It all started when I was lying in bed the night of July 4th, dicking around on Twitter. I saw this Tweet by the Marin Daily News:
Because I am practically in the FBI, I soon deduced that the fire was happening on a trail called Indian Fire Road near one of my favorite hiking spots, Phoenix Lake. Because Phoenix Lake is one of my favorite hiking spots, I was mystified that I had never heard of Indian Fire Road before. I hike a lot, and I know most of the trails on Mt. Tamalpais, so how could there be a trail I’ve never heard of? One as obvious as a fire road, no less?
For the next two weeks I obsessed over Indian Fire Road. I had to find this trail. I downloaded an intricate trail map of Mt. Tam and located where it stretches from Eldridge Grade, another fire road that’s popular with mountain bikers, all the way north to Fairfax. It’s a pretty substantial trail that I somehow, in all of my death marches (as Maynard affectionately calls them based on the one time he dared to hike with me and Leslie), have never set foot on. That had to change.
So the other night I started at the base of West Blithedale and walked straight up, up, up, until I found it. Here’s a short photo narrative for you:
The view of Mt. Tam climbing Blithedale Ridge in the evening. This is pretty much a straight up sort of situation.
Here she is, in all her beauty.
View of the Mt. Tam foothills looking south over Fairfax and North Marin.
The moon from Blithedale Ridge. The fact that I was still way up on Blithedale Ridge when I took this became a small problem that involved some unfortunate jogging.
Corte Madera Trail on the way down, which always reminds me of Little Red Riding Hood.
I actually went back and did a second loop the next day from the top of Summit Road, where I got even higher on Indian Fire Road by death marching straight up ominous Wheeler Trail. Here’s an Every Trail map and overview of that hike.
Oh and in case you’re worried about the part of this post that’s not a first world problem, yes, they did put the fire out, thankfully.
