Kent lake, Marin county, San Francisco

Marin county is one of my favorite places to hike in the San Francisco area. It is located on the Pacific near the Golden Gate bridge, so the views are usually stunning. This weekend my friend Sergio and I decided to hike to Kent Lake via the Candalero Canyon trail. This is a different sort of Marin County hike in that it is completely inland without any views of the Pacific. I live in the mid-peninsula area, so it is a bit of a drive to get over to Marin County. Luckily, I like to hike early in the morning, so it only takes only about an hour to get to the trailhead. The trail starts in the middle of suburbia, so it was initially a bit puzzling. There is no trailhead or designated parking. However, the directions from the AllTrails app do a great job of getting you to the exact location.

The trail was tough, a "stairmaster" trail with a series of alternate ups and downs. Some of the climbs were pretty steep but thankfully fairly short. The trail itself is gorgeous, mostly covered by Oak and Redwood canopy most of the time. The yellow Maple trees make it even more beautiful. Early on in the trail you are down in the valley, and it is fairly dark. Once you get on top of the hill, you can get a panoramic view of the surrounding hills and fog. We encountered only one other hiking group in the six hours we were on the trail. The rest of the time, it was just stunning silence. It was drizzling on and off during the entire hike but it was not very heavy and did not affect our hike adversely. The signage along the trail is minimal, and we got off track a couple of times. Luckily, the AllTrails map came in handy, and we could find our way back onto the trail.

On the top of the hill, we saw beautiful fog-covered views of the nearby mountains, so I stopped and quickly fired off some pictures.

Last weekend, I downloaded Cornell's Merlin Bird ID app on my phone. The idea behind this app is that it will help you identify birds based on their vocalizations. I was curious to see how this works, and on the hike, I got a chance to use the app. The results were fascinating - we heard Stellar Jays, Spotted Towhee, Pacific Wren, etc. It is great to be able to put a name to the sound you hear. I will use this app a lot more in my future hikes.

Once you get on top of the hill you descend again to get to the lake. The lake itself is a beautiful little serene mountain lake. Perfectly still and quiet. The waters are so still and the reflections are so perfect you cannot tell the reflection from the original. The whole location is eerily silent and strangely peaceful.

We sat down by the lake and had our lunch enjoying the view. After that we head back down the trail. The lakes of Marin county are a wonderful experience. I look forward to visiting other lakes in the area.