Presidents' Weekend Sunday

SUMMARY: Climb Mission Peak

Don't I whine about how I hate getting up to an alarm for dog agility? OK, so today it was 5:30 instead of 4:00, but at least I wasn't looking at a 2-hour drive and a long long weekend. Instead, it was time for me to climb Mission Peak for my very first time.

This is a popular hike because of the view and the exercise. It's only about 4 miles to the top, which is over 2500 feet above sea level, and the hike starts at about 400 feet.

This is part of our Bay Area Ridge Trail project. Our original plan was to do a bunch of shuttling back and forth, but Plans Changed at the very last minute.

I drove about half an hour out to Ohlone College to meet everyone at 7:00.

Mission peak around 6:45. It was chilly; not freezing, but the breeze had a bit of a bite.

We were on the trail by about 7:35. Everyone's fresh and rarin' to go: Eight people, 7 dogs (belonging to only 4 of the people).

I take up my usual position at the rear of the pack--not deliberately, but for a variety of dull reasons.

About 2 hours into the hike of steady uphill (fairly gradual, thank goodness), we can actually suddenly see the little pinpoint top of the peak in the distance. Now it feels like we're getting close. Tika and Boost spend their time going back and forth between the lead dogs and checking up on me.

Just before the last steep push to the top--Lo! A picnic table and ***restroooms***! The crowds rejoiced! And the crowds also stood in long lines while the dogs scouted for food.

Then there's the last, very steep, with occasional rocky scrambles, to the very peak. And there are a zillion other people pushing for the top or already on their ways down. As I said, a popular hike.

And here we are, finally, and it's only 9:50! My uphilling muscles were hurtin' pretty bad by now, but I did manage to walk up the last few stones to pose with the Merle Girls at the doohickey atop the peak. (You can look through the little tubes to see various sights.) Beyond me, to the northwest, is the city of Fremont and then the San Francisco Bay, then the coastal range.

We all relaxed for a bit, snacked on our lunches, enjoyed the views in all directions. Off to the east, could actually see the snow-topped peaks of the Sierras out beyond the far range of mountains, but they're almost impossible to see in this photo--that's a long way far off (couple hundred miles?).

Then it was time for... Group Photo! All the dogs are visible but you have to kind of work at it. Today it's a papillon, a smallish mixed breed, four border collies, two aussies, and Tika.

Also, it was time to get moving again. I could see the dogs' breath as they exhaled, so it's still pretty chilly, and all that sweat from the last 10 minutes of steep assent is cold cold COLD against our bodies. But we timed the day perfectly--just as we start down, the sun comes out! (So we didn't have to do the hard hiking in the direct sun.) And it's only 10:15. [I'm looking at the times on my photos, and I thought it was an hour later...but, dunno, the earlier photos have the correct time.]

Going down is very hard, too hard, on my wonky knee, and I get slower and slower and am hurtin' by the end--not great pain, but the knee just isn't working right any more. It takes us almost 2 hours to get back down the mountain as a result. But we make it in one piece, do our verbal high fives, and head home--and the dogs (all of whom covered about twice as many miles as us feeble humans) just collapse and sleep.

When I get home, I discover that I have a nearly flat tire, so the rest of the afternoon is taken up with taking care of that. And then I have to do a few chores and important other things so that I can get to bed and rest up for Monday's adventure.

Almost 12 Miles

SUMMARY: We did it!

UPDATED Feb 1 10a.m. PST: Added two maps at end, link to interactive map, and notes about where the photos relative to the map.

Eight of us--six of us with dogs (for a total of 11 dogs)--met at 9 a.m. on Sunday to hike the Santa Teresa County Park portion of the Bay Area Ridge Trail and the optional Calero Creek/Los Alamitos Creek portion afterwards. The day started on the cool side but warmed up to at least the mid-60s if not near 70. In January! Funny Californians--here and elsewhere, almost with the same breath, we keep saying, "wow, we're so lucky with this weather!" and "wow, we're really in trouble if it doesn't start raining soon; hope it rains."

I was definitely the anchor (as in dragging behind) on this trip, even during the earlier part when I was feeling at my best and on the downhill when I thought I was moving along pretty well. Yup, mostly I saw everyone's backs. We started by going up and over three consecutive ridges.

(Photo A on MapMyRun map (copy of map at bottom of page).)

About an hour into the hike, in the park's central picnic area, we stopped at the human facility and also let the dogs have a rest and a drink.

(Photo B on MapMyRun map.)

Because (a) I was always behind, (2) I've taken so many photos at santa teresa, I hardly snapped any photos this trip. And I was still always behind. Still, looking east as we headed up the final ascent to Coyote Peak, the view of the observatories on Mount Hamilton was pretty clear for such a warm day.

