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The Marin Coast Walkabout is a 4-day hike from Marin Headlands to Point Reyes National Seashore.  There has been a major trail change on Day Three – from Stinson Beach to Bolinas.  The route starts out unchanged, leaving Stinson, climbing to Bolinas Ridge and hiking the Coastal Trail to Bolinas-Fairfax Road.  Bourne Trail is now neglected and overgrown.  Here are two alternative routes.

First Alternative:  Cross Bolinas-Fairfax Road and hike Bolinas Ridge Trail.  It starts in serene redwoods, emerges into an open manzanita and oak forest, then back to redwoods.  Continuing along the rolling ridgeline, the forests alternate for 3.5 miles until McCurdy Trail.  Descend McCurdy for 1.7 miles to Highway 1.  This is not a well maintained trail, but it is popular with mountain bikers who keep it from becoming overgrown.  Initially it is steep, but it soon enters the forest and becomes more gradual.  Leaving the forest, hike the final mile through beautiful, rolling grasslands, descending into the wooded Olema Valley.  You are walking down to the San Andreas Fault.

Turn left on Highway 1 for a brief walk on the shoulder.  Turn right on Horseshoe Hill Road, a quiet forested country lane passing by small homesteads.  Turn right on Olema Bolinas Road, and hike the walking path along the road into Bolinas.

Second Alternative:  Descend from the ridge on Bolinas-Fairfax Road.  We try to avoid walking on roads, but this one is very pretty with little traffic.  It winds through the forest with periodic windows that open to Bolinas Lagoon and the Pacific.  Hike the road for 4.3 miles to Highway 1.  Cross the highway and walk the path along Olema Bolinas Road into Bolinas.

This easy three day, 23.5 mile walkabout starts on the beautiful island of Santa Catalina. Enjoy the slow pace of island life. Explore Catalina’s shoreline by kayak, and hike its rugged mountains. Then take the ferry to Long Beach and hike three days to Newport Beach, strolling on classic Southern California surfing and swimming beaches. Along the way, sample the delights of interesting seaside towns – good food, fun bars, live
music, and unique inns. Click here to purchase the Santa Catalina to Newport Beach inn to inn vacation guide.

“A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on
arriving.”
- Lao-tzu, Tao Te Ching

This moderate three-day, 38 mile adventure hikes a Pacific shoreline that varies from wide Southern California swimming beaches, to paths along coastal bluffs, to boulder hopping under steep cliffs where few hikers venture. It passes through sections of deep urban development as well as untouched wilderness where your only company will be sea mammals and shore birds. Along the way you’ll visit delightful beach towns, a luxurious resort, and the beautiful island of Santa Catalina. Click here to purchase the Santa Monica to Santa Catalina guide.

“Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the
mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and
teach some of us more than we can ever learn from
books.”
- John Lubbock, The Use of Life

There is a surge of popularity for hiking from inn-to-inn in Europe, and the same is true in California.  Adventurers hike trails connecting coastal villages along the wild Pacific.  They trek through the majestic Sierra Nevada Mountains, along the serene beaches of Southern California, and through the parklands around the San Francisco Bay.  Each day ends with a comfortable bed, a hot shower, a good meal, and perhaps even a therapeutic massage or a soak in a hot springs.

WHAT DRAWS US TO DISTANCE HIKING?

“I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in.”  -John Muir

We are drawn to wilderness to take respite from our modern urban lives, to connect with nature and with ourselves. The multiday hiker delights in a special joy from hiking in the wilderness.  Leave the car behind to hike for a few days, and you have the time to process the do-do list and plan the work that needs to be done when the hike is over, but also the time to daydream, to contemplate, to meditate, to have an unhurried conversation with a friend that might last three days.  The mind slows as the miles pass. The hiker goes, not only into the woods, but deeper into herself.  If a pilgrimage is a walk to a sacred site, then perhaps nature’s wild places are our cathedrals, and every extended hike in nature is a pilgrimage both to a place and into one’s heart.

THE PLEASURE OF ENDING A DAY’S HIKE AT A WELCOMING INN

Backpackers know the joys of a multiday hike, but sometimes you just don’t want to sleep on the ground.  Strap on a 12-15 lb. daypack and hike the Marin Coast from the Headland to Point Reyes, stopping each evening in a coastal village where you can explore the pubs and restaurants.  Cross the Sierra in the footsteps of the pioneers and stay in cabins on the the shores of clear mountain lakes.  Take a romantic stroll along the beautiful Mendocino Coast and enjoy gourmet cuisine at inns perched on bluffs overlooking the vast Pacific.  Hike Lassen, exploring mountains lakes, deep canyons, and otherworldly hydrothermal landscapes with a visit to a rustic guest ranch where you will enjoy sumptuous dining and a muscle-soothing soak in a hot springs pool.

Leave the car behind, and explore some of the most beautiful wilderness in the world.  Take a hike from inn-to-inn.