Good, Bad, and Terrible ideas for hiking in Marin

The Good: Ben, Steve, and I went hiking yesterday in the Marin Headlands near Muir Beach. It was a gorgeous day - 75 degree and sunny with great views down the coastline toward the city.

The Bad: We decided it would be nice to descend a slope down to the water and walk along the coastline toward Pirates Cove where we could meet back up with the trail.

The Terrible: After descending the slope about halfway, we realized that it was very naive to think we could get all the way to the bottom, so the only choice we had was to go back up from where we came. As I was trying to climb a steep rock face, I lost my footing and handholds and slid down the slope for 15-20 feet. Honestly, it was pretty miraculous that I didn't fall farther down the slope. And despite that fact that I was really banged up, I am lucky that I didn't injure myself even worse. Thanks to God for keeping me safe!

This is the slope that I would eventually slide down. I actually look somewhat impressive in this picture.

It's hard to see, but probably the worst injury was that I literally scraped about 5 layers of skin off three fingertips on my left hand.


As you can see, it's possible that my less than peak physical condition lead to the fall. But, my stomach is basically one big series of scrapes and cuts. I have similar injuries on my side, left thigh and both forearms and elbows. Cleaning these wounds with hot water and hydrogen peroxide was extremely painful. And I had to completely cover myself in Neosporin. I eventually made it up the slope via a different route and showed off my injuries to the other guys. This was a rough way to end a really nice weekend, but ironically, it was really nice to get out and get dirty when I spend most of my days in my little cubicle.