A Place to Lay My Head in Marin County, CA

NOVEMBER 25, 2012

"'Hey mister can you tell me,
Where a man might lay his head?'
He just grinned, 
and shook head.
'No' was all he said."
- The Weight, by The Band  

It was not looking so good only an hour ago.  I drove through west Marin County naively thinking there would be plenty of camping since the area is mainly undeveloped.  There was a private campground asking $43 for a tent site.  A few years earlier, a younger more broke version of me drove through the area during severe flooding and found a spa to stay at for $240.  It was a good bit of money, but all things considered not a bad deal.  But $43 for a patch of grass for 7 hours?  I just couldn’t do it.  Pressing on to the small town of Inverness, California the kid behind the counter of the coffee shop confirmed there were several established campgrounds just down the road.  With that information in hand I hung out reading until the coffee shop closed and then headed into the park to find nothing but No Camping/No Overnight Parking signs.  I’m still unclear if he was unknowledgeable or just f’ing with a tourist.  As a last ditch effort I returned to civilization a few miles back and started googling on my handheld.  

 And that’s how I landed at the hostel in the Point Reyes Nation Seashore.