EBRPD Trails Challenge

If you haven't already you can still sign up for the East Bay Regional Park Districts' 2011 Trails Challenge. This is a self paced program aimed to get people out to enjoy the many parks in the East Bay Regional Park District. Registration is free for Alameda County and Contra Costa County residents and for Kaiser Permanente employess who are also Northern California residents. Registration gets you a downloadable guide booklet and trail log, an organic T-Shirt and a commemorative pin for those who complete the challenge. To complete the challenge you need to travel 5 of the 20 trails in the guide booklet or travel 26.2 miles of trails featured in the guidebook by December 1, 2011. T-shirts can be picked up at one of five Visitor Centers: Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, Coyote Hills Regional Park, Crab Cove Visitor Center, Sunol-Ohlone Regional Wilderness and Tilden Nature Area.

Trails Challenge Website

Sunol Regional Wilderness Hike

We took advantage of the break in wet weather and went to Sunol Regional Wilderness for a hike. This time we took some beginning hikers with us.  We have done a few hikes here in the past but we had not done the Flag Hill Trail. We parked by the Visitor Center and headed across the parking lot to the foobridge. After crossing the footbridge we headed left towards Flag Hill Trail. The dirt trail was narrow right from the beginning. After just over a quarter of a mile we hit a fork on the road, with the right leading to Shady Glen Trail, we continued towards the left. Right after this junction the trail began to climb. We didn't have to climb long before being rewarded with views of the park. We hit a few switchbacks as we continued to climb, and climb, and climb. There were a handful of shaded areas on the trail but the majority of trail was exposed.  We saw some beautiful California poppies growing along the side of the trail. We climbed nearly 1000 feet on the narrow trail for 1.26 miles before reaching Flag Hill. The trail was steep but even the beginning hikers who were with us managed well. The views of the park, Alameda Creek Watershed and Calaveras Reservoir were well worth all of the gain in elevation. We were lucky that it was such a clear day and with it being early in the year the hills were still beautiful shades of green. After some snapshots we took the short and popular detour for even more amazing views. There was a small group of people here as well. This area was rocky and along with a bench closeby it proved to be a good place to take a break. We refueled and headed back towards Flag Hill Trail. At this point we could choose to retrace our steps back down the trail to our car or take another trail back making the hike a loop. We opted to make the hike a loop. Instead of heading back down Flag Hill Trail we took the trail a little further before turning right onto High Valley Road and then another right onto Hayfield Road. Both of these trails were much wider than the trail we took on the way up. We got more good views and came fairly close to cattle at several points. Although a little longer, this route back was not as steep as Flag Hill Trail. We did come across a few people heading in the opposite direction. We also passed by the High Valley Camp which included several picnic tables. After about 2 miles on our mostly downhill trek, we made it back to the footbridge. We crossed it once more before heading to the Visitor Center to pick up our shirts for the 2011 EBPRD Trails Challenge and then onto our car. In total our hike was about 3.75 miles and took us about 2 hours and 20 minutes. The views were amazing thanks to the clear skies, it is a great spring hike.

View From Flag Hill

Yosemite's Half Dome

As everyone hopefully knows, you need a permit to hike the Half Dome cables regardless of the day. On March 1st permits went on sale for May and June. As I understand it all dates for those months sold out in less then 15 minutes. So if you tried hopefully you got yours. If you're going to try for dates later in the summer you need to try right at 7am on the day they go on sale. Now if you're going to be hiking Half Dome please be prepared for it. It is almost a 16 mile round trip trek from the valley. If you have never done it before, make sure you know what you're in for. If you want all the details on the hike then I recommend you turn to Rick Deutsch - Mr. Half Dome. He has done the hike at least 28 times and is the author of the book One Best Hike: Yosemite's Half Dome. The book is 100+ pages completely dedicated to conquering the epic hike. It gives you detailed info on every part of the hike and is full of great tips. Another way to learn is to go to one of Rick's presentations where you can meet him in person and listen to his advice on hiking Half Dome. I went to one of his presentations back in 2007 and found it very informative and entertaining. He has several presentations coming up in the area, so check one out.

