Sibley Backpack Camp sits on a ridge near the Round Top peak, the extinct volcano for which Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve is named. Over the ages the volcanic vent has been tilted to the east by movement of the Hayward Fault; the camp would have been on the slope up to the vent, just beneath the caldera. I enjoy it because there’s only one campsite up there, so you’re the only one in the park overnight.
Less than 50 meters below the peak, the camp is pretty exposed to winds across the ridge. It’s nestled in stands of eucalyptus, but with gusts up to 50 mph, you notice the weather. It was windy and rainy all night, and though my tent held up fine, there was a lot of flipping and flapping. Vivid dreams.
The rain had mostly passed by morning, but the wind was still up. As I made breakfast, I got to watch the sun starting to peek through the streaming clouds. I hiked to the labyrinth overlook, within the ancient volcanic caldera.
When I got back to camp a rain cloud was coming through. I wasn’t in a hurry, so sheltered to let it pass while I finished packing up. The tail end of the squall brought clear skies and lovely views.
The trails had all gotten a good soaking, so I modified my ride plan to stay on roads along the ridge instead of taking the trails. It was windy on Grizzly Peak but pleasant riding. I made it up to the steam trains, then bombed down South Park, finding as I did so that a tie-down strap on a soft object like a tent might not be enough to keep it from falling off your rack when you’re blasting down the fastest descent in the East Bay. Oops.
Fortunately the damage was limited to the stuff sack (and I found later, a tiny hole in the rain fly), so I re-secured the load and continued along the ridge, Wildcat Canyon to the Arlington, dropping down into El Cerrito and picking up the Richmond Greenway.
I had lunch in Point Richmond (prosciutto panino at Cafe Roma) and braced myself for the crossing to Marin. As expected, the wind was howling on the bridge, to the point where it felt actually a bit dangerous, not for my bike but for the trucks driving next to me. It became even more unsettling when I saw that something had in fact brought traffic on the lower deck to an standstill. But I made it across without being crushed beneath a shipping container, and was fortunate to reach the little office complex on the Marin side just as another rain squall came through. I sheltered there for 20 minutes or so and headed out as the clouds broke again.
My plan had been to ride the levees through the Canal district, but even getting to them would have required wading through a mud pit, so I popped back onto the road to go through Larkspur, connecting with the series of roads and trails through College of Marin and Bon Air that I’d learned from Alex a few weeks ago.
Last time I’d ridden out to Samuel P. Taylor I found a new trail system in Loma Alta Open Space Preserve, with a nice gravel alternative to the trafficky climb on Sir Francis Drake. That trail has good drainage, so it only had one or two mud pits to get through. Nice ride.
I’d wisely investigated whether the Lagunitas Grocery Store is opened on Mondays (it’s not), so had planned a stop at Woodacre Market in San Geronimo, the second-closest spot to the campground. My initial plan was to grab a sandwich and beer and take them to camp, but yet another rain squall came in, so I grabbed a seat inside and had my dinner there. The rain got quite heavy for a minute or two, I was glad not to be out in it. Once again, about 20 minutes later things had cleared up.
I decided to stick with the original plan of taking the Cross-Marin Trail into the park. It’s a great way to approach the campground, feels like arriving in a special place, but it was definitely wet and muddy. Stuff got pretty dirty on the way in.
In camp I was able to grab a quick shower (felt good!), do some laundry in the sink (need one more day of shorts and socks), and have the rest of my sandwich, chips, beer, and chocolate-covered pretzels, yum. And the last person who used the bike-in campsite had kindly left a bed of redwood duff in the best tent location.
