Afternoon stroll along the bay

I had to take our camera out for a spin on a short hike at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Regional Shoreline. It's a great little trail along the Bay roughly between 66th Ave. and Hegenberger Rd. Watch out for the squirrels. Click on the picture for more.

MLK Regional Shoreline Pics [flickr]

Yosemite Road Trip! (Part 2)

Continued from Yosemite Road Trip! (Part 1)

Tip #2: Pack all food, toiletries, and water in a separate bag from your clothes.

Since we didn't follow Tip #2, we were stuck at the car until 1 am sorting our toiletries. Funny the bear in the movie looked like it was tearing apart our car...as soon as we turned to sleepily wobble to our tent, a huge bear saunters across the parking lot 100 feet in front of us. Not a welcome site. After waiting out the bear sighting from the front seat of our fortress, er, Chevy Aveo, we decide to make a break for our bunker, er, canvas tent.

On our second attempt to just get some sleep after our long drive, we were welcomed into the campground by shouts of "BEAR!" coming from all over. Not in the mood. At all. After a few tears, cussing, and thoughts of leaving right then and there, we survived the first freezing cold night.

Tip #3: Sleeping bags don't keep the cold out if they aren't zipped up/zipped together. Especially when it's 35 degrees.

So, by now you've realized we're not the most experienced campers. Funny that I always ask for camping gear for gifts. Maybe it makes me feel more outdoorsy.

After a nice long rest (until 11am) the second day was a zillion times better than the first waking up under the eye of half dome and brisk autumn day. Instead of braving the tourists in the Valley, we drove one hour south to Mariposa Grove to see the Sequoia forest. On the way we stopped to see Bridalveil Falls, one of the few waterfalls still flowing in October. The short hike was worth the time to see a light mist spraying over the precipice above.

We have tall redwoods in the Bay Area, but these trees were just beasts. We passed on the $16 tram ride and decided to take a short hike up to see the sites. It was a busy trail, but much less busy than the bustle of activity in Yosemite Valley. And the car trip there and back was equally breathtaking.

We decided to drive to Glacier Point to see Yosemite Valley from above. The short half-hour drive leads to a point directly above the visitor's center in the Valley below; it was as if we were in an airplane looking out over the mountains, and it was such a clear day. The Sierras just went on and on in every direction. This short drive was definitely the highlight of our trip.

We grabbed dinner back at Curry Village with the rest of civilization. The lounge/lodge/restaurant had all of the comforts of home: a fireplace, big leather couches, and the Cal football game opposite the National League playoff game on television. So much for getting away from reality!

Our second night was much less eventful with our lessons learned from the night before. We called it a night early to avoid any bear encounters. It was too cold to do anything anyway.

On our way back to the Bay Area we stopped by Hetch Hetchy Valley and O'Shaughnessy Dam. My wife claims I was slightly giddy as we drove up the deserted road to San Francisco's drinking water supply reservoir - maybe I was a little. Funny that we've both studied this place in school as a history major and an environmental engineer.

The Hetch Hetchy area of Yosemite was much easier to wrap our hands around than the main park. There were several great day hike trails (although we were too exhausted to try), not many people, and still an amazing view.

Tip #4: Get a National Parks annual pass. It's $50 and entering Yosemite is $20...and entering Yosemite again to see Hetch Hetchy is $20.

The only thing in my life that has compared to visiting Yosemite is visiting the Louvre in Paris. Both places are utterly unique and breathtaking and completely overwhelming. When we go again, we hope to rough it a little more during the day and pamper ourselves more at night. It is truly an amazing place that cannot be described through pictures or stories, but needs to be experienced first-hand in its harsh beauty.

Yosemite Road Trip! (Part 1)

After living in California for over two years, we finally decided to take a pilgramage to Yosemite National Park: the breathtaking, gradiose, and tourist ridden Sierra Nevada valley. We dissuaded ourselves from going in the past because we wanted to try to avoid tourist season. Well, it seems that there is a reason that more people come during the peak tourist season - it isn't 35 degrees at night with no heat in a canvas tent! More on that later...

Despite our best efforts to leave right after work from San Francisco, our plans were thwarted by the other half million people trying to escape the City for the long weekend.

Tip #1: Do not attempt to leave downtown San Francisco by car on a Friday afternoon. Everybody else is doing the same thing.

So, we were off to a great start...by 7:00pm we had made it all the way to Livermore for a gourmet dinner at Quizno's. We really just got off 580 to let the traffic die down, but we ran into Friday night high school orgy at the mall. And don't diss Quizno's - this is the staple of road-trip food!

The traffic had died down substantially as we zig-zagged across the central valley on Highway 120 arriving at the Curry Village registration desk just before midnight. The road into Yosemite was breathtaking: the full moon overhead lit up the granite valley walls with a spooky white shimmer that towered over us.

