Holiday Destinations 6: Montara Mountain

30th December 2007

I had hiked up Montara Mountain summit with NetIP-SFBA from McNee Ranch State Park two years ago. It was a killer climb to the North Peak. This time decided to go from San Pedro Valley to see the Brook Creek waterfalls on the way back.

Initially there were 5 people for this hike. A day before the hike Vern was sick, Arlene felt lazy to drive up to BART station for carpool and Susan said she slept late so wouldn't want to go for the hike !! And so, Me and Andrew were the last two.
The plan was to meet up at Serramonte Center at Colma (or Daly City?) at 9:45AM and then start the hike at 10:00AM. Somehow I missed the route and landed up in Serra Center which is across the road of Serramonte Center. After few phone calls we were at the same 'TARGET Grandland' and then started from there. When we reached the park it was 10:45AM. After restroom break we started the actual hike around 11:00AM.

I realized that I forgot my little camera in the car, but Andrew let me take pictures with his 'backup' camera. Thanks to Andrew :)

San Pedro Valley is a County Park adjacent to McNee Ranch State Park. It is too dense with eucalyptus trees, cold, narrow muddy trails and really wild !! I like such trails !! And Poison Oak every where !! I have heard about this nasty plant/ivy. Don't know how nasty really it is :) So, I didn't take many pictures on this trail. But, the trails are very well marked.

We took Montara Mountain Trail and started climbing up. There are lot of switchbacks and so the trail seems to be almost flat :) After two miles on this trail we enter McNee Ranch State Park. Another half a mile leads to the intersection with North Peak Access trail. It is a wide fire road with some uphill portions. But, trail is maintained and good.

After hiking a mile on North Peak Access trail we reached the summit. There were two peaks so we went to the top of both. The view of Pacifica is great. We can see the beautiful Pacifica Beach Resort Hotel very clearly from there.

It was windy and Andrew showed his desire to head back. And also he wanted to have lunch. We kept going down on the trail in search of warmer and 'no wind' place to have lunch. We found one, may be after walking about 1.5 miles way back. Had lunch peacefully watching a little mouse peeping from it's hole. After the lunch before heading back I left some nuts at the entrance of little mouse's hole. Later in the day, I realized I might have made a mistake by doing so. The nuts may attract any bird like raven and they may hurt/kill the little mouse. I feel guilty and prayed for the mouse :(

On the way back we took a partial loop by hiking on Brook Creek trail in the anticipation of having a great view of the waterfalls. But there was no water in the waterfalls. Took some picture of its placeholder :)

When we reached the trailhead back it was 2:30PM. It took total of 3 hours and 30 mins to complete the 7.5 miles hike, including the lunch break and photo stops.

There is a tiny museum and a store maintained by the county park. It was Andrew's wish to see it and so we did see it :)

It was a good hike. But, still I feel hiking Montara Mountain from McNee Ranch State Park is better. It is steep and hence nice :)

This is the last hike of the year 2007. Tomorrow is the New Year's Eve, and the best way to celebrate this is to meet some old friends and have a blast. So, getting ready for it !!!

30-Dec-2007 : Montara Mountain 7.5 miles
Driving Distance : 80 miles
25-Dec-2007 : Dipsea Trail
25-Dec-2007 : Eagle Peak
24-Dec-2007 : Mission Peak
23-Dec-2007 : Tomales Point
22-Dec-2003 : Barnabe Peak
Holiday Total : Hiking 52.5 miles, Driving-730 miles

Holiday Destinations 5: Dipsea Trail from Muir Woods

26 December 2007

2 years ago I had gone hiking this Dipsea Trail, 1o miles out-and-back in Mt. Tamalpais State Park. Then it was organized by NetIP-SFBA and the E-mail subject said "For Brave Hearts only". Even the hike lead had told me very rudly to be "realistic" to go for this hike. Huh ? I went then ... it was hard but was very much doable :)

