state parks

A long gap

It has been a month and a half since I blogged about any hiking or trails.. We did go on three trails.. one a little strenous and two were more little walks than serious hikes. 

I started a new job during COVID times and that has been an interesting transition in itself. Still for a guy who always posts something every week, it has been odd not to go type anything. 

Well, here we are. Things have not been easy as every day we wake up to news of someone passing away in India from COVID in the last few weeks. It is not unknown people anymore this time around. So did not feel like writing anything. Sometimes if you have nothing postive to share, silence is golden!

The three hikes we went on were a walk to Mori Point in Pacifica to see the sunset, a short stroll in Quarry Trail in Saratoga (which was 15 minute drive from home and a rather short but intense climb to see the valley from a nice vantage point) and the last one to Little Yosemite in Sunol area after a rave FB recommendation from a friend. 

Here are some pictures and a slide show from the three hikes..

a picture that sums up sunset at Mori point..

A early morning foggy view of silicon valley from Quarry trail hike..

Sunlight coming through the lone tree on an otherwise barren landscape in Little Yosemite trail

A watering hole on Little Yosemite trail for cows that made for a reflection photo spot..

Views of the reservoir from the top of the hills..

Mori piont was amazing. The flowers, the swing at the end of the trail, the sunset, the moon rise, it was something!

 

Little Yosemite would have been more fun if we had taken the opposite route on the trail. We went on the hike up the hill first and then came to the falls that is only a mile from the parking lot. It was a long hike without a clear path in most places in the barren heat.. the falls ended up being too crowded because by the time we headed back, it was a lunch picnic spot. Lots of folks without masks. So we just kept moving to the car and drove back. (this was almost 3 weeks ago). 

Since then any attempts to go hiking have been put on hold. The yoga studio has opened with a lottery system. I have been lucky enough to get through a dozen times in the last month and that is good. It is still not open anywhere close to capacity and hope the day arrives where you go and walk in and don't have to be lucky to do hot yoga. I could always do it at home with the space heater, but once you go to the studio a few times, it becomes harder mentally to fire up the space heater. When there was no studio, the space heater was a blessing. That shows I have a lot more yoga to do to treat the space heater and yellow walls with the respect they deserve! 

It is just a question of days before we go back to office again and that means things get even more interesting with time management, lottery management etc. My hiking shoes may have seen their last days for some time to come. If there is one thing I would choose between doing Yoga and hiking, it is always yoga. Sitting still is something that I have to work hard for and I plan to keep trying my best to do that!

Hope this post brings me back to blogging about things on a more regular basis!

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!

Happy Valentines day

Valentines day, celebrated with another hike. We have managed to do what I call the "grand slam" of Bay area hikes.. of the 4 tallest peaks (Umunhum, Hamilton, Tamalpais and Diablo). 

We started at the State Park entrance parking lot (don't forget to take 10$ cash for the parking!)  and hiked up 2500 feet, 8 miles round trip over 3.5 hours. There was plenty of photo stops and a good 15 minutes spent at the summit tower. We got beautiful views of the area. Given the hour drive each way, the entire day has gone for this hike. 

There was a quick packed lunch in picnic tables right at the parking lot before driving back. 

Those were the Valentines photos.. She got a good hike with her hubby in tow.. I got some amazing photos.. win win situation!

This is a 300 degree Pano shot from the center of the summit tower.. 

Got a few panorama shots today that were pleasing 

One of my favorite photos from the day

Today was perfect. It was cold but not very windy. The sun was behind clouds and we were walking in a mist for the most part. It was not a strenous hike given we took 4 or 5 breaks of 5 minutes each after every steep section to take pictures. 

The rest of the pictures are in this slide show..

 

Could not have asked for a better way to spend the day!

Once again, wishing everyone a happy Valentines day!