The coast trail goes from the youth hostel out to limantour and back a different route. It wasn't the most spectacular hike. The first part, out to limantour, was sopped in. I could barely see ten feet in front of me. I love fog, but I don't like those conditions when I'm hiking somewhere I've never been. I kept thinking a cougar or a serial killer was going to leap out of the white walls surrounding me. I've never been to that part of limantour - I've always gone north from the entrance, never south. It was totally astounding. The tide was low when I got there and there were all kinds of rock formations exposed, which meant tidepools! The rocks were crusted in muscles. There's a huge kelp bed out there too that I didn't know existed. Plus, there were anenomies everywhere, mostly exposed and out of the water so I had to be careful not to walk on them. And then there were sea stars. I mean, there were sea stars everywhere. I had never seen so many. It was like a sea star colony. Everywhere you looked, there they were. Big ones, little ones, purple, yellow, brown, orange. They weren't moving at all, just happily staying put. The beach was littered with body parts of crabs and very cool sandstone like rocks in amongst all the normal amazing rocks and kelp and sea weed. I also ran across the carcass of a LEOPARD SHARK! She was about 4 feet long. It looked like something maybe took a bite out of her. She was partially decomposed, but at the stage where death smelled relatively fresh still. She was gorgeous and precious and I didn't want to just leave her there, but it looked like the tide would take her back out in a few hours. What a gift. There were hundreds of pelicans flying in groups of 8 to 30. I don't know if they were all different groups, or if they were the same flocks (?) flying over and over again. Pelicans only ever seem to fly south to north. I've never seen them go the other way. But they must. The most amazing and extraordinary thing I saw was a POD OF DOLPHINS! I've never seen dolphins in this area. They were leisurely swimming by, going south, about 20 yards from the shore. I counted seven of them. A woman walked by and asked if I saw some kind of fish out there. I said, no - they're DOLPHINS and it's totally amazing that we got to see them. Do people really not know that dolphins are mammals? Of course at that moment I was parked on a log a little ways from shore trying to catch the pelicans as they flew by with my big camera. I sat dumbfounded watching them swim by. I could either watch, or put down my big camera to find the digital and probably miss seeing them. I'm not sure the thought even crossed my mind I was so shocked. But I'm so sorry I don't have a picture anywhere except etched in my brain.
I took my new camera and camera backpack today, total weight a little over 20lbs. I did okay. It was heavy, but not unmanageable. Not bad for an old lady, out of shape and weak. Next time I'm going to try the Muddy Hollow Trail that also connects to limantour. I do think the limantour area from drakes bay down to where I hiked today is the place I love most in the world.
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