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| Trailhead, looking eastward, the way the trail bends |
The Trails Challenge hiking period was to end on Thursday, November 1. We'd thought of squeezing in a last hike on the last day, but the weather forecast prompted us to move our play-day up to Tuesday. We decided to go back to Bull Point, the hike we'd flubbed on our last outing, and do it right. It's barely four miles altogether, so maybe we'd have time for a second hike. We wouldn't meet our secret goal of completing the Fifty-Mile Challenge as well as the Five Habitats Challenge, but we'd come closer to it.
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| Unidemtified gray-brown waterfowl |
But we got off to a fairly slow start and declared it lunchtime already when we reached the wildlife viewing turnout at the head of Schooner Bay. Near shore was a large flock of unidentified brown ducks. No, not ducks, but waterfowl with thin, straight bills. The other couple who stopped behind us looked like real birders, but it turned out they were tourists and only knew New England.
After lunch we went on to the Bull Point trailhead It's on the way to the lighthouse, on the left, just after Historic F Ranch. If you get to the North Beach Road you've gone too far. We set out to hike this trail and hike it right. We promptly got lost, but at last we found our way.
So here's what you need to know about Bull Point Trail: As the wide trail going down toward Creamery Bay turns faint, you bear left. At some distance you'll see a fence that runs down toward the water and angles off up the hill. You want to be on the other side of that fence. To get to the gate, take a fairly sharp left and follow the fence back up the hill till you reach the gate. Go through the gate. Don't mind the cows, they're pretty oblivious.
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| This is the gate. |
You'll pick up the trail on the other side of the gate, and it remains pretty clear. Anyhow, from here on you can't really get lost. The bay is on your right; you're paralleling it down to the estero. There's a stretch where you're climbing a gentle hill and the view of the bay is blocked; then it comes back into view. The trail descends toward Drakes Estero and kind of peters out near a stock trough. Off to the right, atop the slope down to the estero beach, is an object that looked to us like some kind of military detritus, but proved to be an overturned derelict bathtub, forming an excellent bench. Past this point there's no recognizable trail, but we found our way to a spot overlooking the beach. The way back is straightforward until you get to that no-man's-land section after the gate. Eventually we just sighted on the trailhead sign and lit out cross country.
Back at the car, we decided to call it a day. We'd gone maybe four miles, but evening was coming on and we felt like we'd hiked enough.
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| Creamery Bay on the right, Drakes Estero on the left, opening to Drakes Bay at center |
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The scenery on this trail has a certain stark grandeur, but its main pleasure is wildlife sightings and/or hearings. My most exciting one happened while I was bumbling around the wrong side of the fence, during the first part of our hike: while checking for a way through above a clump of willows, I came upon a big, tomato-red orb weaver spider with two white spots (can they have been eyes?) and black-and-white striped legs. I'd never seen nor heard of a big red spider. I thought it would be easy to identify, but it wasn't. And the pictures (even with the bigger camera) didn't come out.
As we came over the crest of the hill, we saw, far down over the water, flocks of birds looking like clouds of gnats, swirling and wheeling in close formation. Consulting reference books, we learned that this behavior is characteristic of dunlin. The small birds on the beach could have been dunlin, as well. There were a few larger white shorebirds on the beach that we never identified. Field notes: gray wings, black shoulder straight thick gray bill, black legs, black eye area.
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| We think these were dunlin |
Other sightings: on the fenceposts near the cattle gate, a bird that reminded us of a bluebird, but black not blue, and with maybe too long a tail. Marsh hawks. Black phoebes, one solo and a pair doing what certainly looked like a courtship dance. Unidentified streaky-breasted sparrows. And those larks that we heard on the first hike, once again heard but not seen, going "teedle-oodle-ee, oodle-ee."
Practical lessons for road and trail:
1. A four-mile hike can take up your whole day, if you let it.
2. There are worse things than having a four-mile hike take up your whole day.
Total habitats visited: 5. Total miles hiked: 44.
Our fundraising page accepts donations through February 2013: Foothill Marmots in Point Reyes Trails Challenge
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