I was a bit nervous about this one as it’s rated as “Hard” by All Trails. Starting out, I was somewhat relived, and maybe a bit disappointed because it appeared to be just a washed out access road. But right around the 1/2 mile mark, it split off as a single track. A little better, but still nowhere near “hard”. Finally around Mile One, it started to incline. Not too bad, no granola to speak of, and still pretty tame.

Then I hit Mile Two….

Incline got steeper and the trail more crunchy. Finally getting some sass from this trail!! But “hard”? More like a challenging moderate.

Then I hit Mile Two and a Half…

There’s a small 30 ft section that can be best described as a rock slide that you have to scramble down. It’s not quite vertical, but it does a damn good impersonation! For the next mile or so to the summit is a series of alternating inclines and descents that makes a little more sense to the “hard” rating.

The view from the summit is stunning!! Just gorgeous! And I picked a day of the absolute bluest sky!!

Words of caution: keep your head on a swivel to watch for the trail. It’s very easy to lose it at the clearings. Someone was kind enough to mark existing signs with directions to the summit (there are no official signs for Corte Madera) and even constructed a little arrow made of rocks! Very helpful! Also, if you aren’t a fan of single tracks, sniff glue until you lose all memory of ever hearing about this trail because the tracks are very narrow for 80% of the trail. That said, wear long sleeves as the foliage spills over on the trail.