02/28/15: Mission Peak

"mission peak! mission accomplished!" i heard a little kid saying that and thought it was hilarious.

i'm a wiener dog and was too scared to get on the pole

some friends recommended this hike to us so we went to check it out today. the stanford ave trailhead is apparently super popular so parking is difficult to find. we opted to go to the one by ohlone college since there is a parking lot there.

hike description

http://www.everytrail.com/guide/ohlone-college-to-mission-peak

route

it's an out and back hike

-> follow peak trail all the way to the top (just need to make a left at the bathroom near the top to stay on the trail but i think it's hard to miss)

elevation and distance

started from the parking lot at ohlone college. took us 3.5 hours altogether, and that's including taking lots of pictures

our experience

there were a TON of cows out. we heard lots of mooing and even saw a mama run over to its baby. so much grass for them to eat!

this mama ran across the road to her baby

there were also a bunch of ground squirrels or something.

the clouds were amazing and everything was so green!

panoramic on the way up

there were a couple of sections blocked off because apparently too many people take shortcuts, which is causing erosion

made it to the top! luckily there weren't too many people waiting to take pics on the pole so we were able to get on it pretty quickly. we could see the storm clouds rolling in so we put on our raincoats just in case.

looks like there used to be a pole over here too?

good thing too b/c it started raining and then hailing! it hurt a little when it hit our faces but luckily we got down from the peak before it was too wet. not sure if it got worse for later people though.

the little white balls on the ground was hail

overall, it was a pretty good hike. not sure if i would go on a non-rainy day based on how popular this hike is though
http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/article/Crowds-overrun-Mission-Peak-in-Fremont-to-shoot-5755479.php

crazy tree trunk along the way

Trails Challenge 2015

yeeeeeeeeeees, the east bay regional park district released the Trails Challenge 2015 guidebook today. so pumped! you can click on the pic for more info. it was free for us.

they send you a guidebook with 20 featured trails in the east bay and split it out into easy, moderate, and challenging. it's a great way to find more trails.

aaaand if you do at least five of the trails, fill out the Trail Log, and submit it, they'll send you a commemorative pin! we did it last year and it was pretty awesome

may put hers on her hiking pack

we did mostly moderate ones last year but i wanna try to hit up all of the challenging ones this time as prep.

02/21/15: Montara Mountain

second training hike! i'll hopefully get around to writing about the first one.

taken from the outlook

hike description

http://www.bahiker.com/southbayhikes/montaramtn.html

elevation and distance

it's a smidge longer than the description said b/c may started the workout from where we parked our car. i'm sad that my graph never comes out right b/c the gps on my phone is a little bit stupid.

route

-> montara mountain trail
-> left on n peak access road
-> turn around at the peak
-> follow the access rd back to montara mountain trail
-> brooks falls trail on the way back

our experience

we were able to find street parking around the corner, so we didn't park in the paid lot. it costs $6 and no dogs or pets are allowed.

right when we walked into the park, we were greeted by this warning.

tl;dr act big and pick up small children

we started around 12:30 pm and finished at 4 pm. we had amazing views of the water on the way up but around 2 pm, the fog started setting in. it's crazy how fast it happens.

found some kind of rodent in a hole. there were a ton of random holes in the ground but i noticed some movement in this one

anyone have any idea what it is?

panorama taken from the outlook

like i said, the fog set in and we couldn't see much after 2 pm. though, it could possibly be because we were higher up? either way, not sure if there was a better view at the top of the north peak than this but the outlook was beautiful.

this one was located where brooks falls trail meets montara mountain trail. you can see the fog moving down from the left side.

may taking in the view on one of the benches on the way back down

the bench is on the far left. left trail is montara mountain trail & right trail is brooks falls trail

we saw a ton of people wearing racing bibs and those streamer things all along the way. apparently the montara mountain trail run was going on. it was hard enough walking up, i can't imagine having to run it!

manzanita trees all along the trail! they are so cool.

almost at the bottom and you can still see the fog rolling down the mountain