Chilnualna Falls - Yosemite National Park

Pinnacles - High Peaks and North Wilderness Trail

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Hike to Murrieta Falls - 28 Feb 2009

This weekend should have been a backpacking weekend but it got cancelled because of the rain that was forecast for Sunday. The initial plan was to hike the Ohlone Wilderness Trail from Lake Del Valle to Rose Peak on the first day, spend the night at Maggie's Half Acre, and go down to Sunol's visitor center on the second day. 10 miles each day.
Instead, we decided to hike from Lake Del Valle to Murrieta Falls, and come back, which would be about 12 miles with about 4500 feet of elevation gain. No backpacking but still a pretty decent hike.

There were 6 of us (Fizzymagic who organized the trip, Calipidder, Drunken Marmot, Bthomas, Kendrah and me). We started shortly after 9 am.

To get to the Fall, we mostly had to climb two ridges: Rocky Ridge first, then go down about 600 feet to William Gulch, and then climb up Big Burn to Rowell Ridge. Both ridges were climbed at a relatively high pace and almost without any break. For sure, had I done this hike solo, I would have stopped every 300 feet. But it was good to feel challenged a little more than usual.

I really liked Rocky Ridge. The views were beautiful, and the shooting stars (wild flowers) abundant. We grabbed a cache on one of the hilltops before going down to the gulch We didn't break at William Gulch and instead, we directly attacked the Big Burn climb. It was tough, especially with the lack of breaks, but it allowed us to be over with the climb relatively quickly. Reaching the top of Big Burn felt very nice. The views were breathtaking. This ridge was totally dwarfing the Rocky Ridge that we had climbed earlier. We had great views of Mount Diablo, Brushy Peak, Livermore, Pleasanton Ridge, Monument/Allison/Mission Peaks, and as a bonus, the Sierra Nevada with its snowy tops.

The terrain on Rowell Ridge was mostly gently rolling hills. We quickly reached the top of the falls and while Fizzymagic stayed there to snap a few pictures, we climbed down to get the cache there. We also took a nice lunch break close to the water pool. The fall is not spectacular in itself, it's mostly just a tiny creek flowing between rocks,but it was a beautiful and relaxing setting.
Climbing out of this little secluded heaven was tough. There was a a path but it was still 100 feet (almost vertical) to climb.

We then hiked in some more up to get to a few other caches. Our turn around point was at 8 miles in. We were 7 miles from the trailhead, and had climbed 4000 feet so we knew we would be tired very soon (we still had about 1000 feet to climb). Bthomas and Kendrah decided to go for Rose Peak so only 4 of us were going back.

Walking back to the top of Big Burn was pretty easy even though we were tired at this point. I found the climb down Big Burn very difficult. I thought my legs would just stop working at any time. We climbed it down at a fast pace with no break. I really wished it would go up instead of down as every step was painful. Once we reached the bottom (William Gulch), we took a good break that my legs appreciated.

We still had to get out of that canyon, to the top of Rocky Ridge before another painful climb down to the trailhead. This last climb up was challenging for Fizzymagic and for me. But we took it very slow, one step after the other and we made it to the top of the ridge before we knew it. One last climb down, very difficult for the legs after so much hiking, and we were back at the trailhead.

In the end, we hiked 15 miles with about 5000 feet of elevation. As Calipidder mentioned somewhere, it's similar to going down to the Colorado River from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and back up in the same day.
The weather was perfect for this. It was comfortably cool, it didn't rain on us, and most importantly there was no mud.

I really enjoyed the hike, the park, the views, and the company. I spent an awesome day. The only thing that could have made it better was to have actually backpacked to Sunol but that will be for another time. I really want to go back there again, backpacking this time. And the crazy me doesn't want to just go from Del Valle to Sunol. I am seriously thinking about hiking the full 28 miles of the Ohlone Trail, and this includes climbing up Mission Peak.

Many thanks to Fizzymagic for organizing such a great outing!

My photos are here.
Calipidder's photos are here.

