Camping on Angel Island...

An awesome 36 hours...

Charlene and I and a couple of good friends just came back from one of the coolest camping trips ever. Angel Island, in San Francisco Bay, has a handful of campsites you can walk in to. We spent Friday night at one, and except for some park rangers we had the island to ourselves...

We hiked about 2 miles from the cove where the ferry lands (backpacking lite, with wine). On weekends the campsites are much in demand, but there were no other campers yesterday. We had the usual ingredients for a good time...friends, food, good weather and a beautiful spot.

BUT, what we hadn't anticipated, having only hiked and picnicked there before, was the surreal and oneiric experience of sitting in our campsite on a quiet and rustic slope and simultaneously seeing the intense urban vista of the Bay Area spread before us. Especially at night. There we were, cooking our s'mores over the campfire as we looked down on a parade of lighted ferries and tugboats and tankers, while beyond them the gazillion city lights of Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco blazed. And yet it was dark enough for us that the stars shone quite brightly. This poor picture does NOT do it any justice...

If someone asked, "What did you do on your trip?" I'd have to reply, "We mostly just stood there and stared in awe." I can't imagine there are very many places in the world where one could do something like this.