“I’ve been here 20 years and never seen you before,” says old man with green beret, Day 6
If you want to capture the true essence of Marin County (in my humble opinion), you just need to hang out in one of their beach communities. And if you can only choose one, stay in Stinson Beach and include a visit to its very close neighbor, Bolinas.
Day 5 of our Walking Holiday in Marin County wasn’t the hiking day that we had planned. We were supposed to hike 14 miles from Stinson to Bolinas, which seems absolutely absurd if you look at the map and realize the towns are only 6 miles apart. The longer route would have taken us along Willow Camp Fire Road to Coastal Trail to McCurdy Trail. I have no doubt that would have been a fabulous route, but at this point in our trip we had learned that 8 miles/day was our comfortable limit when carrying our luggage. Plus, we knew we had over 12 miles to cover the next day. With no taxis or rideshares in the area (trust me, we checked), we opted for the conservative choice. So here’s what we did instead…
We spent the night before at Sandpiper Lodging, which had luxurious bedding, a gas fireplace, beach towels & chairs, and a balcony. The location was perfectly situated near restaurants and a very short walk to the beach. We watched the sunset that night over Stinson Beach and followed it up with an excellent repast at Parkside Cafe.
The next morning (Day 6), we walked along the beach in the fog and ate brunch at Breakers Cafe.
We stopped to get water at the Stinson Beach Market, where the staff obviously had a sense of Halloween humor in the meat department. This was also where we met the old man wearing a green beret. We were checking out and he was standing in the entryway visiting with the clerk. Out of nowhere he turned to us and exclaimed loudly to the entire store “I’ve been here 20 years and never seen you before!” When we told him we were visiting from Louisiana, he informed us that he lived behind the store and then launched into stories of drunken Army days in New Orleans and the “wilds of Florida.” He turned out to be an actual Green Beret.
After that colorful conversation, we sat in the little park across the street and waited for the Marin Stagecoach (public bus) which arrived only 5 minutes late and was a quick 15 minute ride to Bolinas. And to think that we actually considered hiking 14 miles for that — those $2 bus tickets were the best decision we’ve ever made!
Bolinas may have been geographically close to Stinson Beach, but it felt like we had stepped onto another planet when we got off the bus. The town was small and consisted of quaint wooden houses, most of which had beautiful little gardens. Peace signs were everywhere and unique places such as the Bolinas Book Exchange had me thinking we were in a 1960s town. Eric and I spent about an hour perusing the Book Exchange, which was a self-serve mecca that gave us a good glimpse into the community’s reading tastes.
To quote local radio station KALW and the New York Times, “It has been said that if Bolinas had a welcome sign – which it doesn’t – it could read: “Welcome to Bolinas. Please Keep Moving.” We were only there for one night, but it was obvious that this was a town that did NOT want to grow. A pivotal moment of Bolinas history seems to have happened in 1971, when a major oil spill attracted tons of environmentally conscience hippies. Those hippies stayed and fought against development and continue that fight even today. If you want to know more, click HERE.
Having said all this, the town was certainly very friendly. Everyone we met smiled and conversed easily with us. We had lunch at the Coast Cafe and dinner at Eleven (the B&B/wine bar where we stayed the night). Service at both of these places was incredible and we never felt unwelcome. While listening to conversations in those restaurants, however, it was easy to discern the opposing forces that Bolinians are trying to balance: those who wish to keep Bolinas a sustainable, small organic farming community where anyone can afford to live simply vs big money real estate developers and tech-millionaires craving an original escape. It’s an old story that repeats itself throughout history anytime a Utopian community pops up. For my own part, I hope the hippies win.
Bolinas Lagoon with Stinson Beach across the water
Late night hours at Library
Eleven B&B / wine bar
Pizza at Eleven
