Ridge Trail to Teixeira, August 22, 2012

Hike 7, August 22, 2012. Habitat: Coniferous Forest. Trail: Ridge Trail past junction with Teixeira. Distance: 5 miles (estimated).

Our plan for Wednesday, the third and last day of our August campout, was to hike Teixeira Trail up Inverness Ridge onto Ridge Trail. This 2.4-mile up-and-back leaves out of Dogtown on Highway 1 nine miles south of Olema.

We were eager to hike Teixeira, a totally new trail to us, having considered it for Hike #4 but not having gotten there, and having read about it in Jules Evens's blog. We'd scoped out the trailhead on our way to and from Palomarin Trailhead for Hike #5, so we knew that there was hardly more than a highway turnout for parking and that the trailhead sign was not prominent. We'd need to be alert.

We struck camp and went for coffee at Pine Cone Cafe in Point Reyes Station, then drove south on Highway 1, happy to remember that the road improvements that had held us up on that road on Monday had been speedily completed.

Except, it turned out that today they were working on the other lane. The southbound lane. The side that the trailhead is on. We saw the trailhead as we drove by -- it seemed to be occupied by a a clump of bulldozers. We might have been able to get to it, but it was too complicated and it all happened so fast and then we'd passed it. And, with only one lane open, turning around and trying again was not an option.

What now? If we didn't want to go through the construction bottleneck again, we'd have to continue south. That limited our choices. We decided to drive around the bottom of Inverness Ridge and hike to the Teixeira-Ridge Trail junction from the other side.

Ridge Trailhead

Ridge Trailhead is on Mesa Road, a little after it turns to gravel and before you get to Point Reyes Bird Observatory. This trailhead was not new to us. Sometime in the late nineties we did a ten-mile hike with our younger, stronger friends K. and N. that came out here. The memory is dim, but we must have started at Palomarin Trailhead, gone up Lake Ranch Trail and come back by Ridge Trail. I think I remember being so wiped out that I insisted on waiting here at Ridge Trailhead while the others hiked the dusty mile along the road back to Palomarin where the car was. A tough outing! But that was the day we saw a bobcat.

Ridge Trailhead has no parking; you have to continue a quarter mile or so to a turnout, then walk back.

A steep ascent

The trail itself starts off with a steep ascent, but it made pleasant walking due to a thick coating of dry grass.

Young Douglas firs in the scrub

The first stretch is mostly open, passing slopes where young Douglas firs are encroaching on scrubland. Soon there's a drop-off on the right and the trail continues above a deep ravine.

Misty view of Bolinas Lagoon from the ridge

Our map showed a junction at 0.6 miles, so we kept expecting another trail to come in from the right. Instead, our trail reached the ridgeline and bent northward. In retrospect, it seems it should have been clear that that's where the junction should have been, and the other trail was absent or imperceptible, but we kept waiting to reach it.

After a rest stop, Stephen started trucking ferociously toward that elusive six-tenths-of-a-mile point and didn't hear Alice call out that a hummingbird had alighted at the top of a tall bush beside the trail. The hummingbird (sorry, can't tell you what kind--when in doubt guess Anna's) held cooperatively still for many minutes while Alice tried to get a good photograph. Sorry again. I was carrying the bigger, better camera, but I forgot how to turn image stabilization on. Or maybe it was just too far away.

Soon the trail led out of sunny, half-open woodland into deep, still fir forest. Alongside the path grew the tallest sword ferns I've ever seen--their tops at least head high. Unfortunately, Stephen was far ahead and couldn't be called on to provide scale for a photo.

Alice finally overtook Stephen. Shortly thereafter, still wondering how long it could possibly take to go six tenths of a mile, we reached the Teixeira trail junction--our 2.3-mile turning-around point.

At the junction looking down Teixeira Trail

It was a perfect lunch glade, shaded by tall though skinny firs and graced with a lush understory. Somewhere near here must be where we saw that bobcat in ninety-something--likely down Teixeira Trail. But that was in the evening. Now was that noonish time when nothing stirs.






We were feeling fresh, so after lunch we continued northward on Ridge Trail for a bit, snagging a few huckleberries as we went. The woods were still beautiful, but we were losing altitude, and our enjoyment of the view was limited by the necessity of looking at our feet in order to dodge poison oak. So we turned around after maybe another half mile.

Huckleberries on Ridge Trail north of the junction

On the way back, I got a photo of Stephen among the head-high ferns. You can see he's still out front.

Head-high ferns with hiker for scale

All in all. this was as lovely a coniferous forest walk as we could have asked for. And we didn't meet another human being on the entire trip.


Practical lessons for road and trail:
1. It is seldom the case that all is lost..
2. Learn to use your camera.


Total habitats visited: 4. Total miles hiked: 36.

Our fundraising page: Foothill Marmots in Point Reyes Trails Challenge