Rick's Upcoming Presentations
3/8   REI Fremont
3/16 REI San Francisco
3/22 REI Marina
3/24 REI Brentwood
3/30 REI San Carlos
4/5   REI Stockton
4/9   Bass Pro Outdoor World- Manteca

Rick's Website - Hike Half Dome
Rick's Book - One Best Hike: Yosemite's Half Dome

March Events

Here are a few things going on in March

3/6    Napa Valley Marathon

3/12  Juana Run 8k in Palo Alto

3/13  Shamrock Fun Run in Dublin

3/13  Tilden Park Trail Run

3/19  Diablo Trails Challenge

3/20  Modesto Marathon
3/20  SF Sunday Streets - Embarcadero

3/26  Napa Valley Trail Run
3/26  Oakland Running Festival
3/26  REI Berkeley's Footwear Festival

REI Free Clinics (all at 7pm)

  Islands of SF Bay: A Photographer's Delight

    3/2 San Carlos

    3/17 Santa Rosa

    3/31 Mountain View

  Great Spring Hikes in Contra Costa County

    3/2 Concord

    3/10 Brentwood

  Bike Maintenance Basics

    3/1 Fremont

    3/9 San Carlos
    3/10 Mountain View
    3/10 Santa Rosa

  Half Dome in a Day

    3/8 Fremont

    3/16 San Francisco
    3/24 Brentwood

REI Used Gear Sales (all at 10am)

    3/5  San Francisco

    3/5  Concord
    3/5  Saratoga
    3/5  Berkeley

    3/5  Mountain View

    3/12 Corte Madera

    3/12 Brentwood

    3/12 Santa Rosa
    3/12 Stockton
    3/20 Fremont

Almond Blossom 8k

There aren't many 8k races around so when I heard about the Almond Blossom Run in Ripon I had to sign up. There was a one mile race as well, both of which were part of the Annual Almond Blossom Festival. Entry fee was a reasonable $20 and included a long sleeve t-shirt. Only pre-registered participants got the shirt. The race's start and finish was at Mavis Stouffer Park which had public restrooms. There was limited parking in the park, most participants parked along the nearby residential streets. Bib pick-up was well organized and race timing was provided by way of a disposable timing chip atached to each bib. The one mile race started at 8:30am and took the racers along Manley Road and Spring Creek Drive and then back. The 8k race started promptly at 9am and also took the racers onto Manley Road and then onto Spring Creek Drive. The course continued to wind through residential streets before taking us along some almond fields with yup, you guessed it, almond blossoms! There were chalked mile markers for the first few miles and after about 3 miles we came across the one water station. More residential streets led us back to the park for the finish. The entire race was on fairly flat paved roads. Streets were not closed but the course was well marked and there were plenty of race volunteers keeping us on course. Once back at the park there was post race snacks such as water, orange juice, bagels and muffins. Race results were posted quickly saving people from having to stay until the awards to find out how they did. The weather forecast had predicted possible rain during race time but luckily it was completely dry. It was incredibly cold, but dry. The race was well organized and provided a rare opportunity to run an 8k race.

Race Results

Yosemite Valley Winter Camping

On our recent trip to Yosemite we camped one night at the Upper Pines campground in the Valley. During the winter there are only two camping choices in the Valley, Upper Pines or Camp 4, neither of which take reservations during the winter.We decided to go to Upper Pines. There was no ranger or volunteer at the entrance, simply a note to pick a campsite and pay for it in the morning. The recent storm had left a lot of snow in the valley. Only two loops in the campground were open. The first loop had nothing available but there were a few sites in the second loop. We picked one on the corner that looked good. We had to clear some snow just to be able to park our car. The picnic table was covered with snow and the fire ring was buried. As usual you have to go over to curry village for showers, but at least the restrooms in the campground are heated during the winter. We setup camp and walked over to Curry Village for some hot chocolate. Also stopped at the campground reservation office in the Curry parking lot and paid for the campsite since we would be leaving early in the morning. By evening all the sites in Upper Pines were taken. We are guessing that's pretty rare in the winter.

