hiking

A sunset to remember

We hiked Mission peak yesterday. We don’t have a count anymore for how many times we go to Mission peak or to PG&E and black mountain these days.

The hike was to start at 7AM but because outside temperatures dropped to almost freezing, it was postponed to 1:30PM start.

Given I did not get the memo from wife early enough, had done back to back hot yoga double on Friday evening to make up for missing Saturday.. When I found out the hike was in the afternoon, went back to yoga at 8AM in the morning.. why waste the opportunity?

After 3 classes in 18 hours, was still hydrating (do a decent job of it) when we did the hike. Took an extra 20 minutes given it was still very cold and windy but managed to do the usual “one step at a time” routine when things got tough. There was a huge crowd at the top and we did not wait to get pictures at the pole but as we came down, nature put on quite a show for us. The sunset and colors were just gorgeous!

Photos here..

A video highlight..

Came back with really tired legs, but all good now. Have done yoga again this morning and that helped.

Most Mission peaks are the usual affair.. this one was made special thanks to the sunset!

One last hike to wrap up 2025

We did do one last hike yesterday evening to wrap up 2025 right after coming back from Bora Bora.

Walked to the highest point in this area, Maisies peak. This year we did do some hiking but not anywhere close to last year.

Glad we did because today was all rain as will be the next whole week. It is bajji and chai time!

Savoring these small bits of happiness when we go up a local peak and drink chai.

The Ang Ka trail to highest point in Thailand

The previous post in this series is here..

After going on the trail to the village, Goy had already got the car to the trail exit. We hopped in and went to another parking spot. Here we were to go on the Ang Ka trail to see the forest inside the top of a volcanic crater. We also got to see the highest point in Thailand which was within this park. There was a memorial for the king who used to hunt wild elephants in this park near this spot.

The whole ecosystem with walking birds, a spongy moss that releases water in a controlled way to form streams at the top, moss covered trees, a beautiful walkway with clear explanations.. loved it.

There is a Ho Chih Minh rain forest trail in Washington State in Olympic national park. This must be close to the original.. similar trees but different ecosystem because of the ground moss..

Here are the pictures..

A video highlights reel..

There were a. couple of vista points from which you could see the mountain ranges and clouds. We were ready to go to the next spot within the park. We also told Joy and Goy that we had lunch thanks to lefover breakfast and the to go we packed from Raj Dharbar the night before. We ate in the van while they also had their packed lunch. Then we drove slowly through the vista point areas while I clicked photos from the open window. It was chilly and we did not want to make the cold worse.

We were on to our next and last stop within the park..