Hiking in Heels

With five days left until Christmas, if you’re anything like Closet Granola, you’re still trying to figure out what gifts to buy for your Hiking Diva. Men can never take a hint, so I’m going to spell it out for you here:

Patagonia Fleece

I love Patagonia. Closet Granola calls it Pata-Gucci and that makes me love it more. What I don’t love is being cold…and a fleece is the perfect apparel to keep the wind and cold at bay. The Patagonia Women’s Lightweight R4 Jacket is windproof and has two handwarmer pockets. White is also such a sophisticated color, but black is available for those girls who think “white makes them look fat”. In either color, it won’t look like a fleece you picked up at your alma mater’s campus store. It’s even on sale right now at REI, discounted from $225 to $115.

North Face Ski Pants

Do you have a hiking diva that you would like to be your snow bunny? Having quickly learned that the trick to making a girl want to be outdoors is to make sure she looks good outdoors, Closet Granola applied the same technique to being in the snow. He bought the cutest pair of ski pants without any input from me. They’re slim fit with a bootleg and available in off-white, more Aspen or Chamonix than Reno. With the North Face STH Soft-Shell Pants, there is no reason why a girl should look 10 pounds heavier just because she wants to keep warm.

Maharadsha Sigg Bottle

Owls Waterbox Icon Bottle

Perfect stocking stuffer: We’re not embarrassed to carry around cute water bottles. They keep us well-hydrated so we don’t pass out on trails and have to be carried back and they’re good for the environment. No more plastic water bottles piling up in landfills. I have the Sigg Maharadsha ($18) one in fuchsia, but the turquoise one is pretty too. The light blue owls bottle by Waterbox Icon light blue owls bottle by Waterbox Icon is on sale at the REI-outlet for $13.

One Final Tip: If you plan on getting her gear for hiking, camping, skiing, snowboarding or any other outdoor activity and she doesn’t love that activity, make sure you also buy something she would like…something sparkly from a jewelry store will usually do the trick.

Coastline

The weather this weekend was just glorious…one of those days where you’re so happy to be living in California and not somewhere in the Northeast. Notice how quickly we attribute 80 degree weather in San Francisco in the middle of November to living in California rather than global warming. Even the hippies can’t complain when the weather is this spectacular.

To take advantage of this unprecedented state of affairs on our one and only hike in the month of November, Closet Granola surprised me by suggesting a hike in Point Reyes. Normally, I am arguing for a Point Reyes hike and he is adamantly opposed, but even he believes that the weather will be nice up there. And it is!

Bear Valley Trail

I’ve been bugging him to go on this trail since April, but he’s always found an excuse to go somewhere else. The Bear Valley to Arch Rock Trail is also a bike-and-hike, but we weren’t certain if my cheap commuter bike with its thin road tires could handle the trail. After hiking the entire trail, we’ve decided it would have been fine. A mountain bike would be better, but my little bike could have made it.

With bikers and hikers and strollers, the trail can get very crowded. And since this is a really easy hike with only 300 feet in elevation gain, it doesn’t scare off the weaklings (like myself). This may have been the most crowded hike I’ve been on. Luckily, the trail is very wide for passing people as well as engaging your significant other in forced conversations regarding where the relationship is going. You may be in the great outdoors, Closet Granola, but there’s nowhere to run! <<insert evil laugh>>

Meadow

But I digress…on the trail, we passed a meadow along the way, where we stopped to eat a little snack. We wanted to save the true picnic for when we reached our destination, Arch Rock. Incidentally, there are those dreaded toilets available if you need to make a little stop, but beware the horrendous odor. You’ve been warned.

The first leg of the hike is about 3.5 miles of a mostly shaded, sometimes muddy, but very well-kept trail. At the end of the bike trail, there’s a bike rack for parking your bike (so bring your lock if you plan to make this a bike-and-hike). After that, it’s less than a mile to the destination.

Coastal views

Arch Rock juts out into the ocean providing beautiful views of the coastline up and down from where we were. There are a few other rocks out at sea that make the views even more picturesque. Unfortunately, there were a lot of people also picnicking, but I’m pretty sure we had the best spread - bread, smoked salmon, four types of cheese, and turkey pepperoni. The scenery makes up for the lack of privacy.

At around 3:30, we decided to call it a day. Closet Granola was not going to be tricked into a night hike like Eagle Lake, so we packed up and headed back the way we came. A little over 9 miles total and four hours including picnic time, we were ready to head back to our city life.

Arch Rock

On our way back to the city, we stopped for dinner at Guaymas in Tiburon.  We drank margaritas, snacked on tortillas and salsa, ate chile poblano and arroz con mariscos on the outdoor deck with a to-die-for view of the San Francisco skyline. It was the absolutely perfect ending to the perfect day.

Overall Rating: Heels for difficulty, flip-flops for length

Rating system:

• Heels: So easy you can hike it in heels
• Flip-flops: Too long or hard to hike in heels, but flat flip-flops would work
• Pumas: A nice stroll not much harder than walking in the city
• Trailblazers: If you want to be nice to your feet on this hike, they’ll need some more serious protection and support.
• Hiking boots: Pull out the ugly shoes and summon your closet granola. This hike is going to kick your ass.

Tip #1: A city girl’s necessity equals a hiking diva’s luxury. I’ve learned to dread hikes where the guidebooks mention pit toilets at the trailhead. Luckily, the restrooms at Bear Valley are not only clean with functional toilets and running water, but the hand dryers are Xcelerator. Nice touch! (or actually no touch!)

