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!

Sweeney Ridge trail and Mori point in Pacifica

After a three week hiatus on hiking, we had a chance to join a large group of folks on a hike to Sweeney ridge. 

A group of 14, some of them I met for the first time. Enjoyed it thoroughly. The trailhead is a 35-45 minute drive from home depending on traffic and given the insane temperatures in Cupertino, this was a morning well spent in the fog and mountains. 

We also get to cross Highway 1 and go see the beach at Mori point  in the end. The ridge is part of the last piece of the hike. Started from home at 6:15 and came back home at 1:45. Hiked for 5 hours with a bunch of photo stops and a small break for tea and snacks at the vista point on top. There was nothing to see as there was a heavy fog and mist in the air. It did feel like walking through Jurassic park.

The parking lot for the trailhead is shared with an Orchid greenhouse. It makes for an interesting last mile climb back from the freeway to get to the car. 

By the time we made it to the top with the 1600 foot climb, was completely drenched! Good thing I had a change of clothes in the backpack for the rest of the descent and beach!

The morning dew made for some great pics with flowers, bees and spider webs.. 

When coming back to the car, noticed that my pants had a yellow layer of pollen on them! Luckily this time there was no severe post hike allergies to report!

sometimes you walk past a small flower that looks near perfect to the naked eye at 3 feet.. then you go take a macro shot of it and realize it is not that perfect.. still this small flower was irresistable!

The rest of the landscapes are in this slideshow..

A short video clip of the hike. Took a lot more slow motion videos of the waves crashing in.. you have a small sample within this clip.

It was time really well spent with a fun bunch! The last part of the trail where you come down to the freeway is very loose with gravel and if you don't have hiking shoes with grip and poles (for folks with bad knees) it is dangerous. We have been doing this for sometime now and managed it.. but first time hikers with improper shoes.....not recommended!  

The trail starts with a steep climb as well and keeps going almost a 1000 plus feet in one go. Warm up beore you start climbing!

Strongly recommend this as an early morning hike for a hot summer day!

Super bloom revisited..

In early May? we visited Cal Poly and checked out a local super bloom. Given the thing moves up north every week, it came closer to us last month.

The previous year our hiking group had noticed this amazing hillside on the return path from Monument peak. So we decided to go to Monument peak in reverse and try to get pictures of the hillsides with wild flowers.

It was great for pictures, but somehow really really bad for allergies to the point that I called the photo album "sea of allergies". 

The wild mustard was 6-8 feet tall and the trails were full of thorny shrubs that had not been cleared well. Between the flowers and thorns, 3/8 people in the hiking group started sneezing and two (myself included) had nosebleeds before we exit the trail. It took a good 2 weeks to recover from that hike. 

However, the pictures did come out great! The thing was beautiful till my watering eyes could see clearly no more..

This was the path from Ed Levin County Park to Monument peak. This summer has also been extremely hot and I would not recommend going up on these barren hikes with no possibility of shade. Take lots of water with you and hydrate well. Wear a mask if that helps. Like my old mentor told me "you should have just stayed home and watched a youtube video of someone else doing this hike given your allergies!". For a second he turned into Gounder saying "dei naaye, unakku idhellam thevai dhaana daa?!" and I burst out laughing. 

I sang "vazhi neduga, kaatu mustard" for San on this hike.. why not?!

The superbloom is more interesing when there are multiple colors.. this was all wild mustard and yellow. we didnt see the poppies or the lavenders.. so compared to the one near SLO, this was okay!

Maybe someone who has severe allergies and wants to see what this is all about.. can just watch the video below and save themselves the pain.. 

Next year, not falling for the "super" hype!