Black Mountain.. kind of..

It has been two weeks and this blog so no entry! It has been a busy two weeks with Jr. going back to college and me getting cranky to see her go, then the little one's school sends us daily notices to show how many new COVID cases are there in the school (why they can't have started the school after testing all kids after 7th Jan is interesting), then work got all busy and we had a pongal celebration! 

Have managed two hikes so far.. the first attempt ended at PG&E and we did not make it to Black Mountain.

These two photos are from that hike..

The second hike we made it to Black mountain.. but kind of .. instead of hiking 12 miles and climbing up ~2000 feet, we went through the Montebello Preserve and hiked ~7 miles and climbed ~1100 feet. It was much easier but.. the day we picked to do this .. just awesome! The skies were dramatic, there was a slight drizzle on way back and the colors... were just wow! 

I was not feeling great after a heavy dinner the previous night! Was feeling queasy and feverish, but felt better after a long nap. San said we could go on a shorter hike and to make me feel happy about going to Black mountain, one way or the other, took me with her. It is not easy to keep up with her on the way up.. as with everything, we have zero match, even on hiking.. she finds going uphill easy and I find going downhill easy.. so we are always 200 feet away either way.. but we do get photos like this.. 

Here are some more photos from the hike! As long as I am hiking like this and doing Yoga, that in itself acts like a COVID test! 

Always wanted to take a photo on that rock ever since San did it two years ago... the skies made it memorable!

We saw a total of 12 people (not close by) over a 3 hour period other than the 3 people we met and walked down.. The place was pretty desolate.. and it made for an interesting hike.. 

got to see silicon Valley light up for the evening just before starting down..

A couple of panos of both sides from the top of Black Mountain.. 

we kept walking down as we watched the sunset!

We saw a lot of deer grazing on the slopes. This preserve has mountain lions and we wanted to get back to parking lot right at sunset. 

We met a friend and his friends at the summit and walked down with them. Met some new faces and by the time intros were done, we had come down to the parking lot to more dramatic skies. There was a puddle of water near the parking lot.. and this was the outcome!

Sooner or later, will make the 12 mile trip to Black Mountain, right from our neighborhood, through the PG&E trail.. 

For now, it is back to work and getting some more much needed rest tomorrow! 

Sometimes we end up back home! Maisie's Peak

This weekend hiking plan was to go to Rhus ridge. Rest of group has already gone there.. so it was supposed to be a new trip for me. It was 34 degrees out and there was ice on our windshield.. so by the time we defrosted and drove there, the parking lot( which has only 10 spots) was full! This was at 7:15 in the morning in freezing weather. Enough folks beat us to that parking lot.

Then we tried to go to PG&E and that had no parking. So the plan changed again and we decided to go to Maisie's peak. It is in our local preserve. We drove back home, parked and hiked up!

We spent a good 2 1/2 hours hiking, drinking tea at the top and chatting on the way. Next time the plan is to take some samosas to the top and have it with the tea.. and leave earlier.. freezing or not!

Some pictures..

To make it interesting and slightly longer, we went up and down three little lookout points. Maisie's, Hunters and Srisie's point. Word in the local circles is that people used to mistake Srisie's point as Maisie's point for many years. Imagine going to keezh Thirupathi and thinking you have gone to Thirupathi?!  It is a beautiful lookout.. but not the main deal! Thought this blog should capture such special moments..

Enjoyed the weekend morning hike! Need to start earlier and defrost for the next hike!

Until next week...

Pinnacles National Park

Last time we visited the Pinnacles National monument turned National park, was in 2013 and it was in May. We promised that if we ever return, it will be in cooler time of the year! 

Our hiking group has been planning this for a long time and given my new penchant for singing, the trip was interesting for me. I was in a live singing class (more on that later) from 4:30-6 AM and we left Cupertino at 6:30AM and came back at 4PM. The place is almost an hour and 45 minutes away. We climbed 2200 feet and walked for 3 hours with almost an hour for photo breaks and lunch! 

It was beautiful.. clear skies, cool weather and just before it got really hot we were on the way down. 

As a bonus, we got to see three California condors, one at close range.. wish I had lugged my camera bag to capture close ups of the Condor.. these days I am just going with the iPhone.. the conversation and the laughs on the hike are the star attractions as are the views from the top..

Got some artistic shots, thanks to a crappy work phone which has some lens defect!! Still, the laughs were the highlight!

