The plan: the Dipsea Trail In fact, most, but not all of a Double Dipsea, which goes 7 miles from Mill Valley over Mt. Tamalpais to Stinson Beach and back those 7 miles again. SInce none of us were prepared to do the full 14-mile round trip, we decided to skip the 170-something stairs that make for a distinctive if slightly discouraging start of the trail in Mill Valley and hit the trail a few miles down the road in Muir Woods, making it more of a 9 or 10-mile trek. Also, we hear tell that there's a pub in Muir Woods. Never found it yet, but maybe this would be the day that we finish our hike with a beer in a secluded forest tavern.
But ... the Double Dipsea race was taking place on the only day our friends would be in town. Not wanting to dodge runners--and worse, force them to dodge us--we needed to hike somewhere else, that offered at least a moderately challenging trail with redwood forest, that was also easily accessed from the South Bay and San Francisco, where Tiffany and Ruth were staying.
An excellent Plan B came, as many of our best hiking plans do, from Bay Area Hiker: Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve near Half Moon Bay
It was a 7-mile loop hike that definitely delivered on the redwood forest--just what our friends were hoping for--and, as requested, also a few "big-ass trees."
The spot was more popular than we expected. When we arrived mid-morning, we found that the Sierra Club had organized a group hike, and that meant that the small parking lot was full, and the road had cars parked along the side for about 1/4 mile beyond the preserve. But despite the number of cars and the many hikers we saw gathering at the trailhead we really only encountered maybe a dozen other hikers on the entire journey.
We hiked a loop comprised of the Purisima Creek Trail to the Craig Britton Trail to the Harkins Ridge Trail. This was a nice moderate hike with a lot of cool forested areas that followed creeks, as well as some open, more scrubby areas that offered some nice views of the ocean.
Ruth's desire to see a banana slug was fulfilled about 40 times over, when the forested areas of the trail proved to have such a large banana slug population that whoever was in the lead of our group ended up calling out "slug!" warnings to let us know a slug was in the path. Not every slug we saw had survived the day, but we were pretty careful to avoid creating any casualties.
Had we started at the Harkins Ridge Trail--also accessible at the Higgins Canyon Road trailhead, we would have had a more challenging trip: Harkins Ridge is fairly steep and rocky, and also much less shaded. The Craig Britton trail, which connects Purisima Creek trail to Harkins Ridge, is a little narrow and overgrown in spots, so we checked for ticks several times. The Purisima Creek trail is fairly level and wide. That would make for a beautiful short walk in the forest just on its own.
Before our hike, we stopped a few miles outside of Half Moon Bay for breakfast at Blue Sky Farm. It's a cute cafe/nursery and they have some spicy Mexican hot chocolate!
Our reward for finishing the hike? Chai at Raman's Coffee and Chai. On a previous visit to Half Moon Bay, our friend Rik, who was also hiking with us, had found Raman's, which serves what he thought might be the best chai he'd ever had. It was definitely delicious. I especially loved the ground cardamom on top.
