Pleasanton Ridge regional park - Castleridge

This has been a busy weekend with a lot of yoga doubles and a nice hike.. there was also some singing involved! Busy but happy..

The hike was in Pleasanton ridge regional park from the Castleridge trail head. We did an 8+ mile loop which took us ~4 hours. We did good time given it just keeps going up in the initial part of the hike. It was an hours drive almost for us to get to the trailhead and given it was post lunch, starting the steep climb was a slow affair.

We saw a lot of hare, turkey, deer, red tailed hawks and frogs today!

Could have waited another 5 mintues after reaching the top. There was a solitary bench right after we managed to have tea standing up and trying to juggle tea and bhajjis, standing up.

we kept clicking as we walked today!

It was good we didn’t stop much today. Managed to come down before it got dark. As a treat to ourselves, we stopped at Thirupathi Bhimas and refilled four time he calories we burned on the hike in 1/4th the time!

Here are the nature pics from the hike..

There were like 10 frogs that surrounded my feet when getting close to the water to take this shot. Lots of frogs! First time seeing them up close in these numbers!

and a short video highlights reel.

While San and our friends would like to visit this again, I am not. Great trails, amazing views etc.. but there is a section of the trail where one big tree has fallen and there are another 3-4 trees in this section that could fall anytime! Not a big fan of trails which are not maintained well. After a lady lost her life because of a falling tree in our local park last year, very hesitant to go through trails like this!

Did enjoy the hike thoroughly today!

Revisiting Foothill Park after 4 years

The anniversary trip posts have to wait for this brief interruption

Given this is a long weekend, we decided to revisit foothill park in Palo Alto this afternoon. This park is just 25 minutes from our place. The first time we got to visit it was in 2021 sundar72.com/travelog/2021/1/4/a-lost-world-foothills-park-palo-alto.html?rq=foothillwhen covid was still in peak. We were wearing masks and walking.

We went in the afternoon because I had to do two back to back yoga classes this morning. Got an hour and a half post yoga class to get something to eat, drink lot of fluids and join the gang on a 9 mile hike this time.

Parking is available for 6$ right inside the park. We started hiking at 2PM and were out by 5:30. It was pleasant. There was a lot of water in the creek and falls and there was hardly anyone else in the park.

Our little one joined us for this hike as well and that was a bonus..

We caught some sunset colors right when we reached the top. So for a change, a front facing bench photo to start this post..

A gallery of portrait format pics..

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We were also treated today to some amazing Bajji after walking in the cold.. to go with Chai.. our hiking group leader made my day!

A video highlights reel of the hike..

Exhausted after all that exercise all day, but feeling good!

Will definitely recommend this place for an afternoon hike in cool weather!

Mission on a foggy frosty morning

Last weekend there was a plan for a 10 mile hike which got pushed out to a later date. It was a long weekend and I had been a couch potato the entire time. Spent all my time and focus on adjusting the blogsite post moving to Squarespace 7.0 from Squarespace 5.0. It was scary for me to move platforms and there were glitches as things don’t always move smoothly. Was looking for html and css code help at one point and going nuts. A guy by the name of Freddie patiently helped over an almost two week period with his team to support the move. I have been their customer for 12 years, still they understood how this change for the look and feel of my site was important to me and the old folks in India who read it.

San decided to take the little one along to Mission peak for the first time. She had driven from SoCal pretty much non stop on Friday evening and had a day of rest. She was a trooper! So was I having been volunteered last minute the previous night.

We started at 7 and it was Frosty, Foggy and cold. For the most part as we went up it was just the three of us. The crowd started coming only when we were almost halfway down.

In spite of it being that cold, I was sweating profusely as we did good time. Hence the change of shirt after reaching the top!

The little one refused to take a few extra steps to get a better bench photo.. so we had to settle for this zoom in of my ever growing sun burnt bald spot ..

did stop for pictures as Mission hikes always show the same landscapes very differently throughout the year!

the grass was all covered in frost and we could see maybe 20 feet forward at the most.. we were holding hands and walking at one point hoping we don’t run into the notorious cows on this trail!

the highlight picture at the top and the Chaifie on the way down..

The rest in pictures..

A short video clip..

Effectively this was a great morning. Got me out of the funk of blog site updating. Ended up being a turning point for my mood after coming back down!

Here is to many more trips to Mission peak in 2025!