Bolinas Ridge
Riding up the open hills into the redwood forests
The San Andreas fault slices California in two, separating Southern California and
the Central Coast from the geologic fate of the rest of the continent as they plow up the North American shelf
at just over one foot per year. Beginning at the Sea of Cortez, the faultline migrates up the western portions
of the Central Valley, cutting toward the coast around Hollister, and plunging into the sea just
south of San Francisco. It re-emerges briefly through Marin, at Bolinas Lagoon, makes one final land pass along
Olema Valley, then enters the Pacific between the shores of Tomales Bay. Bolinas ridge passes
along the eastern rift and offers open grasslands on gentle hills from which to see it all.
The trail is a moderate grade with sudden climbs in fits and spurts. Precipitation
increases as it winds its way higher and higher through the hills,
until just beyond the Shafter Bridge Junction the views are lost in the redwood forests.
Today, late in the rainy season, the luster of green hillsides had started to fade signalling the spring bloom
where nature's fertility erupts in colorful hills just before the long dry season begins.
Photos
Click to expand
Early in the ride, looking westward over
Olema valley toward Inverness Ridge.
The blueschist formations in the foreground are metamorphic stones common along faultlines and
present throughout Marin and the San Francisco peninsula.
A little further up the trail, Tomales Bay comes into view.
I don't know what I'd do without Blueschist for foreground composition. : )
The Bolinas Ridge fireroad passes along a broad, flat ridgeline, and with cattle grazing nearby it resembles the plains.
Well, maybe flat is too strong a word when you're riding up it.
Along the lower parts of the trail Mount Barnabe can easily be seen to the east.
Yeah, makes my legs cramp just looking at it.
Eventually the redwood forest of Samuel P. Taylor park creep up the slope to the ridgeline, but the western
face of Bolinas Ridge remains grassy and open for a couple more miles.
Later it becomes entirely covered with redwoods, which are nice, but
unfortunately conceals the splendid views offered...
...such as this. Here I'm gazing to the northwest, down to the green and pleasant Olema Valley leading to Tomales Bay.
Inverness Ridge in the distance is the leading point of the land mass that includes San Jose, Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Baja California which is on the continental sleighride to Alaska.
San Francisco is to the East of the
San Andreas, so eventually we will all be part of Southern California.
Don't tell that to most of the people who live here! Hehehe...
think of what it would do to North-of-Market property values!! ; )
What'chu lookin' at?!? You better not be trash-talkin' San Francisco or we're gonna have a problem!!
Okay, alright, anyway what Bolinas Ridge ride would be complete without some grazing cattle...
and how did the tree get in those rocks?
As the trail climbs higher and higher, the grasslands are swallowed by the coniferous forests near the
Shafter Bridge junction. Not far up the trail the hills are covered with new-growth redwoods.
A storm was blowing in, one of the last of the series of fronts from the north that seemed to start late last
year, and was ending late as well. The darkening skies obscurred the sun for most of the ride back down.
Here was the first glimpse of the system that would drop rain along the coast and central valley,
loop westward through the central Sierra,
drop snow around Tahoe, then move through Nevada losing the last of it's moisture on the slopes of the Rockies.
So when biking trails are wet and muddy, at least snowboarding options look promising.
(b. April 11, 2003)
Back to Point Reyes.
Back to Gatetrails.com.
Early in the ride, looking westward over
Olema valley toward Inverness Ridge.
The blueschist formations in the foreground are metamorphic stones common along faultlines and
present throughout Marin and the San Francisco peninsula.
A little further up the trail, Tomales Bay comes into view.
I don't know what I'd do without Blueschist for foreground composition. : )
The Bolinas Ridge fireroad passes along a broad, flat ridgeline, and with cattle grazing nearby it resembles the plains.
Well, maybe flat is too strong a word when you're riding up it.
Along the lower parts of the trail Mount Barnabe can easily be seen to the east.
Yeah, makes my legs cramp just looking at it.
Eventually the redwood forest of Samuel P. Taylor park creep up the slope to the ridgeline, but the western
face of Bolinas Ridge remains grassy and open for a couple more miles.
Later it becomes entirely covered with redwoods, which are nice, but
unfortunately conceals the splendid views offered...
...such as this. Here I'm gazing to the northwest, down to the green and pleasant Olema Valley leading to Tomales Bay.
Inverness Ridge in the distance is the leading point of the land mass that includes San Jose, Los Angeles,
Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Baja California which is on the continental sleighride to Alaska.
San Francisco is to the East of the
San Andreas, so eventually we will all be part of Southern California.
Don't tell that to most of the people who live here! Hehehe...
think of what it would do to North-of-Market property values!! ; )
What'chu lookin' at?!? You better not be trash-talkin' San Francisco or we're gonna have a problem!!
Okay, alright, anyway what Bolinas Ridge ride would be complete without some grazing cattle...
and how did the tree get in those rocks?
As the trail climbs higher and higher, the grasslands are swallowed by the coniferous forests near the
Shafter Bridge junction. Not far up the trail the hills are covered with new-growth redwoods.