Lake Ranch Trail

Lake Ranch Trail
7.7 Miles
3.75 Hours
Start: Palomarin Trailhead
End: Five Brooks Trailhead
Includes: Palomarin Trailhead, Coast Trail, Lake Ranch Trail, Bolema Trail, Olema Valley Trail, Five Brooks Trailhead

Hike 45
November 3, 2013
Six of Pentacles
Charity

Piro and I started at the Palomarin Trailhead in Bolinas. Coast Trail took us along the cliffs for some beautiful views of the coastline looking south.

Piro was kind of tired, so we said goodbye at a bridge along Coast Trail. She headed back to her car and I headed onward. There were a surprising number of people hiking in and out on Coast Trail, many equipped for camping. Once I got on Lake Ranch Trail, I was alone.

Lake Ranch Trail runs through Douglas fir forest up the side of Bolinas ridge. A tender flower or two rested amid spiky firs of great age and character.

The forest floor was lush and green. Ferns lined the trail.

Near the junction with Ridge Trail, I passed Mud Lake. I accidentally flushed a flock of ducks from the water while moving closer to see its emerald surface. The smell of decay hinted of strange life forms at home in these dense, dark waters.

Standing at the trail intersection on top of the ridge, I heard a thundering to my left. As the sound got closer, two horses with riders emerged from the trail. They slowed to pass as I stepped aside and resumed their thundering before slipping out of sight.

Only their hoof prints remained.

As I made my way down the other side of the ridge on Bolema Trail, I entered Bishop pine forest.

It was drier on this side of the ridge. Bay laurel grew in elegant shapes parallel to the ground, filling the air with their spicy scent.

A maple displayed orange-yellow fall foliage.

After a 1.3 mile walk on the Olema Valley Trail, I was at the little lake at the Five Brooks trailhead.

The six of pentacles shows a guy holding a scale and dropping coins into the outstretched hands of one of two men standing on their knees near his feet. It is a card depicting charity (i.e. voluntarily giving help to the needy).

Nature is based on a gift economy. Nature grows food, gives air and water to all her creatures and asks for nothing other than that we care for her, so she can continue to provide. It is human activity that creates poverty. We take what nature gives for free and call it our own. We then sell it to others. Whomever has misappropriated the most of nature gifts stands to be what we have deemed the most successful. It is then necessary to give charity to those from whom we originally stole nature's gift.

It is a crazy system that results in the disparity of resources we now experience in our world. If we reorient our efforts to support the well-being of nature, so she can continue to provide and wean ourselves from unhealthy habits of acquisition, we can all get what we need.