Bear Creek (கரடி சிற்றோடை) trail hike

There are no bears .. or creeks for that matter at Bear Creek trail. There are no view points that go as far as the eye can see either. Giant redwoods everywhere, the sunlight filtering through those trees, moss, ferns and lichens, paths that curve around to add to the mystique, a final loop that has the clouds condensing and making rain on one half of the loop and you walk into nice and bright sunshine on the other half !

A lavender meadow being created by the park authorities on the knoll high up.

We spent this morning doing an 8 mile+ hike in this beautiful place. It is our second visit.

As usual, we did have chai and biscuits after starting our way back.

Here are the photos..

and a video highlights reel..

A morning well spent!

Del Valle Regional Park

It has been a busy 10 days. A quarter of my pre-molar broke off. An attempted filling by a backup dentist saw me eat the filling within a few hours of it being done.

Then a gum infection that has threatened the existence of two teeth, pain, pus, antibiotics, repeated visits to the dentist and staring at gum surgery in the near future.

In spite of all this and pulling out of a conference that I really looked forward to going since November, the last 10 days had their moments. Did manage to finish a 60 day challenge just before all this happened. There was a lot of music in my life, thanks to SIFA and Paadarivom Padipparivom. To add a highlight to this, yesterday the hiking group pulled me into an almost 9 mile hike.

Had a bad cold the previous night but was giving a lot of support from the group and they said “you have hiked with us in worse condition. So this is not an acceptable excuse!”.

We left Cupertino at 2 and reached Livermore a little after 3 PM. Started hiking right away. We finished and came back down by 7PM. We did have a 15 minute Chai, Cookie and Vazhapoo Vadai break at the top.

It was nice and sunny and the sun was beating down on us. There is no tree cover for this hike.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially it was a struggle for me with the stuffy nose, but once it cleared off, enjoyed the East Shore trail.

Here are the pictures..

and here is a highlights video reel..

We will most likely to on another trail in this same park next winter..

Mt. Diablo from the south gate

We hiked to the summit of Mt. Diablo for the first time 5 years ago for Valentine’s day!

The next trip to the place was not for the summit but the waterfalls around the mountain via Mitchell Canyon trailhead. Given my fall during that trip and everyone associating me and Mt. Diablo with that drama, was always wary of going back again.

This weekend San’s friends decided to go hiking there and we joined in. Left Cupertino at 5:25AM and started hiking at 7AM from the south gate. It was a short hike from the school parking lot area to the south gate trail head.

We came back at 1:40 in the afternoon. Had a 20 minute stop at the top for snacks and another 20 minute stop earlier near the rock city restroom area while going up.

Had a lot of fun talking music mostly with San’s teacher. The highlight for me was listening to her sing in the confines of the tower at 4000 feet.. Her voice soared and made it feel like 40000 feet. A truly gifted and skilled singer. She just launched into song after all that hiking. Link to that insta here..

Here are some pictures.. the other funny part was meeting two guys who joined the extended group as “prep” for Everest base camp. They said they were going as part of a college group in March.. My first thought was which college from India will have guys crazy enough to do this in March.. on a hunch I asked and sure enough they are my juniors. They were freshmen when we were seniors. For the record (this is for the benefit of my buddies), I did say “murga ban saale” as soon as they mentioned it. I have matured over the ages.

Thanks to being in the middle of a 60 day challenge, when I sweat, it is profuse. End up changing shirts through the hike ! The views were not as gorgeous as last time because of the fog rolling in. Even on our way back it was still foggy. Still enjoyed this hike thoroughly.

Here is a short video..

Now that Diablophobia is cured, will most likely hike this again..