Crystal Lake, August 13th 2006

Click here to go back to Bass Lake

Just the name conjures stunning images and, in my little world, I was going to rediscover a long lost pristine Point Reyes lake.  If I had, I probably wouldn't share it with you.  Since I am, you already know this trip was a bust.  

The distance along the Coast Trail between the turnoffs for Bass Lake and Crystal Lake is 5 minutes (you can convert 5 minutes of my walking to a distance anyway you like).  The strange thing is that the wildly popular Bass Lake has no sign at the turnoff while Crystal Lake does.  This photo was taken at the overgrown sign and indicates that Crystal Lake is 0.4 miles from the Coast Trail.

It's no wonder that no one goes to Crystal Lake.  This photo, looking directly at the overgrown trail, was taken while still on the Coast Trail.

Not too far along the trail towards Crystal Lake you will come across this sign.  If you heed its advice, as I did, you're in for a world of hurt.  If you ignore it, as I did on the way back, you will find a much more direct and less overgrown route to Crystal Lake.

Although stretches of the trail are overgrown, some are wide open and a delight to walk along.  When I took this photo the camera automatically engaged the flash, it wasn't really this dark.

Turning the flash off yielded much better results as you can see by juxtaposing this shot with the one above.

The trail is directly behind my right shoulder.  At this point my shins were already "buzzing" from having walked through so many stinging nettles.

Although the trail is relatively easy to follow you will want pants and a long sleeve shirt, maybe even a mask.  One out of three isn't so bad.

At times I crashed directly through the head high brush which consisted mainly of poison oak and sharp vines.  In this area I walked sideways.  In other areas I almost had to crawl.

And finally I made it to Crystal Lake which ought to be renamed.  This shot is looking back at the way I came with the trail, or lack thereof, to the right out of the picture.

At nearly the same spot as the previous photo, but looking in the opposite direction, we see that the lake is quite large.  Note the abundant animal tracks to the right of the reeds.

Further along the lake opens up quite a bit but I got the impression that it is quite shallow and will soon be a meadow (in geological time that is).

After I returned from Crystal Lake, my shins were swollen, bloodied, and buzzing from the stinging nettles.  Additionally, I was covered head to toe in poison oak oil.  At the flat area above Bass Lake I stripped, while Em watched from a safe distance, then dashed down to Bass Lake where I flew into the water in front of 10 people sitting at shore.  For the next 15 minutes I bobbed in the water and tried my best to rub the poison oak oils from my body and shorts.  The cold water felt nice and soothed my throbbing shins but I worried that water alone wouldn't take the oil off.  Perhaps it wouldn't matter how much I scrubbed since the oil had ample opportunity to get directly into my blood via the open wounds on my shims.

That night, although I was tired, I couldn't sleep.  First, my shins, just below my feet were stinging.  I wasn't an itch and I wouldn't say that it hurt but rather it bothered me enough that sleep eluded me.  Of course it didn't help that something had caused me to have an upset stomach.  After lying in bed from 10 pm to 1 am Em got out the medicine box and administered Pepto-Bismol for my tummy and Lanacane creme (anti-itch, active ingredient: benzocaine 20%, benzethonium chloride 0.2%) for my legs.  The creme worked right away and after an hour on the toilet I was ready bed.  Yet sleep still eluded me until 4 am and then lasted only 90 minutes.  The next morning I realized the third reason I couldn't sleep, Ben and Jerry's ice cream.  After dinner I had finished off a pint of "Vermonty Python", first ingredient: coffee liqueur.

However, the good news is that, as of the Monday after the trip, I don't appear to have contracted any poison oak whatsoever.

Click here to go back to Bass Lake

[ Home ] [ PJ ] [ Adventure ] [ Backpacking ] [ Food ] [ Events ] [ Projects ]