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From the Land Trust
Everyone in Homestead Valley who walks the trails or roads regularly will find Matthew’s articles timeless. This column originally appeared in the Homestead Headlines in February 1988.
-Curt Oldenburg (HVLT)
Hinterland Hike
The last weekend of February the weather gods were kind to the people of Homestead Valley. Not only did the storm wait to strike after everybody got home from the annual dinner, but it was all over by the next morning, when the hinterland hike was happening.
The calendar may have said it was winter, but when you have warm sunshine, wild flowers all over the place, and plum petals blowing in the wind, you have to say it's spring. That was surely the feeling as we looked at mission bells, hounds tooth, milkmaids, trilliums, and shooting stars.
The fallen but living giant nutmeg is obscure in its ravine, and the mysterious windmill nearly impossible to see from the path. What makes that part of the country worth braving the poison oak is the great rock face. Approached from the bay woods below, you suddenly realize it's there, looming to the treetops above.
When you get to the top of the rock face, you don't want to leave very soon. First of all, each square foot is patterned with mosses and lichens, ferns and miniature flowers. At the edge star lilies shine before the sylvan shade beyond. And secondly, the view from within the banks of oak and laurel to the upper valley and Mt. Tamalpais invites you to be seated, breathe, and be for awhile.
The Eagle Trail has the feel it has always been there, a slender footpath etched in the meadow grasses and in the fallen leaves of the undisturbed forest. After crossing several wrinkles of the land, you descend through the redwoods to the revered Three Groves.
Carol Licht was on hand to guide us through her charge, to which she devotes three or four Sundays a month. Listening to her it becomes quite obvious that it is far more than just another garden job for her. That three acres of garden look so splendid with less than 30 hours a month care testifies to the energy and enthusiasm of Carol and the wisdom with which she applies herself. The garden is further blessed to have Chris and Sheila Nielsen living there with their appreciation and help.
I'm sure many who came on the tour vowed to return to the groves to see the succession of blossoms as the spring progresses.
February 1988
(reprinted from "On Foot in Homestead A Hiker's Journal of a Coastal Valley," by Matthew Davis, 1988.)
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