California Day 14...Excited About Otter Poop

Thursday 8/24/17

     After the previous day’s marathon hiking adventure, I decided to take it easy.  My legs felt heavy as I got ready to face the day.  Today would still be a respectable eight miles, but nothing close to the previous day.

     Just up the road is the parking area for the Tomales Bay Trail.  It’s 3.4 miles round trip and a perfect way to work the kinks out of my tired body.  The trail itself is fairly level with only gently rolling hills.  No steep ones like yesterday.  The only other thing were the four cattle gates. 

     The trail never gets to the bay shore  It just sort of ends at a barb wire fence. Still, a nice hike and my legs had worked out their stiffness.   On the way back I met a guy crouched down in the mud by a large pool of water.  He had been staring intently, but stood as I passed.  He was doing research on otters by counting and examining their poop.  He said based on what he was seeing the otter population was doing better than expected.  He seemed quite excited, but had to check a few other places, too.  

      Passing back through downtown Pt. Reyes(all four blocks of it) I noticed a sign for Parachute Days.  Just missed it.

     After lunch I chose a 3.8 mile round trip hike to Bull Point.  The kiosk at the trailhead warned that cattle trails could easily be mistaken for the main trail.  I had gone maybe a quarter mile when I was in the midst of the cattle herd.  Instantly I understood the sign.  I counted at least four ways the trail could have gone.  I went back to the car.

    Just up the road is a 2.8 mile round trip trail out to Abbotts Lagoon.   This time the cattle were behind a fence and the trail hard to miss.  Based on the number of people with binoculars, this is apparently a big place for bird watching.

   

    I left the birdwatchers and walked back to the car.  Just up the way was another trailhead to a place called Kehoe Beach.  This was only one and a quarter mile round trip.  I was hoping to get lucky with some whales.  I could have sworn I saw a few spouts way in the distance, but no tails,  Oh well.

  Seen on a wall in downtown Pt. Reyes.