Wild in the Headlands

Sounding my barbaric yawp

We are so far from home, so far in time, and miles from where we began this trip with a six-week stay on Cape Cod. It is surreal to this wayfarer. For it seems another lifetime ago that the three of us crossed the Breakwater to reach Long Point on the farthest reach of Cape Cod and relished in the bracing winds and bright sunshine. Our legs, lungs, and spirits are more robust these days as we trek on the opposite side of the country across the lush and steep hills of the Marin Headlands on the northern side of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Back on the Cape, we had numerous experiences with coyotes. Now, we hike a loop each morning where we hear them in chorus and sometimes see them. It’s one of the reasons we returned to this area.

Two years ago, I discovered this challenging six-mile loop with the grandest views back to the famous bridge and across mountaintops and over the Pacific Ocean. What stuck with me, though, was the way we were greeted by ghostly howls of a tribe of coyotes unseen i…