It kept on ringing in my head ... after 4 days of continuous hiking would it be a good idea to go for Dipsea ? The heavy dinner previous night was still not digested and so I thought okay ... give it a shot :)

I had asked Arlene to join me and drive. She got two more friends Vern and Darlene. So, we all met at Darlene's place in San Lorenzo. Darlene knew the route to Muir Woods very well and she didn't need any directions :)

We started the hike from Muir Woods at 9:20AM. The initial 3.5 miles part is all the way uphill through spooky dark trail with trees in different weird shapes. There were a lot of fallen trees on the trail. We had to bend and sneak below them or step over those trees. The elevation change of this trail is very well depicted in this website.


Arlene and Darlene were non-stop chatting. The topics were from food, discounts, friends and hikes and on and on ... I realized Arlene might have got bored when she came with me for Tomales Point hike. Because I don't speak much :)

Dipsea trail has steep downhill portions too. There are fleets of wooden stairs. In the picture Vern is climbing down the stairs. Thinking of climbing these up on the way back sometimes scared me :)





I had a short chat with Vern. Vern has much knowledge about Mt. Tamalpais trails. He has hiked may of these trails many times. By then we had covered all the uphill part, ie, when the Dipsea trail intersects the Coastal View Trail. .

It was too cold in the woods. All the time I felt my hands numb. But, wasn't that bad too. After a mile on downhill hike under the redwood trees we at last reached out and felt the sunlight.

The ocean view is great at this point. Walking in the sun felt good. When we reached the Stinson beach we were all hungry. After having restroom break we had lunch at picnic tables there. Sandwiches and nuts etc ...

Myself and Arlene went to the beach just to take few pictures. It was cold but was beautiful. Fleets of gulls were around and the waves were hard on the sand.

Others were not interested in hanging out at the beach and we had to rush back. After that we all started back from the beach.






My initial plan was hiking Dipsea Trail out-and-back. But, when we reached the intersection with Steep Ravine trail Vern had a different idea of doing a loop hike. So, instead of going back on same Dipsea Trail we took Steep Ravine Trail to Pantoll Ranger Station. This added one more mile to our total distance.

Steep Ravine trail has lot of small yet beautiful waterfalls and bridges. The one in the picture is Steep Ravine Waterfalls which is actually beside a wooden ladder.


The elevation gain on both Dipsea and Steep Ravine is almost the same. On Dipsea you will have to climb wooden steps and on Steep Ravine you will have to climb rock steps.

Steep Ravine trail is dark and dense. Since it runs beside a creek it is very cold too. There are different types of mushrooms all over the place.

From Pantoll station we took Stapelveldt Trail to Ben Johnson Trail. It is about 1.1 miles.

Ben Johnson trail is all down hill and longer and so added one more mile totalling our hike distance to 12 miles.

Ben Johnson trail goes through the Muir Woods National Monument. So, we had a mile walk in the monument. There are huge redwood trees here which are numbered.

There is an addmission fee of $5 to enter the national monument. So, they have to show something to the people !! So, some trees are numbered, there is an uprooted old tree stump which is numbered too !! With the numbers there is some literature to read. So, we did read some of them.

Arlene took some group pictures at the entrance. By then it was 4:10PM. I was still standing on my feet :) It took 6 hrs and 50 mins to cover all 12 miles including lunch time.

It was really a good hike and this is true with all the hikes in Mt. Tamalpais state park.

26-Dec-2007 : Dipsea Trail from Muir Woods 12 miles
Driving Distance : 130 miles
25-Dec-2007 : Eagle Peak
24-Dec-2007 : Mission Peak
23-Dec-2007 : Tomales Point
22-Dec-2003 : Barnabe Peak
Holiday Total : Hiking 45 miles, Driving-650 miles

Holiday Destinations 4: Eagle Peak

25th December 2007

This is my first hike in Mt. Diablo State Park.

