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“Hiking” = 5 miles of walking.
A very pleasant walk, through coastal scrubbiness, down to the seaside, and back up an unpaved fire road.  From the National Park Service’s handy website, we picked the Coast to Laguna loop trail.  There’s a lighthouse at Pt. Reyes, but the visitor center folk warned us of menacing fog down thataways.  Also seemed like there’s quite a bit of driving one can do once in the park – 30-45 minutes to get to the start of some trailheads.  So anyhow, based on the fog warning, we decided it was best to stick to sunnier areas.  The trail we’d picked out had quite a high return on physical exertion, since we got different plant zones AND beach time.

COAST – LAGUNA LOOP (8 km / 5 mi.)
An easy walk through coastal scrub and grassland, exposed to sun, fog and/or wind. Breath-taking ocean-views. Keep your eyes open for hawks and shorebirds. Begin on Laguna Trail with a slight climb, then descend to Coast Camp on Fire Lane Trail. Turn left on Coast Trail for beach access at Coast Camp or complete the loop by following Coast Trail northwest.  A flat, open stretch of trail leads along coastal bluffs and then through a riparian zone, and back to the trailhead near the Youth Hostel. The Laguna Trailhead is 15 minutes driving time from the Bear Valley Visitor Center.  Follow Limantour Road west. Turn left at the junction signed for the Hostel and Education Center. Continue past the Hostel to the Laguna Parking Lot, located on the right.

A nice crisp springlike day for a hike. Sunny, but a bit damp in bits. Which called for some creative (and cold) puddle-crossing.  About halfway through my feet were simultaneously numb and hurting.

But thanks to Christine, we had lots of paper towels.  (She had lazily packed an entire roll).  So everyone got dried off, and even the flowers were happy.

The end.

My ability for self discipline has proven itself to be rather unreliable as of late.  I think I’ve determined that there needs to be some strong external force motivating me, and then I’ll be self-regulating, but absent that, no go.

Somehow, I got up every morning at 5am to go to swim practice in high school, and then for a quarter, did the same for crew.  Somehow, I actually trained for a marathon by myself.  The external factors? Coaches, and fear of death (or at best, crippling pain) due to lack of preparation.

Which means that while I’m not one for resolute anything,  the hubbub of new years do make me assess how my time has been spent (or slipped away) and if I like that or not.

• I don’t like that I spend a lot of time online, sleeping, and thinking.
• I’d like to spent more time outside, taking photos, cooking food, and reading. Building stuff, maybe.

For the first time in a while, I don’t feel like traveling at all.  Seems I may be headed to S. America (never been!) sometime in spring, but I’m oddly un-stoked.

In lieu of stoked-ness,  there’s this weird sluggish-restlessness curled up in my brain.   Maybe I’m still adjusting to being back.  Maybe it’s just cold outside (we know that can have a nasty effect).

Anyhow, my projects for the year are as follows:

• find a place to buy
• read more*
• create stuff (food or projects or journals. something.)

Ideally, you know, I’d exercise regularly, eat more healthy, blah blah.  But maybe the last two will help with those, and really – in absence of any external motivation

*Without buying a fancy new gizmo to help me do so.  Plenty in the libraries that Audrey hasn’t read yet.

(I’m back in New York for the second time this year already.  The first time was like the pic above, but this time I’ve got forty degree goodness going on.  Not bad, considering there’s a storm splooshing over San Francisco. )

Seen at a square in Costa Rica.
There was a KFC nearby. And a Burger King. And a McDonalds, and pizza something or other. It was like the square of the Ugly American.

And there was Mr. Pigeon.
Picking clean the carcasses of his brethren.

Gross.