Today was the final day of a week-long California highpointing trip I was enjoying before the Christmas holidays. I had done a couple huge hikes in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties down south, then a handful of easier hilly highpoints in the Bay Area worked around a visit with my sister who lives in the area. Today's plan was to drive over the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County and visit Mount Tamalpais. Mount "Tam" would be my last highpoint of the trip, and probably the easiest, too.

I'd stayed the night at my sister's place in San Francisco and decided not to get moving until about 8 a.m. when the worst of rush-hour traffic would be over. I negotiated the maze of roads in town until I found Van Ness Avenue (US-101), which eventually leads to the Golden Gate Bridge, which is always a nice diversion. I had last crossed it in 1991. On the north side, I continued up US-101 to the CA-1 exit, then through the town of Mill Valley and up the main road toward Tam, just following the signs. Mount Tam has three summits, with the highest being the East Peak. Apparently this wasn't always the case as the western peak was graded flat years ago to make room for some facilities. The middle bump is noticeably lower anyway and can be ignored.

There are options to reach the summit of Tam, one of which includes a hike of about four miles with a 1,700-foot gain, but I chose to drive the roads to the upper parking area, which would leave me with a shorter, simpler 0.6-mile round-trip hike to the tippy top. I had my reasons: I didn't want to work up a sweat and get all stinky, then have to smell myself all the way to Arizona. When I arrived at the upper parking area, I was the only one there. That genuinely surprised me, since I figured there would always be a stream of tourists in these parts, even if it was a work-day.

I parked, grabbed a bottle of water and started up the easy plank trail toward the top, toward a lookout. The planks gave way about half-way up. I made the top in about 10 minutes and moseyed around the lookout. It was shut, so I walked around to the lookout's southwest corner to some natural rock outcrops and the true highpoint. The views are astounding! In every direction there is something gorgeous to behold. To the south is the San Francisco skyline and one of the support pillars of the Golden Gate Bridge. To the east is the East Bay Area and the big ships in the bay. The Pacific Ocean was to the west, and more hills and local communities to the north and east as well. I stayed up there about 15 minutes but grew cold in a stiff breeze, so I started down back to my truck. Of course, like an idiot I did not take any photographs.

Happy with the summit, I hiked down to my truck and started the long drive back home, with no real plan in mind. I worked my way east to Interstate-5, then south along it through the most boring landscape in the United States, also known as Merced, Fresno and Kings counties. I ate at Andersen's Pea Soup restaurant, a famous landmark in Santa Nella and a place we used to stop at all the time when I was a kid for good food (and pea soup).

I eventually worked my way through Bakersfield and Tehachapi and up toward Barstow, when night finally fell. I should have taken a hotel here but I had a lot of energy, so I drove some more, figuring I'd stay somewhere in Needles or Parker, but once I hit the state line, I figured I'd just push on home. I pulled in around midnight, a thirteen-hour drive covering 870 miles from Mount Tamalpais, which now seemed like a distant memory. My cat was pissed that I'd left him for 6 days, but he was looked after.