Actually Sekhar had announced a 7 miles 'Christmas Hike' to Donner Falls at Mt. Diablo State Park and dinner at Sargam Indian Cuisine. I wanted to meet the group and to go for dinner with the group, but the hike was too short and plain. So, I decided to take little longer hike to Eagle peak instead and meet the group at lunch spot on Donner Falls Trail. That would make my hike at least 10 miles long I thought. Cecile and James joined me.

Mt. Diablo State Park is located in the East Bay and is very popular for hard hikes up the peaks. Most popular being the Mt. Diablo Summit hike.

Hmm ... we three met at Regency Gate of the park and started the hike at 11:30AM. It took some time to find our trailhead :) In the picture James is wondering which way to go !! Once we were on the right trail, we found that it was all uphill. We saw a coyote at the beginning of the trail and the coyote led our hike for a mile or so.

It was non-stop gruesome uphill hike. There are not many switchbacks. Even those switchbacks which exist are steep and narrow. Our hike route was Back Creek trail-> Eagle Peak Trail-> Meridian Ridge Trail-> Donner Creek Fire road.

We had lunch at the top of Eagle Peak. The view of East Bay was great. San Mateo bridge, Stockton etc ... Mt. Diablo was standing adjacent to Eagle Peak. We had a nice chat while having lunch. James had carried some red wine in mini bottles. And on the way back downhill he was all flying down :)

Our plan was to meet the group at lunch spot somewhere at Donner Canyon. We thought we might be late and may not make it to the lunch spot in time. So instead we headed to the gate and that shortened our hike by 2 miles. We waited for Sekhar and the group for some 35 mins at the trailhead. That was disappointing. We could have gone to the lunchspot and had a view of the Donner falls we thought. But, our feet were satisfied with climbing up the Eagle Peak :)

From there we headed to the Sargam Indian Cuisine. It was a big group for Christmas. And most of us asked for separate cheques. Waiter must have had a nice time !! But, he did get a fat tip too :) I had mixed vegetable kurma (spicy curry) with naan (type of Indian bread). It was so comforting and I ate all of it. Later I was feeling like a python and I was quite sleepy while driving back.

Nice thing to do on Christmas Day huh ?

25-Dec-2007 : Eagle Peak 8+ miles
Driving Distance : 108 miles
24-Dec-2007 : Mission Peak
23-Dec-2007 : Tomales Point
22-Dec-2003 : Barnabe Peak
Holiday Total : Hiking 33 miles, Driving-520 miles

Holiday Destinations 3: Mission Peak

24th December 2007

Most popular and much hiked trail of Bay Area : Mission Peak in Fremont. After two days of long hiking I thought of taking it easy. So took 6 miles out-and-back hike to the peak. I am not sure how many times I have hiked this trail :)

When I don't have any company I go for this hike. So, it was a solo hike :) The last stretch of this hike was a bit hard. In summer it is okay but in winter it is a bit too chilly and the wind speed is little too much. Last winter, this hike got my right knee stiff on the peak and I had hard time climbing down. This year, I felt like the wind knocked me off the trail twice. There is a better option to go to the top by Ohlone Wilderness trail though.

You will meet a lot of dog-walkers and most of the dogs won’t be on leash. And all the dogs have a tendency to smell each and every hiker on the trail. I too met most of them and graced by their smelling. There was a senior lady with two dogs which looked like wolves. One of them came towards me with a curious look and the second one followed it in a hurry. I was so scared. I know wolves were very kind and took care man-cub Mowgli in Junglebook. But, I was not sure these would be any kind to me. Then I felt they were like babies when they started jumping on me and rubbing their tummies to my thighs :)

Nothing more exciting to write a story. The total duration of hike was 2 hrs. After the hike I went to Central Park on Paseo Padre Pkwy and had lunch there. Had a small walk around Lake Elizabeth before returning home.

Last year visit to Mission Peak.

