Shopping Trips should not be Guilt Trips

In my tight budgeting of the past few years, I have become accustomed to not spending much to any time in shopping areas. This means that when I do go to a shopping center, it feels almost otherworldly. In a store or in a collection of stores, I feel out of place and overly conscious about how much $$$ I am $pending.

This doesn't have to be this way! It's all relative!

Yesterday I bit the bullet and bought two books at Marin's best bookstore Book Passage for $45. While that is not cheap, again, it is all relative. $45 is also 5 1/2 Marin-SF commuting trips (and 4 if it is on the ferry), several trips to the coffee shop, a certain amount of food purchases... all of which I have done and continue to do.

And though it may seem that I am spending alot of money in the moment, it evens out, ultimately, and I stay grounded.

Tomales Point Trail

Yesterday I ventured back out the Point Reyes Peninsula to the Tomales Point Trail, a 9.5 mile long round trip hike to the extreme northern tip of Point Reyes. I had a teaser visit to this area of Point Reyes in mid-March, when I chose to visit nearby McClure's Beach. I knew that tackling Tomales Point would be more of an epic affair. I also felt embarrassed as I struggled to make the time to visit the trail. Suddenly, an opportunity arose when I received an assignment for my "Wilderness Rites of Passage" course with its upcoming trip to the Mojave Desert. What better location would there be to take a solo hike than going back out to Tomales Point?

I was certainly not disappointed, though I may have not realized the epic scope of the trip. In fact, one of the more surprising elements of my hike was how the "out" and "back" segments felt like two different trips. The culprit was ostensibly the heavy fog that enveloped the point on my way out. Whereas when I returned, the fog had vanished and the surroundings took on a completely different feel and flavoring. I quickly realized that I had taken little to no notice of certain features of the landscape. The return trip also played with my expectations, where I anticipated the return trip would feel shorter... but it did not. Ultimately both segments of the walk took exactly the same length of time: two hours. I felt that time ceased to matter out there at the tip of Tomales Point. I was shocked to find that my cellphone had service, and expressed the sentiment in a brief perfect 140 character text tweet:

Cant believe I have cellphone service here on the northern tip of Point Reyes (Tomales Point) after hiking for 2 hours.

I actually came to regret pulling out the cellphone, which I had carefully kept off on the way out. It made me rely on it much more for the time and to see what was going on as I returned to the parking area. In an odd though probably symbolic coincidence, the professor of the Wilderness course called me while I was driving away from the Point.

The focus of the hike was encouraged to be about noticing one's own personal process, and seeing how that affected a physical activity while one also chose to fast during the hike. I found fasting to be surprisingly easy and all about the INTENTION. Being comfortable with my own thought process and place in the world is another matter, and a worthy focus for the vision quest.

The Allure of West Marin

Yes, I think I will use this as a personal writing space again!

I'm highly enjoying my current (temporary) routine of making a visit to West Marin County at least once per week. This mini-region of Marin (it does feel like a character of its own) has been my favorite part of the County since I began to get to know it better in early 2009. (Hmm, that is a very long sentence.)

I am going to West Marin regularly to ride at Halleck Creek Ranch in Nicasio, a local stable specializing in offering opportunities for individuals with varying physical abilities. The farm is at the end of a 2.5 mile long dirt/gravel road, so getting there is an adventure in itself. Last week I got a flat tire soon after my visit there. This week I was more cautious about staying under the speed limit. The hills of Halleck Creek were an addictive shade of green that day, as you can see in the image on the right side of the text.

I've been extending each visit to West Marin with a stop in Point Reyes Station, an artsy one-horse, yet character filled town that is the center of the region. It's also home to the Bovine Bakery, the best bakery in all of Marin County, where I am often tempted by a cookie or other treat they will offer.

Yesterday I took the trip one step further and headed south to Bolinas, a remote town that is so far out, it's on another geologic plate. (No, really - the San Andreas Fault separates Bolinas and the Point Reyes Peninsula from the rest of California.) As Wikipedia says, "The community is perhaps best known for its reclusive residents. Historically, it is only accessible via unmarked roads; any road sign along nearby Highway One that points the way into town has been torn down by residents." The town is very difficult to access, with just one road in and out, and two curvaceous roads giving connections to that aforementioned one road.

I've found the place to be highly intriguing ever since my first visit there in March of 2009. In fact, I have toyed with the idea of spending some time as a resident there, even going so far (last fall) as to apply for a live-in childcare position. But nothing came of that job, and I ultimately decided that the town is a little too far out for it to work for me. Not to mention that with the current high gas prices, I would be spending a lot of time and money at the pump.

It's clear when I am in Bolinas that the people who are there WANT to be there, and value their local privacy. The town is so distinct that it stands out from anywhere else, with the ocean surrounding it on three sides and a high area ("The Mesa") just a short distance away. It would be interesting to stay out there... just for a night ... sometime, so I hope to get that opportunity.