Sometimes you have to wait..

I have lived in the bay area for decades and there are a lot of firsts in the last few months, thanks to a small virus that has turned our lives..

Went up to Mission Peak in Fremont for the first time a few weeks ago. This morning got to go up to Mount Umunhum for the first time. Have heard a lot about this peak and the views from so many of my friends, and finally my wife pushed me join her walking buddies.

It took close to an hour for us to get to this parking lot which was already at 2300 feet elevation and from there we hiked 9 miles to go up the summit, walk around and come back. 

It was extremely foggy and windy when we went up and there was no visibility when we were up there, but it was nice talking to friends and walking. 

The fog started clearing as we were on our way back. 

Two of us slow walkers were engrossed in our discussion of south Indian classical music that we missed a turn and ended up walking an extra kilometer till we realized we were on a different path. We were sure the rest of the group would be mad at us for being late but looks like they forgave us. 

There were amazing views on the way back down.. (especially on that wrong path where the two of us got lost!)

Stongly recommend it. The slope was not as steep as the final stretch of misison peak, but this one is also unrelenting.. you are constantly walking up a slope without much flat terrain to catch a break. Very doable in foggy weather!

There is a Tamil saying "poovodu serndhu naarum manakkum".. "the string with which you tie the flowers into a garland, also gets to smell good because of its closeness".. 

My wife has become an avid hiker and thanks to her push and encouragement I am also seeing a few places that would have otherwise stayed on the "one day I will also go there" list..

A first time for everything...

While the rest of the US is going nuts over the elections, yours truly has been extremly happy and stayed away from most coverage.

Bikram Yoga San Jose opened its doors for Hot Yoga classes. . . Hot being the keyword.. and I have been drenched in glorious sweat every day and my sanity is on a different track. 

The little coverage that leaked through thanks to my family and walking buddies did keep me amused. Sooner or later, someone will win. Hopefully sanity will return.. The country has already gone past a point of no return in 2016 and has had a massive heart attack. It is living on borrowed time. There is only hope left.

No one in my company has gone anywhere on vacation given COVID and we have all been working pretty much round the clock since March. There was a policy change where if you exceed PTO, you take it or lose it. 

So every three weeks, taking a Friday off. The last such day off saw me go up to Hunters point and get a view of the silicon valley from the south west side. 

Today it was a much more ambitious plan to go up Mission peak in Fremont. Even though I average 7.5 miles of walking a day, it is mostly on flat terrain around the block. Don't like steep climbs as it makes my ankle swell. 

My wife encouraged me a lot to climb this by reminding me of my glory days of climbing with a 30 lbs camera bag on my back in what seems just a year ago in truth, but a decade ago in my memory. 

Off we went and thoroughly enjoyed it. Took us exactly 2 and a half hours to go up and come down from the parking lot. Some pictures..

We got a great view from the top..

The views enroute were beautiful..

For the most part San walked ahead of me.. she cannot stop on an uphill climb or she finds it difficult to start again..I cannot stop downhill or I get stuck! So we had an interesting arrangement.. 

we walked with her leading up and me leading down but with stops to catch up.. and take selfies! We met maybe a total of 10 people on either way.. had our masks in our hand and had to wear it only when we saw anyone in the other direction. That made things easier!

We got drenched on the way back with an unexpected downpour. That made this an adventure of sort, running down in rain watching the city lights..

It has taken me at least the last few hours to get my warmth back and get back to normal after what has defintiely been some exercise outside the yoga mat! 

Still prefer walks on flat terrain compared to a non stop slope, but walking with San is something that I have missed for a long time.. Just realized that today!

That grin on my face says it all !!!

Devils slide - an afternoon trip

Given the last 7 months, we decided to take another short ride to a place within an hour radius that has not been visited in the last 20 years.. San found just the place in Devils slide near Pacifica. 

The weather was pleasant and we drove almost an hour to the parking lot there. Then there was a hike that was 3 miles back and forth from one parking lot to the other and back. This is a beautiful bike and walkway that goes around the mountainside overlooking the pacific ocean. 

There were 6 whales there breaching, but we could not catch it. 

We had great visibiilty while we walked one way and it started raining on our way back. For some reason we were just happy to be there and didn't care. 

We met an interesting old man called "Uncle Ericson" who was an 84 year old retired plastic surgeon who walks this path every day. we got to chat with him in the drizzle on the way back and he told us some stories about the place. That made the return walk interesting! He told us about this Jeep that was rolled down the slope by theives and how it has been there since 1999 and now trees are growing through it!

Got to take some pictures with both the iPhone and the Canon this time. 

It is all mixed and matched here (some of the iPhone photos adjusted in snapseed as well)

 a slideshow of the rest of the pictures..

Loved the place and the walk.. we were both happy to walk together someplace after a long time!

Hope we find more local gems like this!