Interactive tracklog:

Hiking to Willson Peak - Henry Coe SP - 21 Feb 2009

Yesterday was forecast to be the dry day of the weekend, so it was the hiking day. I was not too sure where to go. Climbing up Coyote Peak is all I could think of until I remembered how close to Henry Coe I was when I hiked Harvey Bear Ranch two weeks ago.
A quick search online brought a map of the Hunting Hollow area, in the south part of Henry Coe SP. It seemed that climbing up Steer Ridge trail to Willson Peak and then going back down using Lyme Willson Ridge trail would make for a nice loop. Not very long, but with plenty of elevation to get some exercise.
After a relatively long drive (exit 101 between Morgan Hill and Gilroy, and then drive some more), I was at the entrance and ready to go. The map was not lying. The Steer Ridge trail starts immediately after crossing the creek, right at the entrance, and climbs straight up. It's really a ridge trail, with no switchback. The kind of Butt-kicker hike that Coe offers (I'm thinking that Big Sur can be like that too).
I saw some wildflowers (mostly the yellow pansies) here and there, but no real "carpet". It's still early in the season. I enjoyed the climb, and then the flatter part on the ridge. Great views from there. I could see Loma Prieta, Mount Hamilton with its snow-covered top, and what I believe was the Monterey Bay. There was some snow on the Ventana Wilderness summits.
The top of Willson Peak was windy. At 2651 feet (808 m), it was the highest point around and the views were great. I found the USGS Elevation benchmark and took the opportunity to calibrate my GPS. It was only 10 feet off.
Close to the summit, there was a small automated seismographic station. I hope my walking around didn't disturb the instruments.
Going down was obviously easy and quick. I only had to take a slight detour to go around a few cows (there were youngsters). There was a place along the trail where there were many many beautiful shooting stars. The trail met the bottom of the valley close to the old windmill, about 0.8 miles from the parking lot. The trail crossed the creek about 5 or 6 times in less than a mile. The water was flowing but thanks to stones carefully placed, only the bottom of my shoes got wet. Toads were performing, thousands of them, but I could not see any. I soon as I got close to a loud "rubit", it would stop. I got to see a few newts in the creek, and this is always nice.
That was a great hike (about 7.6 miles, 2200 feet of elevation gain), and most importantly, with no mud despite the heavy rain that fell last week. I definitely need to explore more of Henry Coe before it gets too hot.

My pictures are here.

Interactive tracklog:

Harvey Bear Ranch - 07 Feb 2009

This morning, I was supposed to do some volunteer work for the County Parks and then maybe do a short hike in Coyote Lake - Harvey Bear Ranch County Park.
Because of a misunderstanding, I could not find the group and decided to spend the morning hiking. I never heard of this park before so I thought it would be a great opportunity to just explore it.

It was great. Quite muddy because of yesterday's rain though. Not only the mud sticks to the boots and makes each foot weights much more than usual, but it makes the trails very slippery.

The park was still green (it will dry up quickly) and I saw a few nice wild flowers. It's only the beginning of the season. Full bloom is expecting in a few weeks.
I saw many dears, turkeys, ospreys, and even one coyote that didn't seem to notice me until he was about 50 feet from me. He then ran before I had a chance to snap a picture.

I chose an ambitious route for this hike, trying to take the longest side trails. It allowed me to enjoy the various terrains and expositions. The hike ended up being 12.7 miles long, with about 2200 feet of elevation gain.

I will be sore tomorrow...

My pictures are here.

Interactive track log:

Ladybugs hike - 01 Feb 2009

This morning, we decided to check out those "clusters" of ladybugs that many friends reported sightings of. We had the choice between several locations and we chose Purisma Creek Redwoods OSP. Even though it was not the closest place from home, we thought we could spend the whole day around Half Moon Bay after having walked to the ladybugs gathering point. After all, today was Superbowl day and the whole country would be watching, which means "no traffic". Yay!

We started following the main trail along the Purisma Creek and saw a lot of banana slugs. They were just about everywhere. I don't remember having seen that many at once. We were not sure ladybugs would still be around but other hikers confirmed they had seen them. We finally reached our destination less than a mile into the hike. Lucie noticed them first. They were everywhere, and yet, not so obvious as they were blending surprisingly well. It was a very interesting sigthing. The kids could take a good look at them (Lucie even collected a few that she later released) and we took too many pictures.

The total hike was about 1.6 miles and about 200 feet of elevation gain. Easy for kids.

We then went to downtown Half Moon Bay, had lunch at "Chez Shea", which was yummy, and headed to the beach for some wading and kite flying. The weather at the beach was awesome, although I wouldn't have minded a little bit of wind (for the kite).

