A sense of completion

We have hiked multiple local peaks and hills and points around Cupertino area since COVID and the resolution to hike every weekend. We had however, not covered the Fremont Older and Stevens Creek preserve in its entireity!

We got a chance to do just that this morning. We covered 10+ miles in 4 hours and went up 1800 feet, all around this local loop.. from our local Regnart Road all the way to Tony Lookout Trail loop. We started before sunrise and went at a decent pace. Came back in 4+ hours including a chai and photo breaks. Definitely one of the long ones this year, but totally worth the effort. 

We got an amazing sunrise view ..

watch the valley still enveloped by fog

and more fog..

this entire area was lush green and the trails were clean and well maintained!

Loving the macro mode on the new iPhone.. this entire thing with the buds and flowers,  is smaller than my thumbnail! 

we went along the reservoir for a nice chai break!

There are a lot of cute little bridges we get to cross on this trail. Everyone of them was beautiful!

when we got back, the fog was still there.. and beautiful

A morning well spent.. and we will do this again someday when we feel like going on another 10+ mile hike. My legs felt the effort from the morning that I took a long nap after! 

A beautiful hike for spring or winter! 

Russian Ridge and Borel Hill sunset

We changed hiking plans for this week to the afternoon.. as it was expected to be a great sunset! 

The hike to Borel hill on a roundabout route through Russian ridge on the ridge trail is a little over 7 miles. It is a moderate hike compared to our other recent hikes! 

Saw the sunset from the Borel hill summit and the skies were just amazing!

Then we made a race to the parking lot. Couldn't feel our fingers on the way down.. I couldn't even click photos on the iPhone as my fingers were numb with the wind. Made it back down just before they close the park gates. 

Here are some photos and panos..

There were no park benches at this summit.. so we used the sign post for our "viewing our future" photo.

We celebrated the summit with some chai !! This hiking group rocks !! 

You get the most amazing views of the bay area from this point! You can also see Black mountain right alongside.. but the view from this point is better in my opinion!

the way up was a interesting.. there was not much shade for the most part.. the sun was on our head the entire time.. we picked a less sunny day for this hike which ended up a good move!

A picture that is typical of the group.. me trailing the rest of the pack by 500 feet or so.. 

Strongly recommend this for an afternoon to evening hike! 

There is another vista point that is not part of this loop at Mindego hill trail.. we skipped that today as there was not enough time.. that will be explored another day.. we did cover the Ancient oaks trail and Charquin trails today.

An evening well spent!

Black Mountain... for real!

Last week, San showed me the trailer for Black Mountain by going through a shorter hike from a higher starting point in Montebello open space preserve. 

This week the hiking group went for the real deal. Start at PG&E and go through Quarry trail to Black Mountain. This is one of the hardest local same day hikes. 

We hiked 14 miles and climbed 3400 feet in 5 hours 45 minutes including a 15 minute photo break at the summit and two five minute stops at the PG&E as we passed it on the way up and down!

This was the first time for me in this group! (San has done this twice already). There was a doubt on our ability to do this in reasonable time.  Even if we were going to take it one foot at a time, the plan was to do this hike. Even though we were tired, the folks were actually happy enough to jump for joy when we got back down! They were all happy for me as I am the slowest in the group. Everytime I see something interesting, the camera comes out and that slows me down further!

Our hiking group has now covered all the top 10 difficult one day hikes in bay area and we are glad we started this activity during COVID! (each of these has blog posts and pictures)

There was no fancy clouds or sunset colors like the other evening, but clear visibility. We could see the sun shine off the Salesforce tower in SFO and spot every landmark from our own Apple spaceship to the SFO skyline.. 

Here are some more pictures!

some panos

There are folks who bike here from the Montebello side!

Our ace photographer friend joined us for this hike and we wanted to get another park bench shot.. this goes in our collection..the best pictures on this bench are when the sun is not yet up! we missed that on the way up.. 

After coming back and getting a 90 minute nap, did a hot yoga class! Still hydrating to get back to normal this morning! 

and a great shot from Raja.. 

Will announce Raja's photo book on the Ranco San Antonio Preserve, once he gets to it!!

Glad we did this hike! The last two miles up was really difficult! Now that we have gone there once, next time should be easier! 

Back on trail

It has been almost two months since I hiked.. It was good to get back on the trails with a short hike to Villa Montalvo.. I have never been to this one but the group I hike with has done this many times. 

Apparently the draw is to watch all the big mansions on the way to the trails. So we parked in downtown Saratoga and walked an extra mile watching all the mansions. Interesting to know that there is a place like this right in our area. 

People say Cupertino homes are large. Ours looks like a small Kudisai compared to any house on this hike. 

we did get a great view from the top. The whole thing was 90 minutes in 5 miles and a steady climb. 

But like I said, good to be back on a trail!

Hope to get back into the weekend morning hiking routine, now that I am back!

Romancing the trail

It is a long weekend. We still have to deal with a kid who needs to be taken care of. That means no long trips. 

We started the weekend off by visiting the Land of the Medicine Buddha in Santa Cruz. Our friends have all been there. We tried to go there last year but it was closed the day we went. Given our friends made it during San's ankle healing hiking hiatus, we finally made it.

It is a beautiful and serene place. There is a 6 mile hike with a lot of inspiring wisdom written on boards. We pass a beautiful prayer wheel before starting the trail and a shrine that is really serene. 

There is a Tibetan feel to the place almost.

We met a total of 7 people and 4 dogs on the 6 mile trail. It is almost a 1000 foot climb and we did it in under 2 hours which was pretty decent by my standards.

The good news is San is back to her usual speed and for once showed restraint to keep up with me. So, we are back to normal! 

There are little mini shrines everywhere.

people have stacked up rocks everywhere on a one mile section of this trail. Was tempted to stack one, but in the interest of time and the fact that there is no cell signal for most of the trail, just kept walking. We had a deadline to head back home or be in cell range. 

It is an hours drive from Cupertino given traffic but it was worth it. The entire trail is shaded and covered by really tall redwoods.

there is a story behind that photo. San finally started taking my photos.. this time she said "I have an artistic touch on a photo.." What she meant was that I was at a fork and taking one path vs. another.. what I saw in the photo she took was my bald spot which is pretty obvious in photos now. I didn't realize this till today! It has been some time since anyone took a shot of me from the back at this angle! 

I questioned her artistry.. and the trail became very silent for some time.. Then we laughed and kept going.. that is how magical this place is! 

Think it would be very tricky to visit this place when it rains as there are lot of fallen trees and in places navigating the trail was tricky.We picked a good time to visit!

Loved it! It was an easy hike almost till the end. So definitely worth going with kids and a good start for entry level hikers!