We did get to see the sun rise through the fog as we drove to Pinnacles.. it was amazing.. it was like we were driving into a fire!

the rock formations here are amazing! 

beautiful views from the top..

and we kept going..

we saw three of the condors.. one came within 200 feet and sat on this tree.. Thinking of going to a personal iPhone 13 and have separation of work and home numbers.. if you use your phone for more than work, it makes sense to have one with a better camera!

The condors are amazing to watch in close range! Majestic birds! The way they take off effortlessly and cover distances is a treat to watch!

we were debating the logic of using pinnacles in plural.. maybe it is pinnacles because the top has four or five little humps?! that is still being debated within the group!

giving the finger to everyone in the park... this rock sticks out!

One thing that is not obvious on the zoomed out nature shots is that when you walk on the trail, every rock is very colorful.. it is like walking through fall colors on rocks.. 

The "we were here!" photo..

My cap was wet.. had to make a bandana out of my handkerchief to avoid sweat from going to my eyes! It was reasonably strenous at places because we were stop and go.. to make up for photo break times, we had to walk faster.

Once we get to the scout lookout, it is all downhill from there..

walked past more scenic points..

and to the reservoir trail.. we saw what was possibly the largest natural ganesha in rock on the way down.. pullaiyaar rock rocks!!

the place is popular for mountain climbing.. we watched folks climb.. you can see one in the right on the top in this photo..

after a brief break at the reservoir, we continued down through the bat caves.. 

it was nice and cool in the caves! no bats, but saw nicely camouflaged lizards.

We came out, had a nice lunch at a picnic table and drove back. It was a day well spent! 

A few panoramic views..

and a video of the trip..

Strongly recommend this park for a day trip in fall. If you start early enough, you can have a fun time and be back down by lunch time! Kids can make it too if you go at a steady pace!

Loved it!

Dry Creek Regional Preserve - a winter visit..

We have been to this place before in summer under scorching heat.. (link here) .. Today we got to revisit this trail in the morning fog under more pleasant weather conditions. It is a good 40 minute drive from our place and this time the barren hillsides are all green and the air was fresh!

Loved the hike today. We did fewer stops for photos.. 

Now that San has a challenge shirt, she is wearing it on hikes! I am not complaining.. Jointly promoting Yoga is a good thing...

We got to watch a beautiful sunrise on the way to the preserve while crossing the Dumarton bridge. 

got to watch the cows grazing, there were song birds around the trails and we could hear them.. (none of this was there in Summer but the draw at that time was the flowers on the hillsides)

The family of birds in the water are still there and well.. 

We finished the trail before the sun came out and that was a good thing. There are no trees or shade in this entire trail!

The sky was just gorgeous today with all the cotton clouds. Glad we went on this hike this morning. We spent close to 3 hours walking today and hopefully that has countered some of the Deepavali sweets and savories from the last few days!

It has been a busy week and I haven't managed to do a Deepavali post yet.. 

Have to go back and see how many summer hikes we did where at the end of it we said "we should come back when it is cooler outside!" and start hitting those in the next few weeks..

Skyline ridge trail on a smoky day

Now that San is back to her usual self, hiking program has restarted. This morning the group went to Skyline ridge and went throught the Ipiwa trail after walking along the horseshoe trail. We went to Russian ridge from Skyline ridge and were about to go to the view point, but turned back as the smoke from the north east got to the hills we were walking on. At one point the air quality was making it difficult for us to breathe and we turned back after going half mile from the Russian ridge trail starting point. 

It was still a good 2 1/2 hours of hiking and we had fun chatting all the way..

Here are some pictures, starting with the usual selfies with my girl! 

That is not fog. It is smoke from local fires setting down. Air quality was an issue today!

The best part of this trail was not the lake. It was the view point from the trail where the hillsides were almost 8 different colors with the different plants..

Thank you Gene Sheehan for making this trail! Absolutely gorgeous!

The entire hill side was colorful on both sides of the trail. A great picture spot!

"Suvaru irundhaa dhan chittiram ezhudha mudiyum" is a Tamizh saying which means "without a canvas there is no painting". My neighbor took this shot and she composed it perfectly. All I had to do was crop it and brighten the foreground! 

Almost bald is an inbetween look. I am just waiting for the few hairs to drop off naturally. It is not very far away.

We will probably go to this place from a different parking lot and go through Russian Ridge. We have hit one trail after another on this path over the last year.. Quarry creek, Sanborn, Saratoga Gap, Castle rock, Long Ridge, Skyline Ridge, Russian Ridge.. just a few more left to cover in this area.

The group is trying to get me ready to go to Black Mountain which is a 14 mile hike. Let us see if I can get back to hiking more and make it on that hike!