The treacherous trail

Last week we went on what was to date the most challenging hike in post covid times. This was the Gray Whale cove trail at McNee ranch that starts from the Montara state beach. This is right on the other edge of the Devils slide that we had visited last year. 

The trail started with an almost straight climb of 1000+ feet in one go with not many foot holds in places. Then it went up from there. It was 1800 feet elevation to North Peak point which merges with the Golden Gate park on the other side.

The views as we went up were okay as the fog was rolling in and it was direct sunlight. The views while coming back were just plain amazing. Route 1 is the most scenic as the sun goes down! everything just jumps up at you with the added color!

Have a lot of good pictures from this hike. So going to share a select few here and make the rest a slideshow!

There is a 15 minute detour on the way back from the North Peak to another trail in the Golden Gate park where you get to see this cave! It was a risk we took to go on this detour.. we had to get back before it got dark. We went on a new moon night and were aware of the risk of having to come down in the dark.

The lupines in blue white and purple were everywhere and made for amazing scenic landscapes. It was purple irises, lupines or yellow flowers on the hillsides.. 

You climb straight up to get to this single tree..

then you climb up some more to get to this level (that tree in the photo is in the end of the path in this photo). Climbing up is difficult but climbing down on the other path was even more challenging as at some points it was just 3 foot drops! we had to crawl on our butt to get down. 

The stress levels were running high as we were running down against a setting sun. The more tempting it was to stop for pictures, the more we realized this was going to be very challenging for the last mile..

we made it down post sunset, had some well deserved chai and drove back. This is a trail that we will not recommend to folks who are not fit, take kids in the group, folks without hiking shoes.. 

Better wear a miners helmet in case you get delayed getting down.. or better still do this hike early morning or start at 2PM! 

It was challenging but we enjoyed the company and got some great pictures! so a two thumbs up in the end!

On a side note, I did get the second shot of the vaccine, went through the side effects and in good enough shape to write a blog to distract myself from the headache. 

COVID is giving us all an experience to remember! Happy to have this hiking group in our life right now!

The last hike for 2020 - Mount Tamalpais

Rounding up the 2020 hiking with Mount Tamalpais.

Was not sure of going because my toe was still bruised. Then a USPS truck showed up at 6AM on the day of the hike, to deliver my New balance extra wide hiking shoes! So wore it and went on the hike. 

It took us 90 minutes to get to the parking lot on Panorama way just before Stinson beach with the last 30 minutes being a windy road. Given we had left early, we found parking!  Then we walked up to Matt Davis trail view point through two other trails.  From this view point, you can see Stinson beach on the right and if you squint and zoom.. the San Francisco skyline on the left!

We hiked for almost 4 hours, ate a packed lunch in the parking lot and drove back. Stopped by a few view points along the coastal ridge to take pictures. 

It was a beautiful sunny day out there.. by contrast we came home to a gloomy Cupertino and a light rain. 

An entire day spent driving and hiking but the pictures and the fresh air was worth it. My toe although not damaged further is still in recovery mode. 

Mount Diablo has to wait for a few weeks. . . we wanted to hike the bay area gland slam (Umunhum, Hamilton, Tamalpais and Diablo which are the four tallest mountains) and got 3/4 for 2020 which is pretty good! 

Here are the pictures.. 

First the smiling faces that show up on FB preview!

We are really really nothing compared to these giant trees, but we have the destructive power to bring them down.. 

My favorite shots from the view point.. because I didnt have high hopes of gettting the skyline resolved (the photos were taken with an iPhone with a 10x zoom and holding my breath) but after putting the images through noise reduction on photoshop.. they came out better than I expected!

The trails had a lot of steps which made for pretty pictures, not that they were easy to climb.. 

we saw layers and layers of mountains with the fog and clouds before the sun peaked out.

and got treated to simmering ocean views..

Not to mention all the trail fun in between the ocean view vistas..

cute little waterfalls every now and then..

not to mention views of Stinson beach every now and then..

We stopped on the turnouts a few times to take pictures of the coastline.. you can see Twin peaks area in SFO in the background on this shot!

and my other favorite shot when the sun went behind the clouds...

As long as we walk in a steady pace and I get to take pictures and there is no discomfort, I get to enjoy the day. All three conditions were met on this hike.. new right shoes (with something called "toe protect"), nice tree cover for most of the hike, and amazing scenery to make the photographer happy!

a short video clip of snippets through the hike..

Next time if we hike this, we would probably leave an hour earlier so we can enjoy the beach for a short time after the hike. It was a 5 minute drive from where we parked in the other direction and the beach was empty. We did enjoy driving through the golden gate bridge early in the morning and on our way back home! Think this was my only time driving past the GGB this year! 

A very enjoyable hike to round off 2020!

Castle Rock state park

The most recent hike with my wife was to Castle Rock State park. It was a good half day spent in great weather! 

First off... we had fun on the trip, per these photos..

This park and trail was amazing. At one point we got a view to what must have been 10 layers of mountains all the way to the ocean. 

The rest of the time we were treated to visuals of green hills as far as the eye could see

The trails were beautiful as well.. 

This big tree was just amazing and picturesque..

The entire park was beautiful. It was good we went early in the morning. There was a beautiful burnt tree root that was converted to a sculpture. My plan was to take a photo of it on the way back.. but given COVID, a lot of the paths have been made one way.. so we ended up returning to an overflow parking lot and walked on the road back to the main parking. Another trip, another day! 

There was a lot of climbing up and down large rocks on the trail path. I did bruise my big toe by hitting it against the side of a rock. Turns out the shoes I recently bought were not the right ones.. working on getting better shoes this week! 

Definitely recommend this trail for a half day hike if you are in south bay! I for one am happy to be going on all these hikes to explore the local parks in rapid succession.