We then went South, with a first stop at Pescadero for a couple of oven-hot Artichoke-Garlic bread from the Country Bakery - yummy again, and a quick stop for coffee in Davenport before checking out the Natural Bridges in Santa Cruz. While we were there, we continued driving down the Santa Cruz coast down to the lighthouse where we stopped to watch Monarch butterflies and the sunset.

What a day!

My photos are here.

Interactive track log:

Short hike in Almaden Quicksilver - 24 Jan 2009

Last weekend, the weather was getting better on Saturday, and I decided to go for a short hike in Almaden Quicksilver (McAbee entrance, Senador mines, Guadalupe reservoir, and back using Mine Hill trail).
The grass was still wet from the week's rain and the trails were muddy at places but it was not too bad.
I was very happy to see my first poppy of the year. Yay!
The hike was a little over 5 miles, with about 1000 feet of elevation gain.

The pictures are here.

Interactive track log:

Backpacking Weekend in Point Reyes - 17&18 Jan 2009

After a very successful backpacking weekend in the Sierra last summer, Calipidder was thinking of organizing a new "GBA" backpacking trip in Point Reyes.
Back in November, she managed to book a campsite at Wildcat Camp for a weekend in January 09. This was quite a gamble weather-wise. It is common in Northern California to have long periods of nice weather between two storms, but it's really unpredictable.
Well, this gamble really paid of as the weekend was probably the best weekend we could have. Perfect blue sky, not a cloud, no fog on the coast, and spring temperatures. Calipidder said she also arranged for the weather. I think I believe her.

The backpacking trip itself was awesome. There were 7 of us. Calipidder (Rebecca) and her Drunken Marmot (David), Airsax (Chris), Pavla, Triplep220 (Jeff), bthomas (Ben), and myself.
We started at the Bear Valley visitor center and hiked about 6 miles to reach the camp. We arrived at the beginning of the afternoon and set up our tents before having lunch. The beer that Dave brewed and carried (2 gallons keg) was tasted and very much appreciated. We then hiked a few miles to Alamere Falls. The stream runs on the cliff and then falls right onto the beach. Interesting sight. On our way back to the camp, we collected a lot of drift wood for the evening's fire we would make on the beach.
Attempts to fly a kite were not successful as there was no wind at all. In Point Reyes... In January... Who would have thought?
After dinner, we went to the beach and had a nice fire. Some people were looking for driftwood in the dark and had a hard time finding some. Ben conducted experiments trying to figure out the best way to start a fire. I think his conclusion was: "matches".
That night was fabulous. We could see Venus' reflection in the ocean. We even saw a shooting star.
Wind picked up in the middle of the night, shaking our tents, and the the kite finally agreed to fly at sunrise.

After breakfast, we packed everything up and hiked over the hill to reach Arch Rock via the Coastal Trail, before heading back to the Bear Valley visitors center through Bear Valley trail. It was about 7 miles long.

As a perfect conclusion to a perfect weekend, we had a great late lunch/early dinner at the Moyans brewery in Novato.

My pictures are here.
Jeff's pictures are here
Rebecca's pictures are here

Rebecca's blog post is here.

Day 1 - Interactive track log:


Day 2 - Interactive track log:

Hiking Kennedy Trail - 10 Jan 2009

I've been meaning to go back to Sierra Azul OSP and hike up Kennedy Trail for a while. CC was interested, so was Aggiejen and Wildbun so we all met on this beautiful Saturday morning, ready for the steep climb. Reaching the summit (or more exactly the junction with Priest Rock Trail) took us 3 hours (we took it slow and stopped for every geocache along the way). The climb is about 4 miles long with an elevation gain of about 1800 feet.
We actually past our original goal and went as far as the incredible area we call "Kennedy Meadow", before going back down, dropping a new cache (by CC) on the way.
We saw interesting mushrooms and fungi.

My photos are here.

Interactive track log:

First hike of the year: Castle Rock State Park - 03 Jan 2009

It was a gorgeous Saturday, and a bunch of us decided to hike in Castle Rock to grab a few caches including the new GC1KCZH-Castle Rock Cable Co. by Bullit, who was part of the group.
The park was beautiful, with great views of the Monterey Bay. No rain that day, but it was so cold that I was happy to wear my gloves.
The hike was about 6 miles long, and the elevation gain was about 1200 feet.
The group was made of Bullit, CC, Calipidder, Drunken Marmot, Nazgul, and myself.

My photos are here.

