Here’s a great hike to do now because it comes with an expiration date. During salmon viewing season, which starts after the first fall rains, parking for this five-mile loop hike starting from the Leo T. Cronin Fish Viewing Area off Sir Francis Drake Boulevard west of Forest Knolls is limited to one hour, so consider doing it sometime soon or you will need to wait until spring.
Photo by Wendy Dreskin
Filmy dome spiders make webs that look like silky igloos.From the parking lot, cross Shafter Bridge and take the fire road. In .2 miles, you will see a sign for San Geronimo Ridge Road heading left and uphill. (Note: On the Tom Harrison Pine Mountain Trail Map this is called Bay Area Ridge Trail.) The next mile is uphill, steep in places, but stays in the shade of Douglas fir trees. I paused to admire the webs of filmy dome spiders, which look like silky igloos. The small female spider hangs under the web to deter predators. Males of this group do not spin webs. When a mosquito or gnat gets caught, the spider tears a hole and pulls the prey down through the “igloo” to enjoy it in relative safety.
In one mile, the signed Grassy Slope Road (called Grassy Slope Overlook Road on Google Maps) goes right and San Geronimo Ridge Road goes left. Going straight puts you on Continental Cove Road, which is not named on the Harrison Pine Mountain or Point Reyes map. Heading downhill, I found some ripe California torreya nuts on the ground. Since the peeled nuts resemble nutmeg, this tree is sometimes called California nutmeg, though the tree is in the yew family and is not related to the tropical nutmeg. Various tribes of Native Americans ate the nuts produced by the female trees and some also used them medicinally. Costanoans smashed the nuts and rubbed the oil on the temple of someone suffering from a headache, and the Pomos made a decoction of the nuts for tuberculosis.
If you want to have lunch in a shady spot by Kent Lake, pass an unmarked right and continue downhill to the lake. Though you will have no doubt in your mind about the severity of the drought when the see the water level, it is still a pretty spot. A California sister entertained me as I ate. You will see these butterflies until October when the last generation of the season will hibernate as a caterpillar and then pupate, emerging in April.
Kent Lake was formed by the construction of Carson’s Dam, a combination of rolled earth fill and rock structure that was completed in 1954. To complete the dam on schedule, two crews each worked 10-hour days six days a week; the night crew working under battery-powered lights. The name was later changed to honor James Peter, Marin Municipal Water District manager from 1935 to 1954. In 1982, Peter’s Dam was raised 45 feet, which doubled its capacity. It required building a new spillway, which can be seen later in the hike.
If you stopped by the lake, head back uphill to the unmarked turn, now on your left, which is Upper Peters Dam Road. Bigleaf maple leaves are beginning to turn yellow, and glow when the sun shines through them. Watch out for an active yellow jacket nest at the junction with the south end of Grassy Slope Road. From here on, you will be mostly in the sun. Turn left to cross the dam on Peters Dam Road, and then go right on Lower Peters Dam Road, which become a paved road. You’ll pass where you turned onto San Geronimo Ridge Road, have .2 miles of déjà vu as you return to the trailhead to complete the loop.
To get there, take Highway 101 and exit San Anselmo/Sir Francis Drake. Go about 13.5 miles west on Sir Francis Drake to the signed Leo Cronin Fish Viewing Area parking lot on the left side of the road (at Shafter Bridge).
Wendy Dreskin has led the College of Marin nature/hiking class Meandering in Marin since 1998, and teaches other nature classes for adults and children. To contact her, go to wendydreskin.com
"do it" - Google News
September 06, 2021 at 02:02AM
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Marin hike: Take a loop around Kent Lake, but do it soon - Marin Independent Journal
"do it" - Google News
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