Sanborn Park and Peak point

Another weekend and another local hike. This is the first time I am going through this trail in Sanborn in Saratoga (San has visited it many times before).

It was a good day to hike. We did the 8.4 mile hike in 2 1/2 hours and still had enough stops for pictures and selfies!

Good thing was the vistas every 30 minutes or so! 

There must have been some dust on the iPhone camera.. got these weird rays in most pictures that made them interesting!

as long as I keep walking, San keeps smiling! Should really make sure my knees, ankles and hips are in shape for as long as possible! 

Loved the morning hike! We have slowly but steadily covered a lot of the trails in the Saratoga-Los Gatos area. More to come..

A decade of practicing anything..

Exactly 10 years ago, my MIL and me walked into the old studio of BYSJ to do our very first hot yoga class.. it was not "bright and early".. more like "dark and cold".. but early it was at 5:30AM.

Over the years it has been a journey filled with little joys, frustrations (mostly in the early days of practice) but mostly realization of what this body and eventually mind can do and how things are connected.

Practicing yoga is the one thing I could always count on to bring me a level set every day, no matter the other circumstances that weigh in.

My MIL does yoga at home (whatever yoga works for her) and I have stuck to Bikram Yoga for 10 years now. Have tracked the classes, my weight after coming home (or walking to the bathroom now that coming home after yoga has been reduced to a 30 second thing!) and have been doing yoga very regularly. It has been 2259 classes as of yesterday and hopefully tonight we get to round it to 226 classes a year. 

The teachers tell you to practice at least 4-5 times a week and that is about there. 4-5 times a week. 

I cannot tell you enough how good this practice has been for me. It is my sincere wish that more people pracice yoga and practice regularly.

My MIL has not been fortunate enough to practice in the latest BYSJ studio. She showed up here on March 13th last year and the studio closed on 16th. We did get a chance to go see the studio, thanks to BYSJ!

 

Cannot wait for the doors to open again and soak in the heat and humidity! 

Today also happens to be Maha Shivarathri, a day for spirituality and a special day that brings back so many memories for me personally. The fact that the 10 year yoga anniversary fell on Maha Shivarathri made my day! 

This photo was taken last night by San of me doing yoga..

Incidentally, my first yoga blog post 10 years ago was about being able to do this pose with some semblance to what it was supposed to be. I could not grab my feet for the first 9 days. Finally managed it on the 10th day! 

It is a lifelong practice.. just getting started.

Wishing myself and the MIL a very happy Yoga anniversary and a happy Shivarathri to all of you!

A heartfelt thanks to BYSJ and all the teachers for the yoga and everything the yoga has given us!

Maple Falls

It has been an interesting two days.. First a day of meetings that kept me low on sleep, followed by a visit from friends to watch the India-England Cricket match. 

Was watching the game past midnight and was reminded by San that we are going to be driving at 6-ish to go on our trip to Maple falls in the Forest of Nisene Marks State park. 

It was a great day, given it rained heavily last night. We drove for an hour and ended up starting our hike earlier than planned. 

Given this is our second time in this park, we made it past the familiar part very fast and ended up crossing the last tricky part of the trail (if you can call it that) to see the falls.. 

The last hour was challenging given we are just going across rocks along the stream. Think it is time to buy those sticks everyone is carrying.. in the absence of sticks, your option is to literally sit on rocks and get your pants and gloves dirty!

Finally when we got to the falls, all that was forgotten!

The falls was beautiful! I also got to walk on a log far from the falls, to be able to take pictures of the girls.. (it will be one of my best shots which will never make it to the blog). It is dangerous to be photographing from a log.. in an attempt to move a bit to get a better shot, I almost fell down.. good thing I was only 5 feet from the ground, but it was a wake up moment for the morning!

Here are some pictures from the day!

Was very disappointed to have gone 0.5 miles to the falls and turn back because of the slush and fallen trees in Jan, but made up for it today!

This park is amazing, but for now will go to other places of interest before hititng it again! 

Right now is the perfect time to go see this falls. there is enough water and the weather is great! Parking on the other hand is a different story altogether. If you get there early, you get parking! 

Strongly recommend this one for a half day hike!