Arrival
We expected to be the last of the night to check-in to our tent cabin lodging, but it turns out that the entire Bay Area decided leave and arrive with us. The half-hour wait at the registration desk was thoroughly enhanced by the ten-minute "bear safety" video looping over the employees' heads.

"Do not leave food in your car. Do not leave food in your tent. We hope you didn't go to Quizno's on the way here because a bear will smell it and tear open the roof of your car like this...." --video showing bear tearing off the roof of a car like ours--

So, if a bear can do that to a car, what will it to our paper-thin, vinyl tent cabin walls? What if I smell like Quizno's?

Continued: Yosemite Road Trip! (Part 2)

Would you like some nature with your Sunday brunch?

My favorite road trips are the ones that I can take after brunch on a Saturday or Sunday. I'm a big fan of sleeping in on the weekends, yet I still want to get out of the house and do something after a leisurely morning. That said, we have discovered the perfect post-brunch get away: Point Reyes National Seashore (pronounced Rays) in Marin County.

We visited Pt. Reyes for the first time only weeks after moving to the Bay Area and were blown away by the beauty of the land. Although we also quickly learned on that visit that finding our way back from the Lighthouse after dark is more trouble that it's worth! Who knew that so many wild animals could dart in front of your car at dusk? But, we survived- as did the wild animals- and we kept going back!

This past Sunday, after a delicious brunch, we set off again for Pt. Reyes. This time we were in search of a good hiking trail that would allow us to spend a few hours meandering through the area. As luck would have it, we found the perfect trail: The Abbott's Lagoon trail off Pierce Point Road. The 2.3 mile Abbott's Lagoon trail is great for beginners- or those of us that want to have a leisurely, scenic hike.

The Abbott's Lagoon trail does just as it promises: takes the hiker over and around a beautiful lagoon filled with lush vegetation and unusual birds (this city-slicker might even call them exotic birds). We quickly hiked the 1.4 miles of sand-packed trail before hitting the beach. At this point, we could have turned around to head back to the car, but we carried on through the sand. It was a good decision. The beach surrounding the lagoon is beautiful. I had no idea that the sand could look so many different colors! We spent some time sitting on a piece of driftwood and watching birds come in for a water landing. Again, we hiked on further (about 1/2 mile) to the ocean. The site was breathtaking and I could have spent all day watching the fog roll over the ocean cliffs. For the first time in two years, I didn't even try to convince my husband that Lake Michigan is more beautiful than the ocean.

In total the hike took us about 2 hours. Be prepared to do some hiking through sand if you decide to head to the beach. There is easy parking at the trail head and something that resembles a toilet.

Other favorite things to do at Pt. Reyes:

• Walk the "Earthquake Trail" at the visitor's center and see the epicenter of the 1906 Earthquake. Not a good trail to show to your nervous mother from the Midwest!
• Drive to the Lighthouse and walk down the looooong steps to see it in action. Be aware that your legs may hurt the next day!
• Visit Pt. Reyes during Whale Watching season- March, April, October. You'll have to park your car at a lot half-way to the lighthouse and take a shuttle bus. We haven't seen any whales YET, but just the possibility of seeing one is worth the trip!

For more info:

• Point Reyes Hiking Guide
• Point Reyes National Seashore
  

weekend hike

Last weekend we decided to visit one of our favorite hiking spots in the Bay Area - Redwood Regional Park. Redwood is part of the expansive East Bay Regional Parks system covering most of the hills in the East Bay and many more really cool places to hang out on a weekend. We still have a lot of exploring to do in this 1,836 acre park, but what we've seen has kept us coming back.

Redwood was once home to an original Redwood forest until all of the crazy humans came and used them to build houses. (The sawdust in our walls is red - what have we DONE?) The Coast Redwoods have regrown and while it isn't as impressive as Muir Woods, the parking is a hell of a lot easier. Redwood Creek runs through the park and was where Rainbow Trout was "discovered". I bet that was an exciting day.

Be careful driving on Skyline Drive on the weekends - bikes rule the road and jump out of nowhere. We typically park at the Skyline gate for hiking. As you'll soon find out, we're pretty casual hikers and start to get grumpy after a couple miles. From the Skyline gate, there are plenty of hiking choices that don't take you too far into the canyon.

Take the Stream trail for a nice cool hike in the shade, or the West Ridge Trail for a sunnier trip. Either way makes for an easy hike. You can also take French Trail and loop around for a little extra exercise and a nice tour of redwoods.

If you drive to the other end of the park, the Redwood Gate charges for parking, but there is a huge picnic area and fields for playing. The hiking on this end of the park tends to be either flat or really steep, but you start in the canyon instead of having to hike down at the other side of the park.

For more info and directions:
http://www.ebparks.org
http://www.bahiker.com/eastbayhikes/redwood.html