My back is still recovering. That does not stop my wife from committing me to another hike this weekend.
Our planning relies more on weather.com app than looking outside our window.
When I woke up at 5AM to get ready for the hike, I nudged her and said "it is pouring outside! are we still going?" and she says "yes we are" and goes back to doze off.
Comes out after 30 minutes and says "it is not supposed to rain today. so we should go".. I have never seen anyone who thinks the sky should obey the weather app. That kind of faith in anything is hard to see these days.
So off we went. The trail was not hikeable for the first mile. It was pure slush.. and a few people who tried to go ahead of us just came back as they were not in right shoes and were skidding down. We being us... just went ahead and crossed this area. Even though it was still drizzling, foggy and windy, we made it to the top and back. On the way back we probably saw 10 people total making their way up, when we were almost back down. By then the sun also came out, but the trail was still very slippery and muddy.
The "lone cow"
a hilarious video snippet of our morning..
Chai never tasted this good...
Just happy to have made it back without any accident like last week. Usually we do this in 2 1/2 hours. Took us close to 4 1/2 hours today because of the weather and the muddy and slippery path!
Last weekend saw us resume hiking on a serious note.. not the jujube local hikes but a solid long hike in Mt. Diablo to see the waterfalls. We had already hiked to the top as part of covering the bay area hiking grandslam three years ago and this time we wanted to cover the waterfalls.
It was all great till I decided to go to the center of the creek to get pictures of the falls.. and fell into the creek. My head missed hitting the rocks, thanks to the backpack. I am very lucky to be writing this post now. Did bruise my elbows and palms badly and there were a few blood clots that showed up within a few minutes.
San and my friends cheered me up, told me all is well and thanks to adrenalin and waterproof shoes, made it through the rest of the hike. We did slow down a lot because of my fall but made it back in one piece.
Always, always go easy when trying to go over slippery rocks! There was a discussion on how I am not the same young guy anymore who can deftly go over rocks like a mountain goat, and how I should be more careful etc.. Will be more careful, but hopefully will stay carefree.
We did get great pictures.. and as San says, even some cheesy ones.
There is a visitor center where the trail head starts. There is a 6$ parking fee. If you have the app, you can pay from your phone.
We started on the Mitchell canyon road trail head and decided to go counter clockwise to do the hard part of the hike first.
This was the place where I fell into the creek..
After recovering, had to take a picture on the creek side..
There are a lot of small and large waterfalls on this trail. They were all beautiful
we covereted Bruce Lee road, Back creek Trail, Meridian point, Donner Trail and Muricho Road as part of the hike.
The sun made the falls light up!
We got to sit and have tea on a rock with a view of the falls..
The ladies did some dancing here (which I thought was as risky as me clambering on top of rocks to get a photo).. sadly there is no permission for that masterpiece to be shared in this blog!
the long expsoure mode in iPhone comes in handy, given I did not take the SLR with me on this trip. Usually I do when waterfalls are involved.. given I was taking 2 1/2 liters of water and change of clothes, decided to keep SLR at home. The change of clothes was there in case I sweat too much.. luckily it helped after falling into the creek! In case you are wondering "I don't see different clothes?"... I switched one Bikram Yoga shirt for another.. when your wardrobe is full of the same T-shirt.. changes will not be obvious!
we were talking about seeing god in nature and we saw this "black dog" on the mountain side
Zooming in, saw it was a shadow of a rock outcrop that looks just like a god.. sorry.. dog!
Guess it takes ~ 25 years of marriage before the wife decides some PDA is okay. This seems to be a trend among desi women I see in bay area.. either they turn 50 or have a 25th anniversary party and suddenly they decide enough is enough and start wearing tank tops for their jogs and bikinis to the beach and even start holding hands with their husbands in public! If the stats are any indication of what is to come.. I need to mentally prepare myself. You cannot suddenly ask a domesticated dog to go run wild in the forest..
This photo was Photoshopped with two versions of the same photo.. one with Long exposure for the falls and one regular to capture us..
all said and done I am a happy camper..
talking of seeing god everywhere.. there was a "govindaa goooovindaa" moment..
Pay before you start hiking.. or you get a ticket!
A video of all of us crossing the creek 20 times over the hike..
It would have been even better if I had not fallen... but it is what it is. Next time we will go when there is more water and I will be safer walking on rocks!
We decided to go to India on a last minute decision. We covered a lot of ground in 11 days. Also it has been some time since we went to India and jet lag hit us hard. After 6 days we finally got over jet lag, thanks to Maha Shivrathri.
This weekend we decided to start hiking up hills again.. baby hikes.. 5 miles on Saturday and 8+ miles today..
Some pictures to commemorate our getting back to the usual. Our sincere thanks to the hiking group leader, who is becoming an expert at taking our bench photos.... At this point our "bench photo" collection from local parks has crossed a 100..
The weather was amazing this weekend and that also helped!
we also saw some deer, coyote, turkeys and jack rabbits ..not everything made it to the photos..
There are a lot more benches in bay area trails that we are yet to visit..
Wife is already getting tired of this tradition!
The india trip was interesting. Hopefully I get to blog a small piece of it everyday and will be done before Christmas!