Interactive track log:

2009 resolution - A new beginning

I haven't updated this blog much last year as my interets progressively shifted from geocaching to hiking and backpacking.
I had a lot of fun in 2008 exploring the Great Outdoors with good friends and I want to share this fun again.
So, as a new resolution for 2009, I am going to dust-off this old blog and will try to keep it up to date with track logs, photos, and trip reports.
Stay tuned for upcoming updates...

Chesbro Reservoir

On Sunday, we went out to visit a cache in a very interesting location : Chesbro Reservoir, tucked in the hills west of Morgan Hill, South of Almaden.
The reservoir is almost dry and this caused an almost forgotten bridge to appear...
In 1937, 18 years before the Chesbro Dam was constructed, a small concrete bridge was built over the Llagas Creek. The dam caused the waters to submerge the bridge and gave birth to what is now known as Chesbro Reservoir.
This is a perfect time to come and discover this hidden bridge. In a few weeks, the bridge will be under troubled waters. Of course, there had to be a cache on this bridge :-)
And it is also a good time to check out tarantulas since it's the beginning of the mating season (and it's close to Halloween). We spotted two.

More pictures here

Atlas of Big Sur...

The highlight of the weekend was the hike to Atlas, another Big Sur cache by Touchstone. The meeting point was at the trail head, at 7:30 am.
Big Sur is a 2 hours drive from San Jose and to avoid waking up very early, Vero, the girls and I decided to spend the night in one of the local campgrounds. Camping along the river is very relaxing. It's a nice way of getting away for the weekend.
The hike was about 7 miles round trip, with about 3000 feet of elevation gain. Quite strenuous but not as much as the past three ones.
The weather was very cooperative. It was sunny but not too warm, partly due to the early start, partly due to a gentle breeze coming from the ocean.
Of the three Touchstone caches that I have found on the Big Sur ridges, this one was the easiest.
The trail was steep at places but the steep sections were not too long so we could easily catch our breath without having to stop too often. Also, the number of switchbacks is very reasonable (unlike the hike to Transcendental Elevation).
Near the cache, we spent some time at the "Atlas" rock. Initially, I could not figure how to see Atlas in this rock. But looking at my pictures now, I think I see an arm.
Poor Hotshoe got stung by a wasp near this rock. I have no idea who started it, her, or the wasp, but Hotshoe sure was upset. No serious reaction from Hotshoe other than a few bad words.
There was a picnic table AND a barbecue near the top (Timbertop). This is where we enjoyed a nice rest, Touchstone's cookies, and our a bug nets as the bugs were starting to bother some of us.
Note to self: Lift the net before eating or drinking.
The climb down was very quick. Even though we took our time, I think it took only 1.5 hours.
Another well spent day out :-)
Pictures are here...

Mount Tallac

This weekend, we joined a couple of friends for a camping trip in Lake Tahoe. The highlight of the stay was for me the assault on Mount Tallac. Not many caches there but climbing Mount Tallac and "grabbing" Kolly Wobbels #24 Mount Tallac (or at least its part II) seemed like a nice goal. There was also a virtual on the trail, marking the entrance of Desolation Wilderness.
The climb was pretty challenging for me but was totally worth it. The views from the summit are breathtaking. And I really like this kind of high altitude (nearly 3000 meters at the summit) hike were you start in the forest and end up in just rocks.
The hike was more than 9 miles long with about 3200 feet of elevation gain. A very healthy exercise!

From Skyline to the Sea

I embarked on a very cool adventure with a group from the GBA : an overnight hike starting at Saratoga Gap on Hwy 35 (Skyline Boulevard) and ending up at Waddell Beach, 30+ miles further down and going through Big Basin where we would spend the night.
This was my first backpacking experience and I had a blast.
It seems to be all downhill but we actually climbed more than 1700 feet total.
The first day was the mot challenging one, with most of the uphill and a very long downhill to Big Basin HQ on some exposed trails and hot sandstone formations. Only 2 caches found since I already found most of the caches along the trail months ago.
The camping part was very enjoyable. I learned a lot from the "pros" there.
The second day was a nice stroll in beautiful redwood groves, past Berry Creek Falls, and along Waddell Creek. It ended up in the marsh near the Ocean. We all grabbed the dozen or so caches along the way, including the "Big Basin to the Sea" challenge cache from 50sumtin who was hiking with us the second day (he actually initiated this section of the hike before it turned to a backpacking trip for some of us).
The weather was perfect, I was tired at the end but was feeling rather good. I'm totally ready for the next one!

