Black Mountain Trail, Los Altos, CA, 11 Miles, 2,850 ft, 2,296 KCal, 5 hrs

This was a much awaited hike we wanted to do for a few weeks. But we kept postponing due to rains and other obstacles.  With few weeks away from Yosemite hike we wanted to finish this preparatory hike. Finally the day has come. We were very thrilled as we had new members, our friends, join us for the hike. Reading through the blogs of previous hikers, we were all a bit skeptical whether we could do this hike or not. The first one mile had a very steep gradient and  was pretty strenuous. The next three miles were pretty tame, with beautiful views of the the bay and peninsula. Wildflowers had already started to appear and the fern garden was along the way was very pretty. But soon we came to the last one and half miles of the hike, which were grueling and we made it to the summit exhausted. But the views at the summit were worth it and we relaxed and took a few snaps. The descent was pretty rapid and we rewarded ourselves with a good lunch afterwards.

Route: Black Mountain Trail
Time: 5 hr 
Difficulty: 7.5/10