Cold and Sunny

SUMMARY: Who could ask for anything more for a calorie-burning hike?

Updated: Dec 19, 4:15 PM PST, more photos from Steve and a bit more text.

Today I rose before the sun was over the horizon--and it was 7 A.M.! Jeez, I'm ready for those long, lazy summer days again. Only 4 more days until the longest night of the year, and then gradually daylight will win once again.

Frost covered my back lawn still at 8:00. Brrr! What was I doing up and dressed on a Sunday under those circumstances without any agility on the horizon?

Hike!

But the sun was out and the skies were clear, so actually perfect hiking weather. The Merle Girls and I met another agility friend and her dogs and two other friends at 9 at Santa Teresa Park.


We started a bit bundled up.

Although here we are just a mile or so along the trail and Cheryl's jacket is off and my fleece is already unzipped (I took my hat off for the photo).

But by the time we'd done our 1000-foot climb to Coyote Peak in the sun, even with the cool temps, we were pretty stripped down.

The views were nice, but quite hazy and still mostly late-summer golden brown; haven't had much rain so far.

Still, looking south, this really caught my eye:

Our final tally was: 7.1 miles (11.4 km), 1400 feet (427 m) cumulative elevation gain...with lots of up and down...

...lots of fun...

...no sightings of deer, boars, quail, or coyotes, and exactly one wildflower:

And, at the end, the mandatory scouting for ticks. (A bunch on Boost, none found on Tika.)

Oh, and I updated our "Coyote Peak Portraits" with the latest (link above).

(And the photos from Steve's camera, for posterity, are here.)