This weekend, our hike was an afternoon one. We decided to go post lunch and come down before sunset.
Drove to Calero County park (~30 min drive from our place) and started hiking shortly after 2. We did the 10 mile loop around Oak cove, Figueroa and Cottle loop trails in a little over 4 hours.
Guess San is getting bored with the usual bench photo that she decided to add some love to it..
As usual, I was the straggler for the early part of the hike and after some time managed to catch up to the group.
This time there was no falling into creeks..
There were not many people on the trail today. It was pretty much left to us the entire way.
We did have a 15 minute chai and bhajji break... It was pretty windy at places but for the most part the weather was cool and it was partly sunny.
There are a couple of steep climbs that keep on coming, but those were all done on the earlier part of the hike.
San has declared me unfit for future hikes unless I up my game and give up on rice eating. It is a tough ask.. I am currently saying dialogues like "Give me Rice or give me death!"..
Right now the legs are saying "enough for the day!". This is a good trail to hike on a cloudy day! strongly recommend it.
My back is still recovering. That does not stop my wife from committing me to another hike this weekend.
Our planning relies more on weather.com app than looking outside our window.
When I woke up at 5AM to get ready for the hike, I nudged her and said "it is pouring outside! are we still going?" and she says "yes we are" and goes back to doze off.
Comes out after 30 minutes and says "it is not supposed to rain today. so we should go".. I have never seen anyone who thinks the sky should obey the weather app. That kind of faith in anything is hard to see these days.
So off we went. The trail was not hikeable for the first mile. It was pure slush.. and a few people who tried to go ahead of us just came back as they were not in right shoes and were skidding down. We being us... just went ahead and crossed this area. Even though it was still drizzling, foggy and windy, we made it to the top and back. On the way back we probably saw 10 people total making their way up, when we were almost back down. By then the sun also came out, but the trail was still very slippery and muddy.
The "lone cow"
a hilarious video snippet of our morning..
Chai never tasted this good...
Just happy to have made it back without any accident like last week. Usually we do this in 2 1/2 hours. Took us close to 4 1/2 hours today because of the weather and the muddy and slippery path!
Last weekend saw us resume hiking on a serious note.. not the jujube local hikes but a solid long hike in Mt. Diablo to see the waterfalls. We had already hiked to the top as part of covering the bay area hiking grandslam three years ago and this time we wanted to cover the waterfalls.
It was all great till I decided to go to the center of the creek to get pictures of the falls.. and fell into the creek. My head missed hitting the rocks, thanks to the backpack. I am very lucky to be writing this post now. Did bruise my elbows and palms badly and there were a few blood clots that showed up within a few minutes.
San and my friends cheered me up, told me all is well and thanks to adrenalin and waterproof shoes, made it through the rest of the hike. We did slow down a lot because of my fall but made it back in one piece.
Always, always go easy when trying to go over slippery rocks! There was a discussion on how I am not the same young guy anymore who can deftly go over rocks like a mountain goat, and how I should be more careful etc.. Will be more careful, but hopefully will stay carefree.
We did get great pictures.. and as San says, even some cheesy ones.
There is a visitor center where the trail head starts. There is a 6$ parking fee. If you have the app, you can pay from your phone.
We started on the Mitchell canyon road trail head and decided to go counter clockwise to do the hard part of the hike first.
This was the place where I fell into the creek..
After recovering, had to take a picture on the creek side..
There are a lot of small and large waterfalls on this trail. They were all beautiful
we covereted Bruce Lee road, Back creek Trail, Meridian point, Donner Trail and Muricho Road as part of the hike.
The sun made the falls light up!
We got to sit and have tea on a rock with a view of the falls..
The ladies did some dancing here (which I thought was as risky as me clambering on top of rocks to get a photo).. sadly there is no permission for that masterpiece to be shared in this blog!
the long expsoure mode in iPhone comes in handy, given I did not take the SLR with me on this trip. Usually I do when waterfalls are involved.. given I was taking 2 1/2 liters of water and change of clothes, decided to keep SLR at home. The change of clothes was there in case I sweat too much.. luckily it helped after falling into the creek! In case you are wondering "I don't see different clothes?"... I switched one Bikram Yoga shirt for another.. when your wardrobe is full of the same T-shirt.. changes will not be obvious!
we were talking about seeing god in nature and we saw this "black dog" on the mountain side
Zooming in, saw it was a shadow of a rock outcrop that looks just like a god.. sorry.. dog!
Guess it takes ~ 25 years of marriage before the wife decides some PDA is okay. This seems to be a trend among desi women I see in bay area.. either they turn 50 or have a 25th anniversary party and suddenly they decide enough is enough and start wearing tank tops for their jogs and bikinis to the beach and even start holding hands with their husbands in public! If the stats are any indication of what is to come.. I need to mentally prepare myself. You cannot suddenly ask a domesticated dog to go run wild in the forest..
This photo was Photoshopped with two versions of the same photo.. one with Long exposure for the falls and one regular to capture us..
all said and done I am a happy camper..
talking of seeing god everywhere.. there was a "govindaa goooovindaa" moment..
Pay before you start hiking.. or you get a ticket!
A video of all of us crossing the creek 20 times over the hike..
It would have been even better if I had not fallen... but it is what it is. Next time we will go when there is more water and I will be safer walking on rocks!
We decided to go to India on a last minute decision. We covered a lot of ground in 11 days. Also it has been some time since we went to India and jet lag hit us hard. After 6 days we finally got over jet lag, thanks to Maha Shivrathri.
This weekend we decided to start hiking up hills again.. baby hikes.. 5 miles on Saturday and 8+ miles today..
