A stand of strange, wonderful rock formations called the Pinnacles National Monument lies about 80 miles south of San Jose. Getting a good look at the place means four hours of driving for five hours of hiking. I went with…
Day hikes I’ve done
Pausing among petals
by tmangan • March 7, 2005 • 1 Comment
It’s the beginning of wildflower season, which draws hikers to the hillsides to gawk at blooms that sprout by happenstance. I joined Mike, Kathy, Joanne & Peggy on Saturday at Joseph D. Grant County Park — soon to be Wildflower…
Sun and Sunol
by tmangan • February 27, 2005 • 0 Comments
Another Sunol Wilderness hike; I was going to go here last week with Mike & Kathy, but that one got rescheduled to yesterday. Same hike, same club, different day. I can’t get over how great this park is. Small crowds,…
Off to Murietta Falls
by tmangan • February 21, 2005 • 3 Comments
I’m sore, tired and reeking with self-regard, having finished one of the most brutal hikes in the Bay Area today. It’s six and a quarter miles into the heights of the Ohlone Wilderness to a weak excuse for a creek…
A Diablo day
by tmangan • January 30, 2005 • 3 Comments
The highest hill in these parts is Mount Diablo, which rises 3,849 feet above sea level amid the hills, flats and suburbs of Contra Costa County. Dominates the East Bay landscape. It can take all day to hike up there…
Among waterfalls at Uvas Canyon County Park
by tmangan • January 16, 2005 • 3 Comments
Mike and Cathy’s hiking club has a tradition of taking waterfall hikes after New Year’s. I went along on their first of the season Saturday at Uvas Canyon County Park in Morgan Hill, south of San Jose. The park is…
New year, new hike.
by tmangan • January 1, 2005 • 0 Comments
First thing I did on New Year’s morning was look outside to see how bad the weather was. It’s been crappy for a solid week, and I was feeling so cooped-up that I’d have gone out in a monsoon, just…
Mud, fog, hills: A day in the Sunol Wilderness
by tmangan • December 13, 2004 • 0 Comments
OK, I admit the side trip through the creek was a bad idea. I was just about done with a 12-mile trek through previously unhiked (by me) sections of Sunol Wilderness Regional Park. The day had two distinguishing features: fog…
A minor milestone
by tmangan • November 21, 2004 • 1 Comment
Back in July, when I was just starting to get serious about hiking, I wrote about hiking two peaks in two days — ambitious stuff for a 42-year-old rookie, really, because both of the trails are long and steep. The…