This loop covers ten or eleven miles and travels on these trails: Laguna, Sky, Woodward Valley, Coast, Fire Lane, and back to Laguna. The sun shone inland but at the coast it was windy and foggy. The trails were overgrown with grasses that hung down dripping with moisture, which my pants wicked up. After about ten minutes I was sopping wet even inside my waterproof shoes. Just when I started to dry out, I came upon another section of wet trail. Poison hemlock was all over the place, bird's-foot trefoil lined many of the paths. I heard the plaintiff wooden flute song of Swainson's thrush almost the whole way. Sky Trail from the road to Woodward Valley Trail was especially lovely: the elderberries were loaded with red berries and the whole forest was lush and green and hushed. Near the bottom of Woodward Valley I found a colony of tidy tips and on Coast Trail a gathering of yellow Wight's paintbrush. The purple self-heal flowers were big and fat, ox-eye daisies were gorgeous. Sticky monkey flower appeared everywhere and was especially abundant on Monkey Flower Hill. I was a muddy mess when I got home, but several cycles of the washing machine put everything right.

Monkey Flower Hill