Our colleagues relocated to the area at the end of June. After a month and a half, their expectations failed completely. I’m not talking about the quality of life and work, right now I’m describing the weather. Everyone who moves to San Francisco Bay Area wants to see long sandy beaches with constant sunshine and of course they think the temperatures will not be lower 80 degrees.
But first ocean visit breaks their dreams. Dense wind, 70 in the max, and fog… This summer is colder than my previous two. I wear my socks almost every morning. But I love the fog!

Why I started this talk. Two weeks ago we returned to the Purisima Creek Redwoods with the idea to complete Whittemore Gulch – Harkins Ridge loop.
Majestic redwoods, still green hills, and covered with clouds ocean…

Though the wind was fresh, the sun warmed the skin and made the hike very pleasant. We walked down to the creek and turned on Whittemore Gulch trail. At first I though the nearness of the stream made the air around cooler but with each foot uphill it became, even more, colder.

It was less than mile to the North Ridge Trail when I got what’s happening. Dense fog covered the top of the ridge. Clouds slowly moved on east and covered everything




In a mean time, we stopped to see the trail we came from.

The last portion of the trail before the parking could be finished in two ways. First is a dirt road with a significant uphill angle, and the second – zig zag trail with moderate elevation but on 0.2 miles longer. This time, we were tired and decided to go longer but easier. After the first turn, we saw the blue sky and the whites of the clouds on the horizon. Sun was so bright that everything shined.