MORGAN TERRITORY HIKE, Old Finley RD 6.5 miles, 2hr 19min, 1044 KCal

It was a perfect day for hike. This is the first time we went to this Trail after last years' fire incident. The target was 6 miles. I was a bit skeptical whether I could do this. Some hiking pals dropped last minute so I was hoping I can get away with less number of miles :) But guess what, we did 0.5 miles more than target :) and also maintained good pace throughout. Overall, we felt that we are ready for next week's big hike to Black Mountain. By the way, since we crossed 1000 Cal we are going to treat ourselves in the evening @VB.

Lonely hiker

Left is Mt Diablo and right is North peak
which we are going to hike soon

Sincere hikers:)

Route: 
Time: 2hr 19 min
Difficulty: 5/10

Stanislaus National Forest, Wawona Private Trail, 4 miles, 651 Kcal, 1hr 27min

Last week we couldn't hike due to rains. We were sure that we are going to miss last year Feb month target. This week it  was long weekend for most of us. All of us planned rented a beautiful domed house in Arnold for 3 nights. Saturday evening we played Badminton for 1.30 min and went for a 2 mile walk. We also had ate too much.... Our original plan was to go to Big Trees National forest on Sunday morning and do some catch up on hiking and bring up the numbers.  But we weren't able to do so because of last night rain. Instead of going to Big Trees forest we went on a private trail. The trail was very scenic , several water ponds here & there and slushy at several places. A few other new members joined with us on this hike.There were absolutely no signs, maps, directions as it's  a private trail. Anytime we came across multiple paths we left behind few markers (Orange peel!) so it's easier for us to know which direction to go back. Overall, did we justify all the eating we did the previous night by doing 4 mile hike?

Route: Stanislaus National Forest, Wawona Private Trail
Time: 1hr 27 min
Difficulty: 4/10

Pleasanton Ridge Trail, 5 miles, 888 Kcal, 1hr 35min

We choose a little more harder hike this time as very soon we have a 3800ft challenge to face at the end of this month.  The weather was super cold around 40 degrees. The beginning of the hike was a bit hard as usual due to severe cold and it took almost 25 minutes for for the first mile before we were warmed up enough to up the pace.  We were able to complete the entire loop in around 1:35 hrs. The bare dry hills were a reminder of the severe drought facing us...

Route: Pleasanton Ridge Trail.
Time: 1hr 35 min
Difficulty: 4/10

HIdden Vallley Ridge Trail, 4.8 miles, 960Kcal, 2hr 30min

We decided to do the same hike this week as well before we move on to other Trails. We also had a smaller group turn this week due to Flu season. For some reason, this time we felt it was a drag and at times felt whether we can meet the goal that we set in this year. We looked at Mt. Diablo from a view point and all of us were clueless as how we did that hike last year. It was just 7 months back that we did this hike and now we feel that we may not able to do it..

HIdden Vallley Ridge Trail, 4.8 miles, 960Kcal, 2hr 30min

Welcome back in new year 2014. Well, all of us are back from vacations, parties etc etc. Now it's time to set new goals for this year :). We had set a new goal to hike at least 200 miles this year. We want to start of with a small hike as it's been a while since we last hiked. The same hike we did multiple times but this time it was so depressing to look at the views. There was no signs of the small ponds which we used to see along the trail. There was absolutely no greenery anywhere. We all hiked at our own pace and caught up on other stuff. So we did not feel the hike was strenuous.

Route: Hidden Valley Ridge Trail.
Time: 2hr 30 min
Difficulty: 3/10

 

Oct 5th, Bay Bridge Trail, 8.8 Miles, 1200 K cal

 Finally, we all reunited after a six week break due to clashes with various social/cultural activities. Our hiking leader is back with an iron hand now :). For a change this time we wanted to check out the new Bay Bridge pedestrian walkway. We started at 7.30 am and on our way missed the exit, violated the toll on the bridge, took a tour of new Bay bridge in the car. After we finallyreached the meeting point near Ikea we started walking. It was a warm day and absolutely no fog so we could clearly see Golden Gate bridge and SFO skyline very clearly.It was more than 2 miles to the bridgehead from where we parked and we encountered many pedestrians, joggers & bikers all along. We also glimpsed a couple oh harbor seals in the bay below. Our leader from time to time captured our joyful moments.  At one point we were all excited and tried to jump off the bridge :) hmm.. I meant jump on the bridge & we all went for it.
Finally we justified our 8.8 mike walk by stopping for lunch at Viks in Berkeley and had a blast.

Route: Bay Bridge Trail.
Time: 3 hrs
Difficulty: 3/10

Old & new Bay Bridge

Next time gonna try jumping of the bridge :)

Not sure why we were so excited

Sept 1st, Sherman Tree Trail & Moro Rock Trail, Sequoia National Park, 1.6 Miles, around 350 steps

 For Labor Day weekend we rented a vacation home close to Sequoia National Park.  Last year when we had visited Sequoia Park we had planned to hike climb Moro Rock but had to cancel since the trail was closed due to bad weather and snow.  Our zeal to climb up further increased and we had to to do it this time around. The climb wasn't too hard, climbing around 350 steps & throughout the hike we had spectacular views of the valley and surrounding mountains.

Route: Sherman Tree Trail, Moro Rock Trail.
Time: 3 hrs
Difficulty: 3.5/10

Panoramic view from the top of Moro Rock

On our way to Sherman Tree

Photo time :)

View from one point on the way to Moro rock

There were hundreds of people climbing up

The team who reached first

तेरे लिए हम गीत ??

At times there were very narrow paths

On our way down