Augustin Bernal Park, Pleasanton 4/19/08

Hi Everyone!

This weekend, we hiked up to the top of the Pleasanton Ridge via Augustin Bernal Park. It was a cool, breezy day which made the hike up very pleasant indeed! However, we couldn't stay at the top to enjoy the views due to HURRICANE FORCE WINDS! We made it to the top and immediately hurried back down the trail toward the relative shelter of the hillside! Rob, Laura, Jordan, Jacob, Kris, Jean and I all made the 4 mile hike. Good time and a nice kick butt workout on the way up. Enjoy the pictures (although Laura's camera had a low battery so there aren't as many as usual!).

See you next time!

Eline

Uvas Canyon County Park 4/11 - 4/13

Happy Birthday Laura!!!!

What a fantastic trip this was! Great group of people, perfect weather, pretty little park, nice hike, the works! We arrived Friday afternoon/evening; Mike, Arlene, Kathleen, Jeff M, Laura, Jordan, Jager, Rob, and myself, (Jeff R. joined us Saturday morning early enough to make the hike), set up camp, had some dinner and celebrated Laura's birthday (and a belated one for Kathleen). The next morning was the hike, and what a hike it was! Up...up....up.....up....up.....a little farther up.....whew! This was a challenging hike that we weren't quite prepared for, given the unseasonably warm weekend (mid 80's), the fact that we thought it was a pretty little 3 mile waterfall loop (it was more like a steep and treacherous 5 + miles), and that we were up late the night before sitting around the campfire having cocktails and conversations that I can't repeat here. But we made it!! We saw one somewhat un-inspiring waterfall (picture above), but the trail was quite nice once you acclimated to the heat and high altitude! We made it back to "base camp" by 12:30 - had a great lunch, sat around for several hours nursing our various hiking injuries and our Bloody Marys (thanks Mike, you have no idea how good those were!), then started another round of dinner, campfire, cocktails, and conversations that I just can't repeat here! Thanks everyone for making it such a great time!

Portola Redwoods State Park 3/30/08

This hike was beautiful (and quite an adventure)! Jeff, Rob, Laura and I started out at 10:30-ish, meandering through the giant redwoods. Jeff pointed out an edible plant. We let him try it first, watched him closely for any signs of distress, then tried it ourselves - tasty, it might work in a salad! We later realized that Jeff's survivor skills in the Redwoods could quite possibly save our lives!! We managed to get lost (early spring, sketchy trails, sketchy map, downed redwoods, and several other excuses!). We found another lost hiker - a nice Chiropractor named Adam (see Laura's photos). We banded together in our time of crisis, sent out scouts to check on possible trails, scaled canyon walls, leaped across raging rivers, until finally...we found our trail again. O.k. so it wasn't quite that dramatic - but it's all true! There was never any real panic - just the short, brief kind that you experience when you realize that you really are off the trail! It was great fun and after several hours we made it back to civilization! The Volcano Chicken Wings at the Brewery made everything right again with the world!