1000

I found my 1000th cache this weekend.
For this milestone, I chose to hike up to Trenscendental Elevation, a cache at the top of a Big Sur peak, by Touchstone. Brutal was a word Touchstone used in the cache description, and brutal the hike was...
BuckyD, Kealia and British Invasion decided to join the fun. In short, the hike was about 11 miles long and featured an elevation gain of about 4300 feet. It took us about 9 hours. It started along the ocean on US 1, followed a very peaceful creek with lots of huge redwood, before it climbed to one of the ridge overlooking the creek. The elevation gain quickly became quite important and switchbacks appeared... An enormous numbers of switchbacks just to reach the Old Coast fire road that would lead us to Anderson Peak. Thriving poison oak and bugs made it even more challenging. It took us 4 hours to reach the road.Once there a nice easy walk led us to the cache. We left the road 2 hours after having reached it and did the whole hike down to our cars in about 3 hours. This was fast and fun for the first 2 hours but the last one was a real killer. The bodies were extremely tired, knees were no longer collaborating, minds were on autopilots and cramps appeared. After having waken up at 4:30 am, and hiked to the peak and down, the sight of our cars was really comforting.
This was a beautiful hike with gorgeous views of the ocean. A perfect memorable cache for an important milestone.

Weekend in Yosemite

I spent a wonderful weekend in Yosemite. This was obviously not a caching trip (no geocaches in National Parks) but still, the main purpose was to attend Touchstone's CITO event in Tuolumne Meadows' campground. The idea was to drive to Yosemite on Saturday, spend the night in the campground, work (CITO) on the Sunday morning, and hopefully hike on Sunday afternoon.
The weekend ended up in 4 finds, all completely meaningful to me.
I wanted to arrive in Yosemite before the end of the afternoon so that I had enough time to set up my tent. This meant that I should not stop for many caches on the way. As a matter of fact, I decided that I would stop for one cache only, in Oakdale, the only reason being it would give me a new "county" I didn't have (Stanislaus county). It would also be around lunch time so that would be a perfect break on the road.
In Oakdale, I chose to look for "Santa Claus is coming to town", which was supposed to be an easy "quick and go" that had good reviews. That was an excellent choice. Even though the cache was indeed an easy micro, I had a good laugh when I spotted it. I really enjoyed finding this one.
After this find, my only goal for the day was to get to Tuolumne Meadows, find the campground, set up my tent and wait for the "s'mores" event to start. I arrived probably around 5 pm, found a spot in one of the 5 sites that was booked for us by Touchstone. I met cachers from various areas and was equally happy to see familiar faces.
Kablooey talked me into going after a cache he had just found and that would involve a long nice hike just the way I like them. I got convinced and thought I would go for it on Sunday afternoon. I didn't have the coordinates for any nearby cache because I just thought there was none. But the boundaries of the park were not far from the campground and there are caches waiting for us just on the outside. Kablooey gave me all the information I needed, and even showed me the pictures he took. That seemed like a great plan.
After the day's long drive, the s'mores event was very relaxing. I tried my best to roast marshmallows without burning them and got a lot of advice. Marshmallow after marshmallow, and under constant supervision, I got better at it. I still can't make the chocolate melt though. It will take practice. Kablooey suggested that Graham crackers + chocolate could be replaced by "Petit ecoliers". That sounds like a good idea. I will try next time.
After a beautiful (starry) but cold (2600 meters of altitude I guess) night, it was time for the CITO event to start. We were initially supposed to assemble picnic tables and benches but the parts never made it to the campground. So instead, we were to clean fire pits (removing garbage and ashes). We were many volunteers and we swept the designated part of the campground clean in less than 2 hours. It was fun checking every campsite, greeting the campers there and asking whether we could clean their site. We sure swallowed and inhaled a lot of ashes but it was a useful thing to do. With so many sites in the campgrounds, I can't imagine how long it would take for two rangers to do the job.
By noon, the job (more that what the rangers have signed us up for) was done so after a quick lunch, I said bye to everyone around and hit the trail to find elevation 10725', this famous cache Kablooey told me about. This cache is accessed from Yosemite but is not in the park.
This was indeed a gorgeous hike, albeit challenging because of the altitude, and the steep and rough terrain. It started at the Tioga Pass entrance of the park.
A very steep first part brings you over the Gaylor lakes, along which follows a beautiful relaxing and uphill walk. The trail then takes you through many types of rocks of all forms and colors near abandoned hut and mines. The last part, past the mines is outside of the park boundaries and there is no trail. You have to completely rely on the GPS. This is probably why the terrain is rated 4.5.
I quickly found the cache about 2.5 hours after I started, signed the log, did a little trade and was ready to go. The way back to the trailhead was mostly downhill and it only took me 1.5 hour.
This was my highest cache find ever, with a max on my way to the cache at 3300 m (according to my GPS).
The weather was perfect. Sunny, but not hot and slightly breezy. I saw thousands of nice wild flowers, chipmunks, moths... This hike will stay a very memorable one.
According to my GPS, I walked 7.4 km and it took me about 4 hours. I left immediately after the hike, at about 5pm and was home just before 10pm.
I discovered later once home that the cache was so far out that it was not in the county the hike started. In other words, this cache allowed me to "score" a new county : "Mono county". Yay!
As I said, only 4 caches this weekend, but all meaningful:

