Masked Bandits!

We woke up early again, so we headed out early again.
We had plans to visit Fort Ross State Historic Park, but it wasn't open yet. I did get this nice photo from over the fence, though.


You can read more about Fort Ross State Historic Park here

On our recent back roads trek, we discussed our desire to do more backpacking again. So, we have decided to start off small by trekking through the Point Reyes National Seashore.
We stopped at the Ranger Station to reserve our campsites for the week and get a detailed map of the park.






Tonight, we'll sleep at Samuel P. Taylor state park, just east of Point Reyes National Seashore. While we are here, we'll prepare our packs and routes. It is also our last opportunity for a shower for the next 4 days!

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Well folks...
It's freakin' 2 o'clock in the mornin here at Samuel P. Taylor State Park. Richie and I have been listening to raccoons screaming and climbing on some unsuspecting campers' car probably eating all their food. Silly campers - there are food storage lockers all over the park. There are even signs everywhere warning visitors about raccoons...
Oh, wait - those unsuspecting campers are us!!!!!

It's my fault... I drove the car today. It was a warm day and I wanted some fresh air, so I had a small crack in the window.... and I forgot to close it before we went to sleep.

Ugh... I feel so violated!
We spent most of the afternoon daylight packing our backpacks for tomorrow's start of our 4-day backpacking trip.

We divvy up the gear equally - Richie carries the tent, camping stove, and fuel, while I carry the food. There are 2 small bags of food - one for fruit and another for bars and trailmix. I didn't want to put the food in our packs yet because I didn't want anything to get too squashed, so I put the food bags behind the passenger's seat in the car.

The masked bandits were probably plotting since 4pm.

It was a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who hops in the car... They must have coerced the smallest guy to jump on the hood of the car, walk across the windshield, and climb down into the 2-inch crack on the driver's side.

Maybe it was his first burglary... a thief in training...

Whoever he was... he managed to grab hold of the bag of bars, drag it from the backseat and into the driver's seat. From there, he attempted to pull the bag out of the car through the crack. It was a good attempt. The bag-o-bars was half-way through the window, but the end was a little too fat to fit completely through. So, the little boogers just ate the bars through the bag.

Thankfully, they didn't get into anything else.
They did, however, leave little paw prints across the windshield and car seats, along with thousands of crumbs.



We spent the morning at the grocery store replenishing the 4 breakfast bars, 6 cookies, and a bag of trail mix.

We also splurged and shared a cup of coffee and a fresh-out-of-the-oven coffee cake from the Bovine Bakery across the street. A well-deserved and soothing treat after the Zoro swarm.