Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus (A GeoEx eBook)

Wanderlust in the Time of Coronavirus

October 8, 2020

LOST & FOUND: A PILGRIMAGE TO POINT REYES

Editor’s note: This column describes a pilgrimage I made to the Point Reyes National Seashore, and particularly to Point Reyes Station and North Beach, on Aug. 12. The column was scheduled to be published on Aug. 19. Three days before that, sparked by a series of lightning strikes, wildfires began to burn throughout Northern California. Among the regions affected was the Point Reyes National Seashore, where remote mountainside forestland was blazing and the settlements of Bolinas and Olema were threatened. The Point Reyes fire was eventually contained, almost seven weeks later, and happily, the fire did not reach the towns. But more than 4,900 acres of beautiful forestland were burned and blackened. We love and honor this area, as we love and honor all the areas in Northern California that have been devastated by recent fires, and at first, we postponed publishing this piece, feeling that it was inappropriate to present at that time. Earlier this week, however, I decided to revisit Point Reyes Station and North Beach, to see how these special places had fared. To my great delight, in Point Reyes Station, the air was clear, the sky was a robin’s egg blue, and the people walking the streets, shopping at the Palace Market, and dining convivially on the patio at the Station House Café were smiling and laughing. North Beach was as wild and wonderful as before, and as I

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