May, 2009:

The other day we hiked from the Pacifica trailhead to Montara. We reached the “saddle” 2 miles up at the top of the hill where the fabulous views of Pacifica, San Francisco and Marin are visible. Just down a short path on the ridge to the West is a bench carved with “Bob’s Overlook”. This junction has a marker post directing you to several other trail adventures. Most are used by bicyclist which makes the paths very narrow.

Just as we reached the top hill, a man came running down from the ridge overlook towards us and headed down the trail towards Montara. Not unusual in itself except that the man was naked. He did have some cloth which we assumed was a pair of shorts that he was holding in his hand and used as a cover for the front of his lower body as he passed us. Yes, he did have running shoes on.

Within a few minutes, we passed several bicylcle riders that thought we were joking when we asked if they had seen a nude black man run past them. We assumed he came up from the Grey Whale Cove parking lot and had been at the nude beach. However, we also remembered the news story from last week that talked about the Germany nude hikers invading Switzerland. The Swiss have now banned nude hiking so we wondered if the Germany hikers had discovered Montara Mountain.

Let us know if you have made any interesting sightings on our local hiking trails. We wouldn’t discourage the shy from hiking or bringing their children. The amazing sites you see of the Tunnel Project, the dead car graves, spring flowers and city views are always a treat on Montara Mountain.