Portola Redwoods Park.. after Mount Hamilton

On hot summer days, (this was again a month and a half ago) when bay area was ready for "karudam weather" as some south Indians call it.. we wanted to hike as a group in the shade. 

There were reasons for it. We had made an attempt to go to Mt. Hamilton summit but aborted the attempt as multiple people got dehydrated before we reached the 3 mile mark. Our plan was to leave late afternoon and hike given the trail had no shade. Hindsight being 20/20 this was a bad idea. The last time we had successfully done this was in December in much cooler foggier conditions. So we turned back, drove to the observatory in hopes that we can at least take pictures. The Lick observatory had just closed before we drove up. So we sat near the gate, ate the snacks and tea that would have marked a successful hike and drove back all the way. The few pictures from the failed attempt..

The hikers did want to make up for that by doing another hike right away but in the shade. After some debate on the "most shaded trails" in bay area, we picked this Portola redwoods as none of us had been on this trail before.

Good news? Total shade. Amazing redwoods. Cool throughout when it is reaching 95F outside

Bad news? no views of any kind. No summit. Uniform views throughout. 

the only thing changing in the "bench photos" that are now part of every hike.. is the increasing size of my bald spot.. you can literally track it across bench photos.

We did have a lot of fun with the conversation and as an added bonus some of the kids joined us! 

This is not an easy trail. Would definitnely ask folks with knee or ankle issues to avoid this! 

We did see some interesting things on the way..

Then the ever present redwoods on the trail..

there was a decent flow of water in the creeks, which was an added treat!

A video of the creek and trail.. you can see how serene this place is!

We had a sense of accomplishment after going through this trail to the extent we went. This more than made up for the aborted attempt in Mount Hamilton. Something tells me that we will make another attempt to go around Hamilton in winter. 

One more nice set of trails within a 30 minute driving distance!

Byxbee Park- Baylands Nature Preserve

The knee is healing, but slowly. Every now and then it swells up and I have to give it all the treatments recommended. Still doing Yoga every alternate day or so, and trying my best to do poses that don't end up in sharp pain. Walking has also become an on and off thing. For an active guy, this knee issue has been a curse. My happiness was directly proportional to my step count and yoga attendance. ... and as a saving grace in recent years, music. 

Have been sitting in the same place mostly listening to music or singing. That said, our hiking group leader who is recovering from surgery wanted to cheer up both of us by going on a small "walk" on flat terrain at the local Byxbee park. We have not walked this as it was not a challenge. "It is a walk, not a hike!" was our previous rhetoric. Given walking is now a blessing and hiking is ruled out, we went last weekend. 

What was supposed to be a 3 mile walk ended up being 6.5 miles as we got some fresh enthusiasm watching the birds and the beautiful flowers all along the path. We also had a tea break in the middle of this!

It is good to be back with friends and on any walking path. We start slow.. hopefully the knee improves over time and normalcy returns.

Given the current situation, this was a morning well spent! Next time, will take the SLR and the telephoto lens with me to capture the birds better.. these are all iPhone photos.. 

We did get a lot of "bench photos" for our collection!

A short video clip.. you get an idea of the birds and sounds.. this place was 30 minutes from home. We have never been to this place.. we mostly hit shoreline and back. It was just beautiful.

There was only 20 or so parking spots and we did have to wait for someone to leave so we could park. So go early and carpool where possible! 

Strongly recommend this place for a long "strol". 

A lost world - Foothills Park Palo Alto

Given we are on a hiking spree, I happened to read an article on my google feed about a hiker who went to Foothills park and his first response was anger.. anger that such a beautiful park right in our backyard was not publicised and was restricted to Palo Alto residents only. An ACLU lawsuit had to be won to make this park accessible to the general public, temporarily starting October 2020.. 

Given the access could close, we went to wrap up 2020 with one more hike!

We tried to go a day earlier but the parking was full and the cops turned us back at the entrance. So we tried again the next morning at 7AM before the park opened, found parking and did the entire ~8 mile hike on the one way Los Trancos trail.

