hiking mt. tam

one of our favorite adventures to have is exploring good hiking trails, and the bay area is full of them! so a couple weeks ago dannon and i took a little hike on mt. tamalpais in the marin headlands {fun fact: the marin headlands is where mountain biking was invented!}.

i love hiking mt. tam because you get a little bit of everything - woods, creeks, huge rolling bluffs, the ocean, amazing views of san francisco, and if you hike at the right time of day, you can even catch one of the free shows at the outdoor theatre at the top!
{this one was guys and dolls}
here are some of the pretty pictures from our hike:



there were tons of beautiful wild flowers, including huge blue irises and bright yellow california poppies! i love wildflowers and i really hope i can find some on the morning of my wedding {flowers grow in september right?...}

one of my favorite places was coming from the bright sunny bluffs through a little opening in the trees. looking back out it feels like we stepped into a magical secret forest!
and this was on the other side.

there were two scary things that we came across on our hike.
the first was this overturned 40's era car.
which had apparently come from the road at the very top of the hill up there:
the second scary thing was when we decided to do a little trail running. we were happily running and not paying much attention when i looked down and suddenly saw this guy stretched out right in front of me:

i was going too fast to stop but if i kept going i would have stepped right on him, so i took a flying leap. it felt like slow motion as i looked down at him with my feet hanging in the air above him. my thought was "which ends the head?! which ends the head?!" and i screamed "STOP!" at dannon who was a little behind me.

of course, all my drama was completely unnecessary because while he was alive, he was very sedated by the sunshine. he barely lifted his head at me when i freaked out about him. we also discovered later that he was a harmless gopher snake. but let me tell you, growing up in TN, i've had these same experiences several times, only with rattlesnakes. so coming across a snake unexpectedly like this brings back all those scary memories.

for the rest of the hike we continued to run so i could calm down {gotta sweat out those adrenaline and cortisol chemicals!}. and for the rest of the hike our conversation went like this:

me: are you still looking for snakes?!
dannon: yes, i'm still looking snakes.

... 10 seconds later

me: are you still looking for snakes?!
dannon: yes kim...

ah, good times. :)
but really, any hike around the headlands is gorgeous and lovely and is one of the things we'll miss most when we move to l.a.