Lovers point Park - Monterey

Given San is still on the restricted ankle regimen and wanted to go somewhere, anywhere.. we went to the easiest accessible beach, at Lovers point park in Monterey.

It is a 90 minute drive from here, but totally worth the drive. The weather was perfect there, a good 15 degrees cooler. We parked right next to the park, walked around the park and went down to the beach and got our feet wet.. 

My photographer is getting better every day!

There is a carpet of pink flowers everywhere, which makes for great pictures! 

we had to dry our feet before wearing shoes again.. so we just sat on a bench and watched the waves and seagulls and the incredibly human friendly gophers that were everywhere! they even beg for food on two legs and that was scary to watch!

I also got to climb on the rocks here and there and try yoga poses. Not recommending this to others as it was a risky move.. was in the moment and shocked my wife by trying to do this on top of the rock.. by the time she started to protest in terror, was out of the pose.. 

Long exposure trick on the waves.. 

slowly getting the hang of this.. have to go wider as the long exposure adjustment crops the picture!

Some pictures from the park and beach!

and what is a blog post without a short video?

Had a lot of fun in two hours and drove back! Definitely recommend it for a short walk in a scenic setting!

A long gap

It has been a month and a half since I blogged about any hiking or trails.. We did go on three trails.. one a little strenous and two were more little walks than serious hikes. 

I started a new job during COVID times and that has been an interesting transition in itself. Still for a guy who always posts something every week, it has been odd not to go type anything. 

Well, here we are. Things have not been easy as every day we wake up to news of someone passing away in India from COVID in the last few weeks. It is not unknown people anymore this time around. So did not feel like writing anything. Sometimes if you have nothing postive to share, silence is golden!

The three hikes we went on were a walk to Mori Point in Pacifica to see the sunset, a short stroll in Quarry Trail in Saratoga (which was 15 minute drive from home and a rather short but intense climb to see the valley from a nice vantage point) and the last one to Little Yosemite in Sunol area after a rave FB recommendation from a friend. 

Here are some pictures and a slide show from the three hikes..

a picture that sums up sunset at Mori point..

A early morning foggy view of silicon valley from Quarry trail hike..

Sunlight coming through the lone tree on an otherwise barren landscape in Little Yosemite trail

A watering hole on Little Yosemite trail for cows that made for a reflection photo spot..

Views of the reservoir from the top of the hills..

Mori piont was amazing. The flowers, the swing at the end of the trail, the sunset, the moon rise, it was something!

Little Yosemite would have been more fun if we had taken the opposite route on the trail. We went on the hike up the hill first and then came to the falls that is only a mile from the parking lot. It was a long hike without a clear path in most places in the barren heat.. the falls ended up being too crowded because by the time we headed back, it was a lunch picnic spot. Lots of folks without masks. So we just kept moving to the car and drove back. (this was almost 3 weeks ago). 

Since then any attempts to go hiking have been put on hold. The yoga studio has opened with a lottery system. I have been lucky enough to get through a dozen times in the last month and that is good. It is still not open anywhere close to capacity and hope the day arrives where you go and walk in and don't have to be lucky to do hot yoga. I could always do it at home with the space heater, but once you go to the studio a few times, it becomes harder mentally to fire up the space heater. When there was no studio, the space heater was a blessing. That shows I have a lot more yoga to do to treat the space heater and yellow walls with the respect they deserve! 

It is just a question of days before we go back to office again and that means things get even more interesting with time management, lottery management etc. My hiking shoes may have seen their last days for some time to come. If there is one thing I would choose between doing Yoga and hiking, it is always yoga. Sitting still is something that I have to work hard for and I plan to keep trying my best to do that!

Hope this post brings me back to blogging about things on a more regular basis!

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!