(Photo C on MapMyRun map.)

Atop Coyote Peak--cumulative elevation gain of 1400 feet--we stopped for a variety of photos, including my usual pose with the Merle Girls at the usual place, but I got an unusual ear-kiss from the Booster in the process.

(Photo D on MapMyRun map.)

So here's our official shot, which has joined the others on our Coyote Peak Portraits page (link above).

Here we all are: 4 Border Collies, 3 Aussies, 2 Whippets, a Papillon, and a Craussie.

(Photo E on MapMyRun map.)

Here's one of the few Bay Area Ridge Trail markers, as we head out to the Rocky Ridge Trail to make our way back down.

(Photo F on MapMyRun map.)

Good thing the dogs were all on leash (a park requirement) or I'm sure they'd have all been breaking the speed limit (I let go of the Boost's and Tika's leashes while I stopped for the photo--they were ready to keep going).

(Photo G on MapMyRun map.)

Just another view of the group spread out along the single-track trail on our way down.

(Photo H on MapMyRun map.)

Half of the group split (as in, left, vamoosed, wimped out, headed for home) after the first nearly 7 miles; only four of us continued onto the second half of the planned trip. It was a long day--took us about 5 hours. It took longer than it might have otherwise because I slowed more and more as the day wore on. And, although the last 4.5 miles were completely flat, I and one other were both hurtin' more and more as we went. Over 11 miles in one day was a "stretch goal" for us. First the muscle or tendon on the outside of my right knee started hurting, and I had to slow to a stroll for it to not hurt. Then in the last half mile or so, the outer side of my left ankle started giving sharp pains. I loosened my boot and slowed even more to a very careful casual pace (trying not to limp) for it to not bother me, but I and the other gal were neither of us at our peak happiness.

None of us had ever seen a sign with its Dos and Don'ts with thumbs up and down before. Kinda cool.

(Photo I on second MapMyRun map.)



Even my dogs were slow by then, and again I worried a bit about Tika. But hard to tell--often if she's off leash, she perks up more than if she's trying to match my very slow pace.

I was pretty sure I'd hurt myself and would be ruing the day. But, lo!, Monday came--no soreness, no stiffness. And the dogs were running and playing with no signs at all that they were worse for wear. Tuesday came--still fine! This evening, we walked briskly the 2/3 of a mile to the school where I tossed the frisbee while walking the 1/4 mile around the field, then home again. By then, yeah, I was feeling that my leg muscles had been used and were not at their best, but I still walked home fairly briskly with no pain at all. Very, very good news indeed for my wonky knee and hip.

So I guess those nearly 12 miles in one day were just about the right length to give me a good workout, just past my reasonable limit, which I'm sure has upped my capacity for hiking distance (if I keep it up). It's still the uphill that I don't do enough of.

Tika was the oldest dog on the hike by about a year, and even she at 11 and Surely at 10 did fine for the whole 12 miles. And so did that tiny Papillon! Never flagged at all. Did better than I did.

Here's our route (the part between IBM gatehouse and "Start" is what I hiked and posted photos of Friday morning). We covered about 6.4 miles of Bay Area Ridge Trail. Only another 350  to go.

Here's a (Photo E on MapMyRun map.) ">link to the Santa Teresa MapMyRun section: Interactive, so you can select what type of display and also click the multi-arrow expansion icon in the corner to see a larger version.

Here are screen shots from that map: The terrain with elevations, and a satellite view version, with a chart at the bottom showing the angle of ascent and descent along the 6.9 miles we hiked.

Brand New Trail

SUMMARY: An event and a hike.

One doesn't get to do this every day. But we did on Saturday: Attend the ribbon cutting for a brand-new trail, then hike it. Here we are, looking out over the Santa Clara (aka Silicon) Valley, with the trailhead of the new trail beyond us. (The first three of us are agility friends and the others are, like, normal friends.)

This is part 3 of our goal to hike the entire Bay Area Ridge Trail. Not all of which exists yet, so this is a new 6-mile segment.

It has some gorgeous views of the mountains and of the valley--well, OK, the valley would be nicer if it weren't for the inversion layer trapping all those particles in the air.

A bunch of people spoke at the opening ceremony, people from the Santa Clara County Open Space District, the Bay Area Ridge Trail group, the coastal preservation group, groups like that, who work together to make things like this happen. And the usual politicians. Even a meteorologist. Here's San Jose mayor Chuck Reed--

--and the president of the Silicon Valley Leadership group (made up of CEOs of over 300 local companies, and which has been promoting open space), who rode up the 3-mile, 2000-plus elevation gain road on his bike for the event. Just behind him, you can barely see the domes of the Mount Hamilton observatory on the highest peak.