24-Dec-2007 : Mission Peak 6 miles
Driving Distance : 42 miles
23-Dec-2007 : Tomales Point
22-Dec-2003 : Barnabe Peak
Holiday Total : Hiking 24.8 miles, Driving-412 miles

Holiday Destinations 2: Tomales Point

23rd December 2007

Terrific hike !! That is what I can say about this hike. Wow !! Excellent Ocean views on both side of the trail made it feel like a hike on an island !! Views of tule elks grazing all along the trail !! It was one of the beautiful hikes where you find no ground to go further !! It was worth 220 miles (round trip) drive.

It was holiday weekend again, I found only Arlene to join me. It was nice that she had been here few times before, and so she could navigate very well.

Tomales point is northern tip of the very popular destination Point Reyes National Seashore. Pacific ocean on one side and the Tomales Bay on the other side, this is an area for the Tule Elk Reserve. The trailhead is located at the end of the Pierce Point Road.

The road to the trailhead is very windy and most of the times it is covered with fog. So, I wanted to start early and finish the hike early so that driving back would be before dark. Arlene was okay with that. I started at 8:00AM from my place and picked Arlene from Fremont and we reached the trailhead at 10:30AM. There are no restrooms at this trailhead and so drove up to McClure Beach trailhead for restrooms. It is a very short drive though.

We started our hike at 10:40AM. The sky was clear, see the picture above, and the view was great. This trail is of moderate difficulty and runs on the rolling hills with the elevation gain of maximum 400 feet (approximate).

The ocean views were great, but no signs of tule elks yet. There were few cypress trees at the trailhead, and after that there were only coyote bushes. The area was very green but no trees. Just like a bare island. We went on and on and on ... almost in one direction, there were few ups and downs, no switch-backs, and hence it felt very long. At one point I felt that, may be I will reach the other end of the Earth :)

And then I saw two elks grazing. I was so happy and went slowly looking at them. As I was moving ahead the view was clearing up behind the high bush and I could see the whole herd grazing and relaxing lazily in the Sun. Ahh ! It was a view to remember.

On the way we could see 4 such herds, where each male elk guarding its bunch of females. These elks are very familiar with human approach. They give a curious look before they go back to what they were doing. The view of elks grazing beside a pond looked like a living painting.

After hiking about 4.7 miles there was no place to walk ahead :) See Arlene standing at the end of the trail.

There was a rock on which cormorants were resting. This is a common sight on the California coast. But, still they amaze me everytime. We watched the waves ramming the rock for a while, and took few pictures. Then we found a good flat spot for lunch. We had our lunch chatting about our hikes and so on. The cormorants were flying in groups and so brown pelicans.

This is the true end point (I think so, because of the nail) which is little below the end of the trail. Going beyond this didn't seem to be safe.

And the sunny sky suddenly turned grey and we couldn't see the Sun. It felt cold as if the AC was turned on. We started heading back.

The entire scene changed. There were no elks around the pond and no ocean views. Only thing we could see ahead was fog. Visibility was very low.

It was an experience. After walking in the fog for a while it didn't feel that cold.

When we reached the trailhead back I took the picture of the cypress trees. You can see the difference by comparing it with the one above (second pic in this post) which I took at the starting of the hike.

It took 4 hrs 15 mins to complete this hike. This includes the lunch break of 15 mins. We immediately started back at 3:00PM. It was dense fog and it seemed like I was driving on the clouds. If I had watched it on TV or in a movie it would look like heaven. But, when I was driving I agreed to the fact that "Path to the heaven is not easy" :) Almost half of (5 miles) the Pierce Point rd was foggy. Arlene wanted to have ice cream at some place in Fairfax, but that place looked closed. I dropped Arlene at Fremont and reached home by 5:30ish.

It was a great hike. The herds of elk reminded me of herds of spotted deer in Bhandipur and Nagarahole national parks in South India. It felt so homely.

