Mr. P had wanted to try camping forever. So we made a last minute call to the Olema Ranch Campground and found an empty spot in the overflow area over the Labor Day weekend.

Two kinds of fire, the camp fire and the Mini Boss. Mr. P was in heaven

I was a little concerned that Mr. P would get freaked out at night after the fire dies down and it gets quiet, and you can hear animals scurry about in the night. Turns out, I need not worry because we had the plot directly next to New Bollywood. Not only was it an encampment of maybe 50 people (see the tents behind Mr. P) but they did nothing but cook, play loud games of charades, crank up the million candle watt lanterns and play enough music to carry them through the next 72 hours non-stop. They never left their camp site. And when they did sleep someone’s fat uncle snored so loud that, I swear to God, at one point in the night I turned on my headlamp to look outside because I thought he had to be right under our tent flap. I had anger in my eyes and murder in my heart.

Not only did it piss me off but one of the mornings I overheard the people next to us talking about the same thing ... "and the kid and the coughing. Does it ever stop?” So you know it’s pretty miserable when people are pissed at the asthmatic 8 year old. But that's what you get for camping on a holiday I guess. But aside from that we had a great time and once we get a sleeping bag that comes up past his shoulders I'm sure he'll be fine.

HIKING AT DUSK

We usually don’t stay in Pt. Reyes past dark because the drive home is fraught with danger, with the deer population being astronomical and all. But since we were staying the night we thought we’d take a dusk hike down Bear Valley trail.

Looking back, I kind of knew better.

We were on the trail at dusk, and had decided to leave the backpack in the car because we really weren’t going to be out that long. So, I might mention that Olema derives it's name from a Miwok word which means coyote. Coyotes, bears and mountain lions all love the fading light of dusk to begin to forage for the evening meal. As we neared the end of the trail we heard loud crashing sounds coming from the stream, up the bank and in our direction. So we started to move quickly towards the trail head were we were stopped by a large coyote standing in the middle of the path looking at us, looking away, then back at us. So between the unknown crashing sound behind us and the coyote in front of us, we chose the coyote direction. Luckily, he lept off into the forest as soon as we started to advance. We then walked with purpose towards to the car as soon as we cleared the meadow with all the mountain lion grass coverage.

So it may have been a blessing in disguise that the camp site was neither quiet or dark at night.