Hiking season begins.

Spring seems have kicked in, and the days are now warm and sunny. Saturday was fantastic in terms of weather, and we made full use of it with a moderate 8.4 mile hike.

We drove some 30 miles north of San Francisco, to a place called PaloMarin. As the name suggests, it is right next to the ocean, and there are a fair number of trees. We walked along the edge of the ocean, and then walked down to the beach next to a nice waterfall, which connected a little stream to the ocean.


My twisted ankle held up well through out, although getting down to the beach on the rocks proved a little challenging, considering that I didn't want to trust my left leg with too much weight right now. bayareahikers.com mentioned two 'mad scrambles' at the end, to reach down to the beach, with the second one being tougher. Here is a picture from the top,. It was quite an effort to get down. I almost turned back once, but then managed to continue with some trepidation.

The beach itself was bereft of sand, and full of pebbles. There were several people sunbathing, enjoying the waterfall, playing Frisbee or just goofing around. It felt good to be there.


We rounded off a tiring walk, with a coffee at Starbucks and Domino's pizza. All in all, a good start to the spring season.

Yosemite !

ಶನಿವಾರ ರಾತ್ರಿ ಮೂರುವರೆಗೆ ಎದ್ದಿದ್ದು ಸಾರ್ಥಕವಾಯ್ತು ! ಯೋಸೆಮಿಟೀ ಬೆಟ್ಟಗಳು, ಎಂಥಾ ದೃಶ್ಯ !

Angel island hike

Last weekend, we went hiking on the Angel island, a few miles north of San Francisco. It was unbelievably beautiful! Here is a short set of pictures from our hike.

Purisima trail, half moon bay, starfishes

Today's hike was the Purisima trail, very close to the half moon bay beaches. This is approx 5 miles inland from the intersection of highways 1 and 92. It was a 7 mile hike approximately, but I would rate this as almost a walk in the park. Literally, and figuratively. ;)

We were told this was a walk where we could find hazelnuts and berries along the way. The mushrooms and marijuana were a surprise!


The trail is mostly nice and even, with a few people here and there. It felt like we were in an Amazonian rain forest, everything was dripping with water, there were streams of water everywhere, the fog in the air made it really difficult to see beyond a few feet, and it was green all around. Felt awesome, walking there.!

This time, there were four of us. I drove, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. At the end of it, we drive back till we hit the intersection of 280, then turned back, went to the beach and spent a couple of hours there. This was a new part of the beach for me, we had to climb down a fairly steep ridge. The beach below was full of starfishes, never seen them like this before !

A very good day out, I would recommend this hike to anyone. Heck, wouldn't mind doing iy myself again. And maybe, go visit South America someday.

Nature at it's best.

Last weekend, Sunday, saw three of us Oracle folks go on a nice and moderate hike of 8 miles.
It was a roundabout trail on Tamalpais mountain, just north of San Francisco. The trail was very green, mostly, with layers of trees above our heads most of the time. But there were great views of the Pacific as well. This picture I took while walking, does not really do justice. (Maybe it's time to start video blogging ?)


The weather was just right, we had good food, lots of water and lots of things to talk about. There were many people, it must be a popular place. (the parking lot was full). Along with people, we also met several others folks, including cylindrical folks like the ones here.

The snail was very cooperative, he waited while I focused and clicked my camera. I suppose he was not in a hurry! The snake though, harmless as he seemed, made me wish I was wearing jeans instead of shorts... oh well. There was a clear warning of rattlesnakes area along the way, as can be seen in the other pictures in my new photo site.

And at the end of the hike, we spent an hour or so in Stinson beach, watching people enjoying themselves. All in all, a very nice hike. Fairly moderate, but lots of fun.

Tomorrow, we are going to this other hike, where we are supposed to find hazelnuts along the way! Lets see how it goes.