23-Dec-2003 : Tomales Point : 9.5 miles

Driving distance : 220 miles

22-Dec-2003 : Barnabe Peak

Holiday Total : Hiking-18.8 miles Driving 370 miles

Holiday Destinations 1: Barnabe Peak

22nd December 2007

Hmm Actually today morning I was supposed to be driving to Irvine to visit a cousin and from there go sightseeing in San Diego. I had planned this from long ago and I couldn't go :( So, what the heck ?

I made a plan-B as always I do :) I thought I will go for hiking everyday of the 11-day holidays and close the year 2007. How cool huh ? Not sure how will it work out. Because, I don't want to hike alone in the winter after Sekhar told me the story of Mountain Lion attack. Eeeeee Ma !!

So... for my Holiday Destinations series, the starter was Barnabe Peak at Samuel P. Taylor Sate Park in North bay. What I remember from this hike ? Well, freezing cold, mushrooms and spooky moss covered tree trunks :) Yeah, because of the redwood trees and other vegetaion in this park the sunlight hardly reaches the ground !! We could feel the sunlight only after reaching the summit !! That is after hiking 2 hrs in the cold wet trail !!

The hike was organised by Sekhar. This week being the holiday week there were only 11 hikers in the group. Driving up to north bay has always been a big problem for me all the time. Driving 75 miles way back after a 9 miles hike sounded painful. So, I drove only 40 miles (and saved 35 miles) to Sekhar's place and then carpooled with him. There were two more, Damir and Yuba, in Sekhar's car already. Hmm ... we started from Alameada at 10:15AM and reached the park by 11:00. At the park we met rest of the group and started the hike at 11:30. As I told earlier it was freezing cold.

Samuel P. Taylor State Park is located in the central Marin County, just north of San Francisco accessible by Sir Francis Drake Blvd.

We started our 9.3 miles hike at the Ranger Station near Redwood Grove picnic area and continued on the North Creek Trail->Devil's Gulch fire road-> unknown trail-> Bill's Trail-> Barnabe Peak Lookout-> Barnabe fire road-> Old Railroad Grade-> back to Ranger station.

The Bill's trail very easy way to reach the Barnabe Peak summit. With lot of switchbacks it looks almost flat. So, climbing the peak was very easy job. The sun rays didn't reach this trail at

all. Fungus was everywhere. On living trees and dead trees, on the ground. Wherever you see there was some weird fungus. We saw the sun only when we completed the last switchback on Bill's trail. It felt warm and good. We had our lunch at this spot which had very good views. Miles and miles of green rolling hills. Far away Tomales Bay was beautiful too.

As usual there was sharing of snacks etc. Michael's dried mango was very delicious.

After the lunch we started to the summit lookout. It was steep uphill, may be a quarter of a mile. After the full lunch it felt a bit painful to climb. Anyway, we don;t hike here everyday :)

Took few pictures at the summit before descending. Descending on the Barnabe fire road was easy. It was steep at few places but was okay. Well, as usual ... there was some hint for gossip. It took 4 hours and 15 mins to complete the hike. This time includes lunch break and waiting for others at the junctions.

After the hike we decided to have early dinner at Szechuan Chef chinese restaurant on Bolinas Rd, Fairfax. My Veggie Fried Rice was very spicy. Anyway, when you are hungry nothing matters :)

On the way back to Alameda, had a little chat with Yuba. She is from Russia and said she has seen a lot of Hindi movies when she was a child. And she believed Mithun Chakraborthy was an Indian superstar :) Disco Dancer was a hit in Russia too :) She knew few South Indian female actors too. Hmmm ... it was very amusing :)

When I reached home it was 8:00PM. It was a great hike.

