Dragon Mountain hike

In what seems to be an eternity ago (in reality exactly two weeks), a bunch of us hiked Dragon Mountain aka Thien Long Song in Milpitas. We never knew about this place till some recent facebook posts. It is not a tough hike or a long hike, but an amazing hike. All said and done we walked or hiked 2+ miles from a parking lot at the base of the hill instead of driving up all the way.

It was peak allergy season and I had a 102 fever the previous day and had actually come home from work early to lie down after taking Tylenol. I was sold on “prayer” on a mountain. When we got to the base and started walking (mask on) I was not exactly sure what the prayer was for.. my cold to pass or for me to pass on to the next world with the Buddha.

The sunset did not disappoint though. After huffing and puffing through the mask, somehow I felt better on the way back. It was either that or the maggi noodles I made to cheer myself up after reaching home. Maybe it was my wife and her happy smiling face. Either way, a win-win.

Here are the pictures. San was very happy that I did not protest too much and went with the flow.

More photos..

A very short video highlights reel

Definitely recommend this place for a sunset view.. It is not that far away. So if you expect a lot of clouds and a glorious sunset, drive up and start hiking..

A fantastic hike at Coyote Hill Regional park

This morning we started early and drove to Fremont to hike in the Coyote Hills regional park. This was a last minute decision, late last night. Was happy to go on a new hike. The day and location did not disappoint.

We saw turkeys, ducks, geese, a lot of different small birds, deer, rabbits.. there were also a ton of mosquitos, gnats, butterflies, caterpillars, and other insects that we did not know that made the hike interesting.

The scenery was great. We parked on the other side of the street from the entrance and walked. We did not have a day permit and the booth wasn’t open that early. It was flat terrain for the most part and then the ladies declared that a hike has a two hill minimum! we ended up through 4 or 5 before coming back.

Loved this hike! The pollen and. insects did make it challenging. Next time hat with nets, Deet and this will be even better. Going to grab the SLR with the zoom as well. The birds were colorful but the iPhone could only do so much.

Here are the pictures.. starting with “Mr. Dilwale and Ms. Dulhania”

More pics in portrait format..

A video highlights reel.

Definitely recommend this place for an early morning half day hike. Just beautiful!

Del Valle Regional Park

It has been a busy 10 days. A quarter of my pre-molar broke off. An attempted filling by a backup dentist saw me eat the filling within a few hours of it being done.

Then a gum infection that has threatened the existence of two teeth, pain, pus, antibiotics, repeated visits to the dentist and staring at gum surgery in the near future.

In spite of all this and pulling out of a conference that I really looked forward to going since November, the last 10 days had their moments. Did manage to finish a 60 day challenge just before all this happened. There was a lot of music in my life, thanks to SIFA and Paadarivom Padipparivom. To add a highlight to this, yesterday the hiking group pulled me into an almost 9 mile hike.

Had a bad cold the previous night but was giving a lot of support from the group and they said “you have hiked with us in worse condition. So this is not an acceptable excuse!”.

We left Cupertino at 2 and reached Livermore a little after 3 PM. Started hiking right away. We finished and came back down by 7PM. We did have a 15 minute Chai, Cookie and Vazhapoo Vadai break at the top.

It was nice and sunny and the sun was beating down on us. There is no tree cover for this hike.

Thoroughly enjoyed it. Initially it was a struggle for me with the stuffy nose, but once it cleared off, enjoyed the East Shore trail.

Here are the pictures..

and here is a highlights video reel..

We will most likely to on another trail in this same park next winter..