Life, edited

First hike of the year, with A.Z. and his girlfriend K.

We saw some deer by the parking lot. And there was a bit of mud, but not too bad.

 

To mix things up, S.A. and A.Z. headed to the Stanford Dish with me…in the rain.

There looked to be turkeys or some related bird.

With A.Z. and S.A.

AZ and SA accompanied me again for this Labor Day hike.

I think there were quail or some other flock of birds that moved on foot swiftly away from us, along with the standard scuttering lizards.

Went with both S.A. and A.Z. to Purisima. Started off with a lot of fog…

The wildlife was out in force. Beyond the usual lizards, there were rabbits (too quick to photograph), a snake (!) that slithered off post-haste, and a pair of amorous banana slugs uncaring of how they were smack in the middle of the trail:

The real prize was a fox, which is damn hard to make out; if you can somehow zoom into the red box, the face is on the left side:

I cannot speak with any authority about the pokemon on the trail, but I can report that several eggs were hatched, and the dearth of data connectivity was much mourned. Still, a very satisfactory hike.

Two hikes on consecutive weekends!

Also, there is apparently a PokeSpot on the trail. And nearby pokemon are easily found because they’ll be on the trail and not in a random direction. Plus lots of steps to hatch S.A.’s eggs.

The trail was a bit muddy in spots and positively infested with lizards who kept rustling the underbrush and startling the heck out of us.

Some fog that simulated rain, as moisture dripped down from the trees, but a good bit of sun later.

Slight lowlight was the man who, knowing we were behind him, made no attempt to let us pass him; when we finally spoke up, he said, “I’m not moving from the center of the trail,” which makes me wonder what he would do if a biker or horse came along.

Charged up the hills, though, and was actually surprised when we came to the end!

Why deviate from a good thing?

30° Celsius, but the trail has decent shade, thankfully. Also made good use of a newly gifted Camelbak.

Soooo 26 hikes in the year is unlikely to happen, but I seem to be on track for monthly!

Started May by heading to Purisima again with S.A.

We hiked almost exactly 7 miles in a little less than 2.5 hours. I was definitely feeling some of those uphills, partially due to the heat of the day and a later start (I’d been out late the night before). I finished off my water and cracked open a new bottle once we got to my car.

My shins appear to be feeling it today. But it’s a good burn, right?