Upper Pines Campground

View of Half Dome from Sentinel Bridge

Yosemite Falls

Yosemite Snowshoeing

We had decided months ago that Presidents Day weekend would be a good time to head to Yosemite National Park to snowshoe and camp. With the recent storms we were really excited to see all of the fresh snow. But first things first. We had never snowshoed before so our first stop was REI the day before to rent snowshoes. We paid a total of $30 for two sets of MSR Ascents. We now had our gear so we just needed to decide which trail to do. Being new to snowshoeing we wanted something easy. We looked through the snowshoe guides that Yosemite puts online and decided to do the Tuolomne Grove. The trek is rated as easy and is just over 2 miles roundtrip. To reach the Tuolomne Grove trailhead we entered the park via Highway 120. Chains or 4WD were required. The sides of the roads and trees were covered in snow making the drive beautiful. We stopped at the Crane Flat gas station to fill up and use the restrooms. They were still in the process of digging out the station after all the recent snow. The trailhead for Tuolomne Grove is one mile past the gas station along Tioga Pass Road. The trailhead is actually as far as you can go along Tioga Pass during the winter. We parked and grabbed our gear. With snowshoes on we began the one mile downhill trek to reach the grove. Based on conditions of the trail only a few people had gone out before us. It was amazing to be out in all the fresh powder. All of the trees were covered and their branches were weighed down by all the snow. We followed the tracks of those before us into the grove. We circled through the trees to a large downed hollowed Sequoia, which we could see into. Not sure if that tree has a name or a story to it. We continued across a small creek to the Tunnel Tree. We took our photos and a quick break before continuing on. We finished our circling of the grove and headed back toward the trailhead, now going uphill. We passed many more people on our way back to the car. For our first time snowshoeing it was alot of fun. It was also quite tiring. We were definitely ready for some lunch by the time we got back to the car. We'll probably try to snowshoe once or twice each winter from now on. We might even buy our own shoes to avoid the need to rent.

Natural Bridges State Beach

This weekend we headed to Santa Cruz to enjoy the perfect weather. We decided to visit Natural Bridges State Beach. The small beach is noted for its natural bridge rock formation. Its a nice place for hanging out, playing in the sand or viewing shore birds. Further north along the beach there are tidepools for viewing various sea life such as starfish and sea urchins. There are lots of  picnic tables with shade just off the sand with restrooms nearby. Natural Bridges is probably most well known for its Monarch Butterfly grove. The grove of eucalyptus trees provides a home for the monarchs during the winter months from mid October through mid February. As many as 100,000 monarchs come each winter. Across from the visitor center in the park there is a handicap accesible boardwalk that leads to an observation area for viewing the butterflies. Currently most of the butterflies are gone for the season. As we began our walk we saw several monarchs fluttering about here and there but nothing like what you would see earlier in the winter. After the boardwalk we took the Monarch Trail and looped around the eucalyptus grove and back to the visitor center. While on the trail we saw a few more butterflies and several birds. A quick walk through the visitor center and we headed to the tide pools where we were able to catch a glimpse of some crabs and sea urchins. After the tide pools we headed to the beach to hang out. The weather was amazing, best we had ever experienced in Santa Cruz. It was around 74 degrees with no wind at all. After relaxing on the beach we headed to Capitola where we ate dinner and then to New Brighton State Beach where we camped for the night. Sunday morning we awoke early and went to Wilder Ranch State Park to take advantage of the still great weather. We went for a trail run on the Old Cove Landing Trail towards the ocean and along the bluffs, where the views of the coastline are amazing.

Natural Bridges State Beach
Directions: Take Swift Avenue west from Highway 1, or follow West Cliff Drive north along the in-town bluffs until it ends at Natural Bridges. Entrance fee is $10.

February Events

Here are a few things going on in February

2/6    Kaiser Half Marathon in SF

2/19  Bay Breeze Trail Run in San Leandro

2/20  Lake Chabot Trail Run

2/26  Redwood Park Trail Run

REI Free Clinics (all at 7pm)

  Snowcamping Basics

    2/10 Brentwood

    2/2 Concord

    2/2 San Carlos

    2/8 Berkeley

  Exploring Crystal Cave in Sequoia National Park

    2/2 San Francisco

    2/17 Santa Rosa

    2/24 Mountain View

  Top 10 Adventures to do Now: Bay Area and Nor Cal

    2/23 Corte Madera

    2/24 Saratoga

  Discover Yosemite in Winter

    2/2 Corte Madera

    2/3 Santa Rosa

REI Used Gear Sales (all at 10am)

    2/5 San Francisco

    2/5 Concord

    2/5 Mountain View

    2/6 Fremont

    2/6 San Carlos

    2/12 Corte Madera

    2/5 Saratoga