Feb 10th, Mount Tamalpais State Park, total elevation 4,400Ft, 7.6Miles, 3Hr 27Min, 1400Kcal

What a Team!!! We started on our drive to Mount Tamalpais right after we finished our dance class. It was  our long held desire to hike the Stinson beach trails as we have heard from our wing leader that it's one of the most beautiful hikes. Some of us were sick for the past few days, still our persistence to do this on Sunday should definitely be applauded. This hike was a pretty strenuous as we did around 4.5 miles downhill first and then 3 mile uphill. The uphill was even more beautiful with the pleasant background music of waterfalls through out the redwood forest. There is no doubt that this trail used pretty much every muscle of our body.
While coming back we stopped at Viks at Berkeley and had a late lunch. After this hike should we still consider ourselves amateurs or pro's? I leave the decision to the readers!!

View from Dipsea Trail. Start of uphill hike

                                                     

This ladder is designed different.The steps are just 3 in wide. 

Several places we had to watch our head

Matt Davis trail scenic view

           









Pantoll Ranger station - Matt Davis trail (4.5mi) - Stinson beach - Dipsea trail - Steep Ravine trail (3.0mi) loop
Difficulty level: 7/10

Jan 26th, Windemere Ranch RidgeTrail, 5.06 Miles, 801FT, 501Kcal, 1.35Hr

It was raining for the past few days so all the trails were wet and would have made it difficult to hike. But rain or shine we decided to go for hike this week. and so we decided to go on paved trail. We chose to hike on Windemere Ranch Ridge Trail and walked  for a total of 5 miles. It was very cloudy and temperature was below 55. Hopefully, the weather next week will allow us to challenge ourselves a bit more.

Jan 19th, Tassajara RidgeTrail, 4.22 Miles, 984Ft, 771Kcal, 1.36Hr

After a  6 month long break,  we finally restarted hiking in year 2013.  Today's hike was a trial to test our fitness levels. The temperature in the morning was in the high 20's. so we delayed the hike to 10.30 AM.  We were excited to start it even though in the back of our mind we doubted whether we could do it or not.  We started from the staging area at Tassajara & Windemere and cruised through. All the hills had again turned green and the 360 views were beautiful. We saw a  few cows and calves that stared at us for longtime as if we were aliens.  Great we made it!!!

May 12th, Las Trampas Trail, 5.02Mi, 1819Ft

Even though I did not do this hike, the rest of the gang did. They claim it was intense, but who knows....!.. The rest is their report:
We took the Chamois trail up and then continued on the Las Trampas Ridge Trail and finally looped back on Bollinger Creek loop trail. It was mildly hot with a light breeze. Beautiful views as always and we did see a dead baby rattlesnake at the start of the hike. The green views have started to dry out.

Time: 2 Hrs
Difficulty: 6/10

May 6th Pleasanton Ridge Trail 4.66Mi, 1200Ft

 This was definitely not a tough trail. There were multiple trails & loops. There was a Olive Tree grove at the top. Hopefully, we'll repeat the hike when the olives are ready to be harvested!

Time: 1.45hrs
Difficulty: 4/10

Olive Trees

Sun rise

View from one point

Hiking gang

April 28th, Mission Peak Trail (7mi,2530 ft)

We were charged up to take on this new challenge.Based on last week's experience with the hot weather we decided to leave early  by 6AM. Some of the members of our team dropped off this time considering the time it takes & difficulty level. So, I would say this time it was a couples only hike. I also tried as many ways as I could to avoid Mission Peak Trail but ended up going along.. Somehow I had a feeling that the Mission Peak Trail was not as scenic as Easy Bay Trails. But that's not the case. Even though for much of the hike there wasn't any shade we didn't feel the heat as we had started early. I had always heard though friends how popular this hike is & now I am convinced & motivated to do it one more time especially after seeing a 75 year old man hiking to the summit. The last stretch was a bit hard but we had no major issues in reaching the summit. We took 15 minutes break  to eat a light breakfast.

Time -2.50min
Difficulty - 7/10

Taking a shot

Beautiful wild flowers

Mission Peak from where we are

Scenic View

Trio enjoying the views

April21st, Las Trampas Ridge Trail (4.28mi)

It was a very sunny day. We should have started earlier to take advantage of good weather.But we started at 8.15AM instead, by that time it was already very hot.  This time we were well equipped with knee braces and hiking poles etc. While going to the peak, there was very little shade. Through out the hike we had very beautiful views of the Bay & Mt. Diablo. While coming we took another route along the creek which had very good shade. But at the end of the hike everyone was tanned :)

Time-2.03
Difficulty-5/10