Cataract trail and hiking on Mt. Tamalpais

Ahhh, Indian summer it is the beautiful SF North Bay!  80 degree balmy weather, perfect for long hikes and fires in the evening.  I found myself on an amazingly long and satisfying hike on Mount Tamalpais yesterday.  Officially known as the MMWD (Marin Municipal Water District), the hills behind Fairfax and the roads leading up to the top of Tam can make you feel like you're in the Sierra Nevadas.  Throw in heavy winter rains and waterfalls,  in springtime you'll feel like you're near Hanalei Bay (sans the palm trees of course), but with plenty of ferns and foliage to challenge, and if you squint they could be ironwoods instead of douglas firs.  Beauty is beauty, anyway you slice it.

Parking at the hairpin turn about 1/2 mile from the dam that crosses the Fairfax-Bolinas Road, the Cataract Falls trailhead is right across the road.  Be prepared for some serious stairs and sweating as you make your way up the creek to the top and Laurel Dell, a picnic and nice resting spot. Douglas fir, huge redwoods, waterfalls and ferns dotted our way up the trail.  We didn't want to rest too long though, as it had taken us about 50 minutes at a good clip to get to this point (about 1.4 miles straight up).  We still had a long way to go...

Planning on a loop, we cruised up easy Laurel Dell (fire road) (1.2 miles) and then picked up the Kent trail just beyond the Potrero Meadow picnic area.  Beautiful oaks and more evergreens shaded our walk.  We remarked that it would be a great hike for one of those scorching hot summer days when you need to get your exercise on, but know its too hot to be in the sun for long.

Groves of oak, laurel and more evergreen dot the higher slopes overlooking Bon Tempe and Alpine Lakes with great views of of the foothills of central Marin County and the northern reaches of the SF Bay.   As we made our way down the dusty trail, we couldn't help but marvel at the amazingly huge manzanita forests surrounding us. Thickets of burgundy polished manzanitas, 6 - 8' high, larger than I've ever seen, blanketed the hillside, offering speckled shade and an interesting backdrop for the hike downhill that eventually spilled out onto mosquito laden creeks, so still, that moss covered the surface of the water.  Huge pine trees now studded the hillside, forest floor full of needles, droppings and soft, dusty earth.  Madrones stood in the shadows.  Beautiful chestnut pods littered one area.  I didn't realize what they were, but picked up a few as their sharp beauty somehow signified October, and I imagined a place on my autumn hearth for them.  Little did I know these were the edible variety, and now kick myself, as the hike back to that spot would take well over two hours.  

Kent trail took quite a while (2.5 miles), and we had to trust our map as we wound down the mountain and out onto the shore of Alpine Lake.  From there we picked up the Helen Markt trail.  I don't think we were prepared for the steep series of uphill switchbacks that seemed to go on and on (for 1.7 miles to be exact).  By that point, the sun was sinking behind the hills, and only ambient daylight remained.  We were happy to finally reconnect with the cataract trail, which provided a familiar yet not unchallenging downhill trek (for 1/2 mile) back to our car.  All said, this hike took about 3.5 hours.  I would do it again in a heartbeat, but next time (which I hope is soon) I will take some heavy gloves for collecting the natural beauty of the chestnuts, and roast the prickles off of their pods in my hearth back home.