Here To There

The family came down to Tahoe for their first California ski trip over Spring Break. We stayed in the Koffel Cabin (Alpine Rental Group). The cabin was great: it has lots of windows looking out onto the field behind the house; it’s off of Alpine Road, so it’s very convenient; and it’s at the end of a cul-de-sac, so it’s nice and quiet.

As Sam and I drove up on Friday evening it started snowing and by the time we woke up in the morning there were 6 good inches of new, but slightly wet, snow on the ground. We fired up the old van and headed up to the hill. It was pretty windy and it kept snowing the rest of the day, so the only lift that was open was the main express. Despite being limited to one lift, we found some pretty good rruns in the trees on the front. At the end of the day I ran into Sam and he took me on the run he’d been going on most of the day—it was the best skiing on the whole mountain. I would mention Sam’s multiple double releases, but I think I’ll spare him the embarrasment.

It kept snowing all Saturday and the temperature finally dropped so it was light and fluffy. We didn’t think much of it until the next morning, when we realized that there was a good 18” on the driveway, and that we were at the end of a very long cul-de-sac. Since we were at the end of the line, the plows weren’t expected to get to our street until after they had finished everybody elses, so the boys started shoveling snow from the driveway. At about 8 a plow finally came down the road, but it turned out that he was just the driveway guy, so the boy’s work was for nothing and the road was still blocked after he left. So we decided to hike out to the road and hitch a ride up to the mountain.

The skiing was amazing! It stopped snowing, got a bit sunny and wasn’t windy at all, so all of the lifts opened up. The Promised Land even opened up for a little bit. We skiied just about every off-piste run on the mountain, and never had to do any more than once. They may deny it later, but Coleman and Dad said it might have been the best skiing they’d ever done.

We left the house at 8:30 and got to the trail head at 10:30. That included about 30 minutes of being lost. Some important notes on getting to the Palomarin Trailhead: first of all, Sir Francis Drake is in Larkspur and is only 8 miles after the end of the Golden Gate Bridge. If you get to the Richmond Bridge, you’ve gone to far. After you get on Sir Francis Drake, go about 20 miles to the end of the road, then turn left on Hwy 1 and go 9.6 miles. Turn on Olema-Bolinas road, which is opposite a white ranch house. Drive along the north side of a small bay for about 1.3 miles. At the end of the road, take a left on Horseshoe Hill and go another 0.2 miles until you get to Mesa. Turn right on Mesa and follow it for about 5.5 miles until it ends in a parking lot. That is the trailhead. Hopefully we can cut some time off of the drive next time knowing these little tips.

We headed down Coastal Trail for about 3.5 miles until we got to the Alamere Falls cutoff on the left. The trail starts out on the ocean and is beautiful for the first mile, then it heads inland around Bass Lake and then Pelican Lake for the next 2.5 miles. The inland trail isn’t as pretty as the coastal, but such is life. Getting to the falls on Alamere Falls trail is a bit difficult since it isn’t maintained. It’s pretty overgrown, so wear pants for protection! The view of the falls isn’t great from the top. From the main bluff, the falls go down a bit and then pool again before dropping off to the beach. Conceivably you could scramble down to the final drop off bluff, but it looked a little iffy, so we skipped it. Next time it would be fun to hike to the bottom of the falls.