This pic was taken from a rocky outcropping near Sausalito. It takes 45 minutes of chugging uphill to get here. I've been on this hike many times and always marveled about how weird it was to have been driving on the highway below just an hour before. But the last time I did this hike alone (eight years ago) I slipped, falling very hard on my tailbone. I was literally seeing stars and I was in incredible pain for two weeks. I also stumbled upon a bobcat in a crouched position, which I've never seen before or even since. This recent hike last Friday wasn't nearly that eventful, but I also purposely walked the loop clockwise, opposite of what I did eight years ago, in the hopes that it somehow symbolically it takes my life in a different direction.—SF