New Week - South Slough

We had a nice weekend doing errands and resting. We met another Alfa couple, who were a couple of sites from us,  and spent Sunday afternoon sitting out in the sunshine and chatting. (Social distance maintained.)

On Monday we were going to go on another beach hike, but were turned back by very cold wind. We did log about 1/2 mile.

 

 

 

On Tuesday we found the perfect trail!

Beautifully wooded and challenging at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The South Slough, part of the National Estuarine Research Reserve, is about 20 miles from our RV park.

The available trail system seems to cover about ten miles of paths. We did the trail marked in yellow above.  It was a little over two miles. In the near future we will be returning to do parts of the remaining trails.

Some pictures from our hike:

 

 

A tunnel through the forest.

Bench.

We were amused by this "stump chair" on the side of the trail on our way down. We often take a few minutes rest on a stump or log and this one looked comfortable, but we were both still "fresh" so we didn't try it out.

 

As we descended to the marsh, there were places where the ground would have been to soggy to walk. Bridges and boardwalks solve that problem.

By now Craig was ready for a rest.

 

Sun dappled.

After about a mile of forest trail, we reached the salt marsh of the Estuary.

We only went a short distance over the marsh lands before turning back uphill on the Big Cedar Trail, which took us back up to the trail that led back to our Jeep.

Next time we will be parking at the top of the Big Cedar Trail and come down to hike more of the Salt Marsh.

Remember that funny stump chair we saw on the hike down? 

I was very happy to see it again on the hike back up.

It was the perfect place to catch my breath, let my legs recover, and check out the trail map one more time.

We definitely will return to this place for more hiking during the next three weeks. 

No Sand!