• an enjoyable cache in Stanislaus County
• a s'mores event
• a CITO event
• a gorgeous hike in Yosemite (to a cache that was in Mono County as an extra bonus - see pictures)
  

I need more weekends like this one!

Back home

I'm now back home after a 4 weeks trip to France (Paris, Brittany, French Riviera, Burgundy). I put my hands on 17 caches (not bad really - this was not a caching trip and the cache density in most French area is pretty low) and hid a new one in Brittany (yes, I have a maintenance plan).
Some photos are here.

Cache-versary

I found my first cache (Sudoku Madness) exactly one year ago, on May 8th 2006. One year later, the counter displays 869 finds and 15 hides.

More than 869 caches found, here are a few things summarizing how this year of geocaching has been for me:

• It brought me back to hiking after a 3 years hiatus
• I rediscovered or discovered many great local parks
• I learned about poison oak, discovered my immunity to it (so far)
• I've been convinced for 364 days that I was immune to ticks
• I got my first tick bite (last weekend)
• I got stung by a bee
• I saw many snakes, including 2 rattlesnakes (and got rattled at by one of them)
• I encountered many black widows
  
• I drove through (almost) every single street of South San Jose
• I lifted thousands of (lamp) skirts
• I discovered incredible and secret places very close to home
  
• I got a bachelor of puzzleology
• I got my Geo Metro out of the garage
• I read both The Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring in English just for the multi series by mbrill
• I developed an interest in geocoins (somehow limited by the amount of money involved)
• I learned tons of English vocabulary (stump, fence pole cap, trifecta...)
• I let my cell phone fell in the Los Gatos Creek (it's still working)
• I lost my dear camera while searching for an evil cache
• I managed to wear out my GPSr battery (but I just bought a new one)
• I participated to a GBA deathmarch (and preparing a new one for this weekend - with a brand new battery)
• I hid a few caches (15 hides total including events)
• I posted more than 1100 times in the GBA (Geocachers of the Bay Area) forum
• I attended 3 CITO events (including hosting one)
• I attended 13 official regular events
• I attended many unevents at the boardwalk and one in the Peninsula
• I hosted an event
• I spent hundreds of hours playing with Google Earth
  

Most importantly, I made a lot of great friends and this is the best part to me. This has been a great Geocaching year!
Here's to the next one!

Beautiful Almaden Quicksilver

Sunday was quite hot and it was perfect for a good tough hike in Almaden Quicksilver County park. I had a list of 7 caches that I wanted to get but I think I underestimated the time and effort it would take for me in this heat to reach HotboxII at the end of Enriquita Trail from the MacAbee trailhead.
My route was the following:
Senador Mine Trail, Guadalupe Trail to the reservoir, Mine Hill trail above the reservoir, Providencia Trail, and Enriquita Trail. 8 kms and 3 hours after I started, I was at HotboxII.
Back via a longer section of Mine Hill Trail and the las short steep section of New Almaden Trail. I also hiked and back on Randol in a vain attempt to grab "Three's company".
It was hot, very hot. I even saw a young rattlesnake crossing the Guadalupe Trail in front of me.
I finished the 16km hike pretty beat, as the sun was setting. Later in the shower, I noticed that a tick was stuck on my leg. For the first time, I had been bitten by a tick.
Perfect training for next weekend's "deathmarch" in Sierra Azul, right across the stream.