We got there before the sun rose behind the hills. This is a beautiful time to get photos because the sun is bounce flashing the light through the clouds and there is a diffuse golden light everywhere.. you don't have to worry about shiloutte effects or underexposed pictures! 

There was a beautiful lake with a pier! My first response after taking a few photos and looking at my camera was the same.. anger.. should have been here before! 

We went on to park near the interpretive center and walked across a slushy field to start the trail.. It was a pretty steep trail through and through and also narrow. It was good that they made it a one way loop. 

It has rained the previous night and there was still a slight drizzle. The colors were vibrant everywhere on the trail and we were treated to water dripping off the moss on the trees everywhere!

except for two small stretches, you are mostly in the shade in this trail! 

The ferns give the park a Jurassic park look and feel. Something unique in all the parks we recently visited!

The moss is also a brighter green in this park!

The bright red wet leaves ground into the path made for good contrast in parts of the trail! 

Then you come to a level clearing where you get views all the way to San Mateo bridges and beyond! 

We walked back down through a dazzling light display through the trees..

An amazing park through and through! Definitely go visit this park before they close the public acecss! 

Loved it..

my technical difficulties still continue.. but Jr. was nice enough to let me borrow her laptop for blog posting! 

Photo time.. birds first

I had all but forgotten about the zoo pictures from the New Year's eve trip to San Diego. Things catch up and before you know it, the photoblog series came to an abrupt end.. or blogging for that matter. 

Was not feeling well last two days but made up for some quiet time this afternoon with photo editing. Here, are the birds that posed.

Majesty even in captivity! 

This guy was posing for portraits! 

Almost all the shots here were taken with the 70-200.. some with the now working extender at 400mm. 

This one is not a bird but rather the tail feathers.. the bird kept sticking its head into the feathers. Waited for almost 5 mintues but had to move on with the group..

it was one long feather.. at least 30 inches long and absolutely gorgeous. 

The Kookaburra is one shy bird. This one kept shuffling around. Was glad to catch the colors on the tail feathers.

when it came to "color" , this one takes first place!

This one is a close second..

THis is the first time we saw a secretary bird in a zoo. They could have done a better enclosure for this one instead of a thin long strip facing the road. A bird this beautiful deserves to be free. . or at least a better enclosure. 

Last but not least, a dove that came and posed for me. This is my favorite picture of the entire bird set. 

On to other beautiful creatures, big and small tomorrow.. 

Parks and more Parks

My parents have settled in comfortably to their new routine in the last 20 days. This is their old routine modified to constraints we impose on them here. They have been very sportive about it. The 9 year gap since their last trip, their brushes with death with severe medical conditions, living  a few years where other folks have to drive them around in India..... these have softened the impact of issues that were huge on their last trip.

We have been taking them with us to local grocery stores, costco, etc. and to the few birthday parties that we have been invited to in the last two weeks. Most of them have been in parks as the weather outside is great. My mother loves it although she cannot walk. She had triple knee surgery thanks to some really bad (read contaminated) operating theaters in India and if she walks for 30 minutes, she is done walking for the day.

Nevertheless, we are happy to see her walk from the parking lot to the picnic bench and back. Dad is just so happy to be able to walk in a park instead of our own backyard, which in his words is still a big improvement compared to the traffic and bustle in a major metro in India.

Took a few pictures in the park today. This is the first picture of them I am taking in a year.

Going back to shooting high key shots, something I love !

There is no photoshopping here, no background. Just flood the exposure on the background to white out everything and still get the face.. it is like a process optimization exercise in semiconductor world where you find a narrow process window between exposure, shutter speed and ISO to get this magic shot!

Time to wrap up the weekend and get back the busy routine!

ps. My apologies for messing up Blog readers. Still learning on Squarespace. There was a checkbox on top that changes the post from WYSIWYG to Raw HTML and I had the wrong setting..