In about twenty miles, you join with state highway 1, coming north from Pt. Reyes. Follow highway 1 west a couple of miles to Valley Ford and keep going along it another eight or so miles until you finally reach the coast at Bodega Bay, site of Alfred Hitchcock's famous movie The Birds.
In Bodega Bay you might want to stop at any of several attracktive sea-food restaurants or kiosks -- our usual eating point is thepickup window at Lucas Wharf (but the clam chowder and fish stew served inside is better than the clams/oysters/calimari/fish-and-chips that you get outside). If you just want to hike, continue on north along highway 1, winding in and out along high cliffs and through beautiful canyons of the Sonoma Coast State Beaches for about eight miles. You can stop at Wright's Beach and start your walk here, if you want, but I find this first half of the trail rather non-descript, as well as being difficult to find -- but it takes off at the top of the road down into Wright's Beach, so you at least won't have to pay to park your car, as you would at the bottom.
Shell Beach is another mile and a half north. Turn left here into the parking lot. There is a rest room under the trees at the head of the short trail down to the beach. On the other side of the highway is the western terminus of the three-mile trail over the hills to the Pomo Ecological Campground. The takeoff point of the Kortum Trail is at the northwest corner of the parking lot.
Set off over the moorland to the north. The trail gradually swings to the northwest, bringing you out to the top of the bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Along the route you'll find several trail markers -- cyclindrical posts with arrow-bearing plaques affixed on top -- and an old log stile, over which we used to have to climb to cross one of the many fences that sectioned off the area, which was also used as pastureland. You no longer have to climb -- the fence has been torn down to the left of the stile. One or two other stiles along the route have disappeared completely, and all that is left of the fences they crossed are occasional fenceposts.
The trail turns back inland in a while, and eventually brings you to a wooden bridge that takes you across a narrow but deep ravine; the stream that flows through the bottom is all but invisible due to the dense matting of greenery that fills the canyon. If you go on back out to the bluffs on the north side, you can get a good look at the stream itself, where it plummets over a small waterfall to the beach below.
Now you continue on north, just a short way back from the bluffs, and watch the rock mesa grow ahead of you. Aside from the usual batch of tumbled boulders at its base, it is quite monolithic; I have seen technical climbers using it for practice. Continue on north past the west side of the base -- unless you, too, are a technical climber and have your equipment -- and proceed past another, smaller jumble of boulders until you reach the southeast slope of the round, green sheep-grazed hill. Follow up to the northeast until you come to the hedgerow and fence that run alongside the road leading in to Blind Beach and Goat Rock Beach.
Turn to the left, pass through a gate, and puff your way up alongside the hedgerow, invisible to the cars passing along the road. The trail gradually angles off to the left, leading to a small col between the main hill and a smaller, rocky mound northeast of it. At this point, a side trail leads off to the left, up to the summit of the main hill; this is a worthwhile -- and short -- side trip, since at the summit you can enjoy the views south and north along the coast, or, if you want, simply lie down in the sun and take a nap.
Looking to the north, you can see two points of interest. The first, partially hidden, is the parking lot above Blind Beach, where you may wish to end your walk. The second is the broad, flat plateau, lying in the ocean but connected to the mainland by a strip of rock, which is Goat Rock, at the southern terminus of Goat Rock Beach.
Returning to the col, wind your way down the stony hillside to the north. You contour around a broad bowl canyon on the east side, just below the road, and emerge on the far side onto the road itself. From here, it's only a hundred yards to the Blind Beach parking lot. You can stop here, use the rest rooms, perhaps sun yourself on the slope overlooking the ocean and watch the remarkably unafraid sparrows that will flutter past and around you.
Meteorological note: even in a fairly strong wind, you can stay relatively warm here by lying as flat as you can on the slope. This puts you in the ground's friction layer, over which the moving air flows. You can stick your arm up, and not very far above your nose you'll feel the wind blowing past you; but at ground level, you yourself will be snug as a bug in a rug.
There is a trail that leads from here down the steep slope above the ocean; if I remember it correctly, it zigzags somewhat. You'll finally emerge from it on the sand and rocks of Blind Beach, from where you can make your way to the parking lot by Goat Rock. At the other end of Goat Rock Beach, off to the north, is the mouth of the Russian River and a colony of harbor seals which you are not, by law, allowed to approach.
Don Harlow
| Map will be added later | Map will be added later |
Don Harlow <don@donh.vip.best.com>