22-Dec-2007 : Barnabe Peak 9.3 miles

Driving Distance : 150 miles

Holiday Total : Hiking-9.3 miles Driving-150 miles

Purisima Creek Redwoods

15th December 2007

Purisima Creek Redwwoods Open Preserve was my very first hike in USA in 2005. I coudn't resist when Sekhar organized it this weekend again. It was surprising that Sekhar organized a 9+ miles hike :) It was topic discussion later on the hike :):)

I carpooled with Wesley, Andy. We met at Safeway, Stevens Creek Blvd, San Jose, the usual carpool place in South bay. When we were about to start Anthony approached us. And said he came for some hike with other group but, found nobody at carpool place. So, he joined us too. How convenient huh ? We satrted from Safeway at around 10:15AM. When we reached the park most of the hikers from the group were already there. And the hike began at 11:30AM.

The hike route was Parking -> Purisima Creek trail -> Soda Gulch trail -> North Ridge trail -> Whittemore Gulch trail -> Parking.

As the name indicates this park is full of redwood trees. This trail is very good for summer hiking. It is bit too cold in winter. All these trails are under the shade of redwood trees. Especially the Purisima Creek trail runs beside the creek and feels very good. We saw a limb of some fawn on this trail and we all thought it might be a Mountain Lion Kill ... eeeeekkkkk !! After hiking up to 4.9 miles we stopped for lunch on Soda Gulch trail. From there we could get a good view of lighthouse at Point Montara.

By then I was quite exhausted. Not sure why ? Was that because of sickness, or no breakfast before the hike, or the Death Valley sand in my shoes being hurting my feet or lack of exercise for last two months ? May be mix of all these :) After having the big homemade sandwich for lunch I felt better.

There was a lot of home made stuff for sharing. Dominique brought cookies, Wesley brought lemon cake and cookies, and I had banana cake. I am trying to learn baking :)

After a while we continued our hike toward North Ridge trail. Wesley wanted to go to restroom and he took a diverted short 0.3 miles uphill trail to restrooms. This got Anthony worried that he didn’t want to wait for an hr for our carpool driver. But, anyway you can’t stop someone from going to restroom :)

After the north ridge trail we started on Whittemore trail. Hmmm this trail is under so thick canopy of redwoods that you feel it is dark even at 2:00PM. There were a lot of banana slugs here as not much of sunlight reaches the ground. Steve was almost counting how many he saw.

When we were back at parking lot it was 4:00PM. And then there was a long Q for the restroom. It was very cold. Wesley reached few minutes after us. Later, half the group went to brewery for a beer. And Sekhar and loyals went for coffee at ‘Coffee and Café’ on Main St, Half Moon Bay. Initially Anthony was making faces that he didn’t want to waste time going for coffee. But, then he met Lori there and seemed very happy and he never stopped smiling.

At the end Sekhar had to interrupt them as Lori was Sekhar’s carpool. Anthony was so happy that he thanked Wesley for suggesting the coffee break and he gave $1 tip to Wesley !!

When I reached home it was 6:30PM. I didn't take any pictures here though it was a great forest. It was a great hike.

Footprints

When I was in college hostel, a poster called "Footprints" was most popular and was seen in every room. I had one too and I liked it so much. When I was glancing through the pictures of Death Valley national park this picture caught my attention and reminded me of the poster :)

What was on that poster ? Go on ... read ...

One night a man had a dream. He dreamt, he was walking along the beach with the God.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life. For each scene he noticed two sets of footprints in the sand: one belonging to him, and the other to the God.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him, he looked back at the footprints in the sand. He noticed that many times along the path of his life there was only one set of footprints. He also noticed that it happened at the very lowest and saddest times in his life.

This really bothered him and he questioned the God about it:

"LORD, all my life I have followed you and always believed that you'd walk with me all the way of my life. But I have noticed that during the most troublesome times in my life, there is only one set of footprints. I don't understand why when I needed you most you would leave me."

The God replied:

"My child, I love you and I would never leave you. During your times of trial and suffering, when you see only one set of footprints, it was then that I carried you."