under the stars and by the sea

 

last weekend i went on a backpacking trip with thirteen friends at point reyes. the weather was delicious, the scenery was gorgeous, and the company was stellar. 

we hiked through lush landscape; we ate freeze dried meals by headlamp light; we built a beach bonfire under the sparkliest night sky; we fell asleep and woke up to the sound of ocean waves. 

being in wild nature, sleeping under the stars and by the sea, and laughing harder than i have in a long while made my spirit feel glad and calm. 

 

on the six and a half mile hike in, after quite a bit of uphill, we turned around a corner to see vistas down to the ocean bathed in gold. we were pretty excited about the views and the descent.

as soon as we reached the campground, a few of us rushed to drop our packs and run to the horizon at the coast to see the sun say its last goodbyes. the clouds continued to evolve into different colors of bright cotton candy while we set up our tents, just in time for dark.  
don't you love mornings when camping? it's particularly exciting to have daylight again, and because you've probably had a lousy night's sleep and only sunshine as an alarm, waking up is welcome. i like coming out of the tent all bed-headed and groggy to a new day under the open sky.
after eating breakfast, we walked together down the beach to alamere falls. it was one of those slices of time that is all crystally because it's so beautiful and serene. it was dreamy.

 

after enjoying the splendor of the waterfall and the coastline, we walked back, packed up, and hiked our six and a half miles back out. we met some banana slugs on the trail, and apparently it's a thing to kiss them, so obviously i did that. it sure felt good to take off our packs and our shoes when we reached the parking lot. we went to eat burgers at a restaurant in the darling town of point reyes station, and headed home, marveling that we had only been an hour-ish out of san francisco! i love how point reyes feels like such wilderness.  

it was a really fantastic trip.