Descriptive Essay: Marin Headlands

THERE’S A KIND OF MAGIC IN MARIN
There is something about Marin, particularly the Marin Headlands, Muir Woods and Mt. Tamalpais areas that seem somehow larger than life.
Perhaps it is the light or the vistas, perhaps the people you find on the trails. Any hour of any day, you will find people running, biking, hiking and walking their dogs, all wearing expressions of pure rapture.
A woman I saw one early morning along Tennessee Valley Road seemed to sum it up. Graying hair, but with a youthful, lovely face; stocky but fit; running along the road with her dog. As she passed, she smiled and greeted me.
I was about to take one last short hike before leaving the area. The Oakwood Valley Trail, off Tennessee Valley Road is a 1.7 mile loop up a thickly wooded valley, alternating between open spaces and forested tunnels. It also, like most of the trails at Marin Headlands, connects with the ridgeline, which can take one pretty much anywhere along the headlands in a web of interconnected trails. I shared the trail with a group of regulars, some with their dogs, apparently out for their morning walk before starting their day.
The previous

It climbed gently along the hillside, through patches of flowering bushes, for a bit before starting to get really steep. The people I met coming down said it was very steep all the way up, seeming to want to discourage me, and they were right. It climbs to over 800 feet, and I used the patches of shade and the sections of the trail facing the ocean breeze to stop and cool down. Each time I rounded a curve and faced the ocean, I was hit by the refreshing ocean wind. Just before reaching the top, I stopped for a minute and noticed a half dozen vultures circling just over head. I think they were disappointed when I continued to the top, and they had to go in search for better