Here's a map of the area in which we hiked (click map,then click Show Original to see larger version):

For you trail-following fans out there, our route was:

• Get off the shuttle bus on Siera Road where it comes into the Preserve from the left (says "no parking").
• After the ceremonies, walk down the dotted line to the Sierra Vista Trail.
• Go east, following the heavy dotted line up and over the Calaveras Fault trail, down to the old homestead.

• Back across the pale dotted line that cuts west back to the Sierra Vista Trail.
• Retrace our Sierra Vista steps .
• Down the Baccardo loop trail (this is half of my hike from last weekend, from here on down).
• To the North Rim Trail in Alum Rock Park, east to its end (still on the dark dotted line).

I'm deeply grateful to the ranchers and landowners who have donated or been willing to sell their properties or have given easements for trails across their properties. These are treasures beyond reckoning, saved for us and for future generations.

If you want more photos--views, trails, cool-looking ancient cattle breed, old barn, bees in a tree and in boxes, an old treehouse, even a coyote--they're all here. 


FYI, here's the whole Ridge Trail. About 330 miles exist now (solid red); about 550 are planned. (Click map,then click Show Original to see larger version)--also go to http://www.ridgetrail.org for lots more info.)

The part we did is a very tiny piece of the part in the very tiny green bit about halfway between Mission Peak and Mt. Hamilton--we covered about 5 miles of the Ridge Trail (but an 8.5 mile hike over all). So, in 4 months, we've done about 15 miles of it.  Maybe by the time we've gotten around to doing the parts that do exist, the rest will have come into being.

Bay Area Ridge Trail Attack #2

SUMMARY: Hiking with the dogs for a long-term goal.

The Bay Area Ridge Trail is an attempt to link ridge tops allllll the way around the San Francisco Bay with hikeable trails. Some ridges already had trails, but not all of them. The first section was dedicated in 1989 and the list of trails has kept growing; there are now about 330 miles of the 550 planned miles.

One of my agility friends decided it would be a great goal to hike the whole Ridge Trail, one segment at a time (when not off doing dog agility).

We got our first 6-mile segment in on July 31, without dogs (not legal there). That went across the Golden Gate Bridge, up into the hills along the Marin Gate/Coastal Trai, to the SCA Trai, to the Alta Trai, to the Bobcat Trail, to the Marincello Road, to the Tennessee Valley trailhead. (You can download a map here.)

Another 6-mile section opens here in San Jose in October; that might be our next trip.

Today, we did a section on which dogs are not only allowed, but allowed off-leash. Because we did a loop of 9.1 miles, only about 4.75 of it was Ridge Trail, but that counts! At this rate, yeah, it's a multiyear project, maybe even a multidecade project. Maybe the whole trail will be done by the time we're ready for it.

At the beginning, we're all eager and ready to go (can't see The Other Ellen, who's taking the photo...)--Susan, the ringleader, is indicating "2" for the second segment of the trail.

This is my view of the rest of the group as we pass our first trail sign and the dogs will very shortly get to go off-leash, yeah!

Most people don't see The Back Side of Chabot College Observatory.

Even fewer people see Ellen Taking Pictures Of The Back Side of Chabot College Observatory.

Quite a bit of the trail was among second-growth redwoods (meaning at some time in the past, someone cut the huge old ones down for lumber). Here, you can see that Steven is almost as tall as the redwoods.

Not really.

Heading along a redwoody trail.

Guess who!

Kinetic points out the blue Bay Ridge Trail marker. Kinetic walked the whole 9 miles. Never let it be said that Papillons are wimpy small dogs (besides being amazingly fast and agile in agility).

Me, hiking.

The trail sign says "Monteiro," which looks very different from what's on the actual map:

Me: "Hmm, I guess 'Monteiro' is the same thing as 'Montiero'..."
Tika: "I can't believe you're really thinking of taking that trail that goes straight up..."

Uphill...gasp... I haven't calculated our cumulative elevation gain, but it had to be several hundred feet--at least 300 (1200 to 1500) in the first 2 miles, then down down down to what looks like about 750, then in the space of a mile, back up to 1500. So, yeah, I'd say well over 1000 feet cumulative.

Our route was (thanks EllenC -- and you can download a Redwood Park map here):
Skyline Gate
West Ridge Trail
Golden Spike
Then up up up
Montiero
Dunn
Baccharis
back to the West Ridge Trail
back to Skyline Gate

(And thanks to Lisa and EllenC for their photos interspersed with mine.)

Dog Agility Folks Take on the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands

SUMMARY: Wordless Wednesday

(Many more to come...soon, I hope)