, 2012

Hike 4, July 22, 2012. Habitat: Coniferous forest. Trail: Mount Wittenberg Trail, returning by Meadow Trail and Bear Valley Trail (a loop, by golly!). Distance: 5 miles.

Ferny understory on Mount Wittenberg Trail

This July day began unpromisingly with a slow start and hot weather. We'd been up late, we were sluggish, we were researching the trails, yada yada. We left the house at noon, still undecided between Teixeira Trail and Mount Wittenberg. We did know a day this hot (high 80s, I guess) called for either evergreen shade or ocean breezes--not open grassland or scrub. (Yeah, we know: we already did coniferous forest.. But actually, we're shooting for five habitats and fifty miles.)

For the first time, we found traffic backed way up at the spot a mile or two short of Olema where one lane has been out for about a year. We took the recommended detour through Point Reyes Station--a lovely drive, but it lost us another half hour. That tipped the balance in favor of the Mount Wittenberg hike, which starts right out of the Visitor Center.


At the Visitor Center, the midday stillness was downright oppressive. Two or three turkey vultures circled low. The only other fauna we encountered there were one acorn woodpecker (seen, not heard), some wasps sharing the faucet where we filled our water bottles, and a little blue-white butterfly that settled on Stephen's hand. We stretched a bit, applied sunscreen, and went to pack for the hike.


More setbacks emerged: Stephen found he'd forgotten his fanny pack. Alice realized she'd forgotten the Ace bandage she usually winds around her right knee, especially for climbing. Stephen improvised a backpack--just for a water bottle--by putting his arms through the handles of a cloth shopping bag we found in the trunk. Worked fine. There is no known substitute for an Ace bandage, so Alice just hoped for the best.

Teixeira would have been new to us, but we were glad to be climbing Mount Wittenberg. In the day, our favorite hike was Wittenberg to Sky to Woodward Valley, Coast Trail to Arch Rock, and back on Bear Valley. We just checked that out on the map, and it's 13 miles. Guess we'll never be doing that one again. It would be hard for us now to reach Woodward Valley Trail, one of the prettiest in the park, on a day hike--and our backpacking days seem over.

But Wittenberg can still be climbed.

The mountain trail starts off fairly steeply, just past the Bear Valley trailhead. I wasn't feeling so enthusiastic about vertical gain in the heat. But I'd forgotten how lush the lower slopes of this trail are: shaded by mingled bay trees and Douglas firs, with a ferny understory. Pretty soon a little breeze came up and made a swamp cooler effect with my sweat, and the rest of the trip felt perfectly pleasant.

A tired Douglas fir leans on a laid-back bay.

Finally we met some wildlife: a flock of tiny birds swept into and away from a tree at the far end of the tree tunnel pictured at right, saying "Tit! tidit! dididididididit!" Too small for juncos, tails too short for bushtits. I hate not being able to tell you what they were. But we're not birders, we just take an interest.


The trail climbs through a strip of open meadow, then into more tree cover; Wittenberg Trail meets Z Ranch Trail at ridgeline. A short loop trail leads through Doug firs to the summit. I wasn't sure it was even worth going there. Back in the 80s, the mountain was bare and you could go up and sit there with your lunch and see the Farallones. Now it's all over trees, and you're lucky if you can even find the damn summit. I guess this is the same succession phenomenon that Judith Lowry discusses in Bay Nature magazine in relation to the scrubland in the southern reaches of the park, near Point Reyes Bird Observatory.

Mount Wittenberg summit, highest point in the park at 1407 feet

We went up there, and we found the summit.

Mount Wittenberg trail continuing down

Mount Wittenberg Trail continues down along the ridge for about half a mile, providing some wonderful but unphotographable ocean prospects, to the junction where in the old days we'd have picked up Sky Trail. Today, we turned on Meadow Trail for the descent.

The descent on Meadow Trail

This was a new trail for us, one we'd ignored in the old days when we always wanted to cover as much ground as we could. It turned out to be a lovely trail, even more lush and verdant than the ascent.

This is the moss that grows on, uh, something.

Alice hung back with the camera, trying to document all the different kinds of moss and lichen: "This is the moss that grows on tan bark oak. This is the moss that grows on bay laurel..." Stephen, waiting ahead, started to worry about the delay. And as for all those photos, even though I downloaded them right away, I already didn't know which were which.

Tree hugger: a bay tree winds its limbs around a Doug fir

Over the last half mile or so, Meadow Trail drops about 600 feet. These are the times that try folks' knees. Stephen dug in with his hiking poles. Alice edged down the trail with many personal switchbacks. We survived.












In the last hundred feet of the trail, in the open meadow adjoining the parking lot, just when we'd almost stopped thinking about being "in nature," Stephen spied a pair of American goldfinches, male and female, sitting on a bush just feet from the trail. Not that this is a rare bird, but we've never seen a matched pair so close up, and these sat still to be admired. (But not to be photographed. Ah well.)

Practical lessons for road and trail:
1. It is seldom the case that all is lost.
2. Five miles is good.
3. The best sightings are often right out of the parking lot: stay aware!

Total habitats visited: 3. Total miles hiked: 20.

Our fundraising page: Foothill Marmots in Point Reyes Trails Challenge