Man, “V” is on a roll with planning and leading totally kick-ass hikes. =) Last Saturday was an awesome hike to Mt. Diablo (3849′) and this Saturday we hit Sunol/Ohlone park and hiked to Rose Peak (3817′) and back for a total distance of 20.1 miles.
We started the hike at 9am with “V” true to tradition, laying out his carefully folded map and tracing the route we planned to take with his finger. It’s always good to know where you’re going. I forget shortly after being shown (stupid short-term memory) however it is exciting to know for the two seconds that it sticks. 😉
Hikers (21 of us in all) gathered around "V" as he traces our planned route on a map
I’ve hiked Sunol/Ohlone a number of times and am familiar with the backpackers trail junction however I always start in a slightly different location so when we encountered a trail marker saying “Ohlone Wilderness Trail” which pointed up the hill, I followed even though it was a different path than I thought we would have taken. “V” never leads us wrong, we sometimes just take detours to our final destination. 😉
We had hiked about half a mile up a rather steep set of hills when “V” stopped us to check his map again. Apparently we took the left fork when we should have taken the right fork and were headed in the opposite direction of Rose Peak. Doh! No worries though, at least in retracing our steps we got to go downhill which evenly warmed up our legs for the intense hike we had in front of us. =)
After consulting the map we realized we needed to turn around so everyone packed up their maps and prepared to head back down.
Once we got on the right track it was pretty much power hiking for me until we got to the backpackers junction. We then did a very steep climb for about 2 miles that took us past the backpackers campsites and past the last stop for water before you get to Rose Peak. Along the way I saw some wildlife which was very exciting although I’m sorry to say it was dead. I’m also guessing that whatever ate the upper half of it’s body wasn’t in too good of shape either considering that I believe newts are toxic. Anywho it was cool to see the newt up close (sorry if anyone was grossed out by this picture).
I would have preferred this newt been whole and live however I'll take what I can get (didn't literally take it, just took a picture).
The rest of the hike consisted of hills and more hills. There were very few “flat” spots so our legs got an incredible workout. Oh wait, here’s one. Oh but not really. That was still downhill but it was a slight enough grade to where we could stretch out our legs a bit. =)
One of the few "flat" spots. It was great to be able to stretch our legs on these parts.
Unfortunately I failed to take any pictures from Rose Peak. I was super hungry and my smashed peanut butter and jelly sandwhich (yep, it still got smashed even without getting punched) distracted me from my usual picture taking flurry. One of the guys on the hike took a group photo of everyone which I’m hoping he’ll share. It’s always nice to remember the people you hike with.
Speaking of, it was cool to see and chat with my buddies Ilya, Yin and Jackie and get to know a couple other people better (Michael and Rajesh) who I had met on past hikes but hadn’t had a chance to get to know very well. Michael is a professor at Stanford who has the longest commute I’ve ever heard of. His wife and family all live in Isreal so he travels there regularly to see them. Rajesh works for Sun Microsystems. Rajesh is a swimmer but also smokes so when we ran up a hill to get to Rose Peak within the 6 minutes “V” estimated it would take to get there we were both equally out of breath. Anyway two very cool people who were a lot of fun to chat with and I look forward to hiking with again in the future. =)
After we finished our lunch it was pretty much a race to the finish line. We needed to get back by 6pm since they apparently lock the gates in and out of the park at that time. Fortunately since the majority of the hike back was downhill we made it back in about 4 hours instead of 5. By 5:15 we were passing Little Yosemite so as long as we kept up the pace I knew we’d be ok. I took a second to look back and saw an incredible view of the moon rising over a tree lined hill. Even though I knew my camera couldn’t adequately capture the beauty of that scene, I still had to give it a try. Michael and Ilya both attempted to help me figure out the manual setting on my camera and then gave up. Michael politely suggested I RTFM when I get home. 😉
Taken from the Ohlone Trail as we neared our initial starting point (5:30pm).
All in all this trip was awesome. I got to get out, breathe clean air, work out my legs and chat with some very cool people. I also had some time to hike by myself and get lost in my own thoughts which is always nice. So basically, it was exactly what I needed this weekend. =)
I guess the next trip will be a hike in Big Sur so I’m going to start making plans for that now. Hopefully we’ll be able to start doing backpacking trips as well. I’ve missed the satisfaction of sleeping under the stars after a hard days hike. And yes Ilya I would consider Irkutsk, “V” just has to actually get it on the calendar. 😉
We are working on the Irkutsk part.
Uh-oh, did my bluff just get called? 😉