Wildcat Canyon and Ridge Trail Hike

SUMMARY: Paradise on earth! With views!

After the trial, we drove halfway home and spent the night with my cousin and her spouse in their beautiful home (drat, I keep visiting people with these beautiful homes, and keep coming back to my messy place! Must fix!). He cooked us a wonderful Moroccan-style fish and carrots meal in a Moroccan terrine. We ate it with fresh, heated olive bread. I was so stuffed that I didn't have room for the amazing fruit salad. (But we finished it off the next day for breakfast and lunch).

(He claims he's from Wisconsin, but I'm suspicious about the accent.)

Tika, Boost, and Jamela (Arabic for "beautiful") hope they get some of that dinner, too.Photo by Simon

I slept soundly in a truly comfy bed with nice, thick covers. Sure, might be record-highs for this date in the middle of the day in the sun, but still winter temps at night.

My cousin and I got up bright and early to hit the trail around 8. Probably really headed out closer to 8:30 with various things like me forgetting to switch into my hiking boots and having to go back for them.

The day was perfect. Nominally approaching 70F, with a tiny breeze and very slight overcast. Sunny but warm but cool, if you know what I mean. Absolutely perfect hiking weather, so even on the uphills we didn't overheat, yet didn't freeze when standing still.

The hike showed about 8.5 miles (13.7 km) on my pedometer; best I could map it in mapmyrun.com was about 7.9. Reality most likely somewhere between. (The numbers mark their calculated mileposts.)

We started at about 170 ft (52m) above sea level and got as high as the 1057-foot (322 m) highest point on the ridge, so an excellent workout. Our route took us up gradually, so there were only a couple of short sections where I started to get out of breath.

The one weird thing of the day was that, partway up the trail, my nose suddenly started bleeding. I wasn't working that hard, hadn't bumped it or blown it. Just suddenly blood running down my lip. Fortunately it stopped pretty quickly and didn't recur.

Leave it to the Lab to find a really good gopher hole.

Boost likes it, too.

Jamela's tail never stopped wagging the whole hike.

The trail beckoned and the dogs and we let ourselves be drawn in.

Cousin and I froze midstep as the Lab suddenly ran (not jumped) halfway up this tree, decided it was dull, and turned and went on. She said, "She's never done THAT before."

The one rough spot was crossing the creek; had to scramble down rocks on one side and up rocks on the other. Creek only 3 feet wide with a solid stepping stone in the middle.

In a couple of months, this will all be foxtails, but right now, dog heaven!

Looking ahead up the trail and noticing suddenly...

Ack! That's Boost rolling in cow plop! Tika later found a special pile of her own.

The views amazed me. Such a beautiful walk along the ridgeline--a Labrador in a meadow. [Wags tail]

We could see for quite a distance in several directions. The dogs never looked tired.

They came back to us only when we called.

Ellen and Dawn, happy happy happy!

All along the ridge, we got different views of the Golden Gate Bridge. A little hazy, but still easily identifiable above Angel Island.

Oh boy! More gophers, even at 900 feet elevation!

Dig them out! [Wags tail]

Can you hear me NOW? [Wags tail]

Happy happy muddy lab. [Wags tail]

We saw several other hikers, many with dogs both on and off leash, and a few cyclist. Then this pack of about a dozen came through. The red shirts against the green grass was a real eye catcher; too bad I didn't get my camera out in time for the biggest group of red.

(And I wonder whether the red shirts were the ones who all died on the steep downhills while Captain Kirk fought off the insidious alien intelligence.)

Panorama wrapped around us, from about the Bay Bridge in the south almost to the Carquinez bridge to the northeast.

We felt like we were strolling across the top of the world, or in our own hiker's heaven.

I couldn't get over how beautiful it was up there.

Another view of  Alcatraz (leftmost small island, San Francisco (to the left of the bridge), the Golden Gate Bridge, Angel Island, and above it, Marin.

What are those specs down the ridge trail there? Oh, yeah, dogs investigating gophers or cow plops.

The Oakland Bay Bridge

At the beginning of the trail, the park had posted this warning. Folks, this is what leads to off-leashing being prohibited. Try harder!

After a truly excellent hike.

An interesting gate across one yard.
When we passed it the first time, there were excited barking Collies. Not there coming back, but up in the hills we saw people and a pack of Collies off the trail down by the stream. Coincidence? I think not.