Tip #2: For more serious hikers, bike out to the end of the Bear Valley Trail and hike some of the more strenuous trails rather than sitting on your butt at Arch Rock like we did. When I’m back in shape, we might have to try that.

Women are better planners. Not all of them are better planners, but overall, we just kick men’s butts at planning. And that is why I’m letting you in on a little secret now regarding a hike I haven’t even been on yet.

Baby Elephant Seal by Chris Pearson

I plan on going on the Ano Nuevo hike to see the baby elephant seals in late January or early Feburary. According to the California State Parks site, Northern Elephant Seals come ashore to mate and give birth from December to March. Although you can’t time it exactly, it sounds as if the best times to see the cute cuddly little babies are January and February. These tours are led by docents and must be reserved ahead of time. There are some first-come first-serve tickets, but you don’t want to drive all the way down there only to get turned away.

So take some initiative and plan for this hike if you want to see the cuddly little baby seals. The cost is $7 per person and you can book online 8 weeks in advance. Book your tickets now and look for my review of the hike in a couple months.

The View

Most weekends we’ll flee the city in search of better weather and greener pastures, but when the weather is finally warm in San Francisco (usually September or October), the best we can manage is a quickie in Marin to satisfy the outdoors bug before heading back and drinking sangria at an outdoor cafe.

The warm weather and lack of fog in San Francisco made it an ideal day for otherwise windy and chilly Marin Headlands. We drove out to Rodeo Beach and had a long lazy picnic with sandwiches and wine. The beach was not overly crowded and we hung out for a while chatting and digging holes in the sand.

Stairs

We took the Coastal Trail up to Hill 88. This was by far the most scenic part of the hike and also the most challenging. It’s basically a climb from sea level to the top of the cliff, with views of the beach, the coast and ocean, and the San Francisco skyline including Twin Peaks. We could see the fog start to roll in around Coit Tower. It’s definitely better to watch it roll in than to feel it roll in.

Hill 88

At the top of the ridge, we passed the junction with the Wolf Ridge Trail and continued to the top to see Hill 88. It’s easy to forget that this area used to be a military site, but along the trails, you’ll see some stark reminders. At the top of the hill, we took a break at the former radar station with its eerie abandoned buildings with graffiti.

Coit Tower

We then turned around and walked back to the junction with Wolf Ridge Trail. This trail then meets up with the Miwok Trail. These trails go around the backside of the ridge and is less scenic. We also came across a snake, but at least this time it was slithering away from me, not towards me (like in the Alamere Falls hike). The Miwok trail took us around the Rodeo Lagoon and back to the parking lot.

If I were to do this hike again, I would probably turn around at the top of Hill 88 and do an out-and-back hike just on the Coastal Trail. The rest of the hike wasn’t scenic enough for me.

Overall Rating: Flip-flops

Rating system:

• Heels: So easy you can hike it in heels
• Flip-flops: Too long or hard to hike in heels, but flat flip-flops would work
• Pumas: A nice stroll not much harder than walking in the city
• Trailblazers: If you want to be nice to your feet on this hike, they’ll need some more serious protection and support.
• Hiking boots: Pull out the ugly shoes and summon your closet granola. This hike is going to kick your ass.

Shirley Lake

It’s always interesting to see what someone or something looks like without all the adornment - the fancy clothes, the makeup, the accessories, or in this case, snow. The naked Squaw Valley looks very different and less magical than the winter version with its beautiful white coat. Although, to be fair, Squaw looked a lot better than the other ski resorts like Homewood or Northstar.

Reflection

After three hikes over two days and being so exhausted I could barely speak (and that’s true exhaustion for you!), Closet Granola said he would, in his words, “take it easy on me”. We would do a short hike before we headed back to the Bay Area. He chose a hike that was just 2.5 miles each way on an out-and-bike hike to Shirley Lake in Squaw Valley. On our way there, I read the description and practically hit the roof. His idea of “taking it easy” was to climb roughly 1,300 feet in elevation over 2.5 miles over rocky granite cliffs. This hike could barely be classified as a hike…it was more like rock climbing. I know I spent a good deal of time on all fours climbing over the rocks.

Shirley Lake Trail

The first part of the hike was rather well-shaded, walking through a forest, climbing over fallen trees. In the spring, I would imagine that the creek would be full, but by September it was rather bare. In the winter, I would bet that this looks like one of Robert Frost’s poems about snowy woods on the way to grandmother’s house.

On our way out of the woods, we could hear a solo hiker mumbling about where the trail was. We soon learned why. The trail on the rocky section was extremely hard to find. I got my first lesson on looking for cairns (little stacks of rocks) and paint to find the trail. It was kind of fun and I was really bad at it, getting us completely off the “trail” many times. Good thing this wasn’t a night hike like Eagle Lake! While climbing up the rock, even if you’re scared of heights, don’t forget to turn around and look at the view. We could see Squaw Valley Resort at the bottom and it looked so small.

Shirley Lake

After 1300 feet in elevation, we arrived at Shirley Lake about an hour before sundown duringthe magic hour. The reflection of the granite boulders in the lake was perfect for photography. We spent about half an hour taking photos and hanging out watching the chipmunks before heading back down.

Tip #1: Labor Day weekend in Tahoe is a great time to stop at Tahoe Dave’s. They offer great discounts on demo skis from the last season. If you’re lucky, you’ll get great skis for a fraction of the price.

Tip #2: Stop by the Starbucks at Squaw Valley before heading out and you’ll have enough energy to get up the mountain and back.