Spring Shenanigans

You know it’s spring here in San Jose when all three sketchy icecream trucks are back in action! The weather the past several weeks has been pretty out of control, so Owen and I had to get creative with our travels. We finally explored a few places in the East Bay that had been on our bucket list.

One day we drove out to Mount Diablo, about two hours northeast of us. After the last intense stretch of white-knuckle driving, we finally made it to the top and could easily see the Bay and even some snow covered mountains. Apparently Mount Diablo has one of the largest viewsheds (the area of land you can see) in the Western United States. After getting battered by the wind at the summit, we headed to lower ground and did a short hike through rolling, green plains. Our picnic lunch was followed by one of the best outdoor naps I’ve ever had.

Can you tell it was windy? Owen's hair does not normally do that

Another day we planned to hike Mission Peak, near Owen’s office. I’d heard of people running to the top of it so I figured it wouldn’t be anything too intense. Ha! We went in the midst of the heavy rains the Bay Area got battered with, and had to battle a trail that was essentially one big mudslide. On top of that, we arrived at the trailhead starving and had brought just a single banana with us. When we finally made it to the summit, we were too exhausted and drenched to even eat the freakin banana. However, I’m a big believer in the motto “It doesn’t have to be fun to be fun” and this hike was the perfect example of that.

Just two drowned rats

It’s been awhile since Owen and I have been backpacking together, and that was clearly evidenced the first few miles of our trip at Point Reyes National Seashore, north of San Francisco.  We were practically running down the trail, we had so much energy. We arrived at our backpacking site early in the day so we explored the beaches, and, I’ll never forget this moment: I turned my head to look down the coast and in the distance saw a waterfall cascading directly on the beach!  We spent the rest of the afternoon hiking out to the waterfall. In our usual camping fashion, we turned in for bed around 7pm.

The rocks were dying the water crazy colors!

That night I heard a pack of coyotes howling and yelping. Immediately my stomach dropped when I thought of the food in our bear box… the bear box that didn’t close properly. They never came for it, but it turns out I had good reason to worry. The next morning, when I went to grab our food our oatmeal packets were shredded up and something had nibbled on a corner of our cheese block. I can only guess it was a mouse! Despite our lack of food that morning we made it out fine, though I was nursing wounds from my pack irritating my hips. That prompted me to bring my pack to REI to get it properly fitted. A man so old, if REI were named after a person this would have been him, worked his magic on the 50 different adjusting straps. Hoping this helps!

Our campsite by the beach

Now that the flooding has subsided and roads are starting to open up again, I’ve gone on a few pretty sweet trail runs. I’m ramping up for a 50K in July, and getting back into training has been rough at points. At Almaden Quicksilver Park, I made my usual mistake of letting myself get way too hungry and thirsty. But eventually a runner’s high kicked in and I enjoyed myself. Last weekend, at Henry Coe State Park, I was simply unprepared for the 1600 feet of elevation gain and by the end it was all I could do to stumble back to the car. Luckily a Shamrock Shake revived me later that day. So on that note, Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Chasing vert (aka running hills) at Quicksilver