Some pictures to commemorate our getting back to the usual. Our sincere thanks to the hiking group leader, who is becoming an expert at taking our bench photos.... At this point our "bench photo" collection from local parks has crossed a 100..
The weather was amazing this weekend and that also helped!
we also saw some deer, coyote, turkeys and jack rabbits ..not everything made it to the photos..
There are a lot more benches in bay area trails that we are yet to visit..
Wife is already getting tired of this tradition!
The india trip was interesting. Hopefully I get to blog a small piece of it everyday and will be done before Christmas!
My wife, by default can convince me that everything she asks me to do, is going to be good for me.. and fun!
Usually she is right. It just takes me some time after I have done what she has asked me to do.. to realize that it was good and fun.
This weekend has witnessed yet another such event.
We hiked Rose Peak on what was supposed to be a cold cloudy Saturday. We usually hear horror stories from people who have tried this hike. Exhaustion, dehydration, injuries, folks being air lifted by helicoper etc. etc.
It is a very difficult hike with lots of ups and downs and paths where the trail has been cut through by running water (easy to twist ankle or fall) and 90% of it is open with no trees or cover. Doing this in summer would be really tough. That was one reason for jumping at the chance. There are the cows in the early part of the trail. The land has been leased for grazing. Invariably you have to hike around the cows, especially if there is a bull on the path. We encountered two and walked around.
We have been postponing this hike for some time now, trying to wait for right conditions. Our friends wanted to do this hike with us and the weather report suggested a near perfect day for this hike, and before we knew it, there we were packing the hiking backpacks.
When we parked our cars at the trailhead, it started drizzling. Showing me the weather forecast saying "see, there is no rain in the forecast", doesn't make it better when it is actually raining! The forecast was shown as proof that the rain at the start was some kind of anomaly. The rain gods however didn't seem to have gotten the memo from the Weather app folks.
Initially you walk along the creek. We did not see much water but what appeared to be ice or salt on the rocks in the middle of where the creek would be. Being curious, we went down to the middle of the dry creek to check it out. Turns out, this is wood debris that has been mushed to a pulp. This settles and wraps on the rocks like a mesh cloth. Guess this must be how the Egyptians discovered Papyrus!
The early part of this trail we have already been through.. on our way back from the Little Yosemite trail. We got to see the "W" tree again!
This should have been an under 8 hour hike by our usual standards.
Cloudy conditions are always good. We took 2 1/2 liters of water each and drank only a liter or liter and a half. Please note, there is no drinking water available on the trail anywhere!
However, we took 10 1/2 hours!
The big reason was that it was raining for a good hour on our way up. I was wearing cotton track pants (most synthetics give me allergic reaction) and the wet pants made it very difficult.
For the most part we walked the Ohlone Wilderness trail. We have passed by Hawk's nest on our previous way back on Little Yosemite but could not get a "bench photo" because an old couple were having their lunch on the bench. At least that is what I remember... this time we got the photo.
The 32 degrees inshirt from Costco may keep you warm, but is not waterproof either..
Then the rain stopped, but we walked up through the rain clouds and ended up above the clouds. As we walked through the clouds, the visibility was very poor, so we had to walk as a group so no one takes a wrong turn. During this time moisture kept condensing on our face and running into our clothes which was also an interesting challenge.
If you do this hike on a cloudy rainy day, wear all waterproof gear! We saw only two people on the 18+ mile trip. A guy who caught up with us 4 miles in and decided to turn back. He asked us "why would you want to go to the peak in this weather?".. we answered "so we can say we hiked it!'.. He shook his head in disbelief. When we reached the top, a girl ran in. She had come up in half the time and was planning to go down in half the time as well.
At the top, we not find the geological survey marker to take a picture. There was very poor visibility as well. We did sign the six peaks book to show date and time we made it. Had chai and packed sandwiches standing up (no place to even sit as everything was wet and slushy) and started the hike back. Hot chai never tasted so good ! My fingers were freezing and were numb when we got to the top!
It was going to be a race against time as sunset was 4:45 PM and we started at 2PM. Our original plan was to be make it back by 5 latest. However given the ups and downs, we found it difficult enough to come down. We were doing 25 minute miles for the first 5 instead of 15 minute miles like we expected.
One of our friends had just bought new shoes in REI to check them out for a later hike. Turns out the shoe was too loose as well as heel heavy, and it ended up being very painful. She had to use all her will power to walk the last 5 miles. My clothes were still wet. Guess cotton takes a long time to dry, if at all. To top things off, twisted my ankle trying to speed up. Fortunately San had two advil's in her backpack. Took that and kept walking. Trying to compensate for hurting ankle, my hamstrings and ITB pulled up. When 2/4 people in the group can walk only slowly, we knew it was going to be a difficult few hours.
We were treated to a glorious sunset, but didn't stop to take too many pictures. We were really scared of walking downhill in slippery conditions in the dark. Walked as fast as we could.
There was some light till 5:10. The last hour and 20 minutes we walked 3 miles in the dark, with a flashlight and the light in my headband. We managed to avoid stepping on all the lizards and salamanders, as well as frogs and bats on the floor! That also slowed us down.
Did take video clips almost every mile on the way up and down. Here is the compilation..
We were just glad this hike was behind us!
That said, I would like to do this hike again, on a not a partly couldy, cool non rainy day so we can get the views and walk faster. Now that we know the terrain and what it takes, we might do a better job!
For now, I am taking advil regularly and resting to get back to the normal routine.
Sunday, April 7, 2024 at 9:18PM ;)
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