A Walk to the Beach

10.2 mile hike: Rhubarb-Tennessee Valley-Coastal-Bobcat-Alta

It’s a new experience to be living within walking distance of the beach.  Of course the San Francisco beaches are not the same experience as the Jersey shore either.  The coast is mountainous and rocky, so the beaches I can visit are small sandy coves between steep slopes.  On Saturday I took the gentle trail down to Tennessee beach, where the skies were overcast and the water quite cold.  Just the same, I enjoy relaxing to the sound of crashing waves so I spent over an hour lying on some rocks and listening to the Pacific surf.

I took a more challenging path home through the mountains, and stumbled onto the course of the Headlands 50 miler, part of the Pacific Coast Trail Runs ultra running series.  Every weekend there is a trail race, many covering the trails that I’ve already been hiking over the last 10 days.  I was walking against the flow of ultrarunners, so I had a chance to encourage the athletes as they were presumably nearing the end of their journey.  Since many of these races are so close to home, I’ve been considering getting into the trail running scene myself!  Of course I might start with a 30k instead of a 50 or 100 miler, but we all have to start somewhere!

And here are the pictures on the path to Tennessee Beach:

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