hike, 2, 3, 4

It's any wonder I get anything done. It took me two hours this morning to figure out where I wanted to go for a hike today. I started with an idea that I'd like to hike by the shore, and then that lead me to the East Bay Parks website, where I briefly entertained the idea of mountain biking instead, but then got kind of confused about where to go because Oakland seemed very far away to drive, so I ended up hiking in Sunol because it was close to home and I thought I might like to go to the Pirates movie at 6 pm, but I ended up hiking too long anyway, so I missed it, so I should have gone to the shore like I wanted to in the first place-whew.

Yes, it's hard to be me sometimes.

So I decided to hike Sunol. Sunol Regional Wilderness used to be ranch land, but under the East Bay Regional Park districts multi use land management policy, hikers now get to share all 6,858 acres with the cows. Moo.

Out of my 3.75 miles that I hiked today I only saw one cow way far off in the distance. But there was plenty of evidence of them on the trails.

I started at the Indian Joe Trail trailhead and promptly got lost. There is the Indian Joe trail, and the Indian Joe Creek Trail. One is a loop, the other is not. I had to try again after finding myself back where I started. Luckily for me the loop was only a mile long.

I finally got on the right trail and started again towards Indian Joe Cave Rocks. I hiked for quite awhile following the dry creek bed up through the canyon. It was a nice trail; wooded and not too difficult, although it was a steady climb. It was hot though and even with the occasional cool breeze, I had plenty of black flies to keep me company. Horrid, pesky, biting creatures! I saw two deer just as they bounded away from me, and startled lots of little lizards, sending them scurrying off the path into the dried leaves.

After a while of hiking and not seeing any trail posts, I started to worry that somehow I had missed the trail again. Just as I was about to call it quits and head back, there was a trail marker right around the next bend. I had made it to Indian Joe Cave Rocks.

They weren't much of a cave, but they did have a nice flat rock for sitting on and contemplating all the important kinds of things you're suppose to comtemplate on a hike. So I sat for a bit and contemplated the rocks, and the woods, and the heat and finally how horrible and annoying the flies were buzzing around my ear while I was trying to "contemplate", and how much I really hated insects and how that probably wasn't the proper outdoorsy attitude to take but screw it I wish I had a huge flyswatter at the moment, and then whether or not I should have a gu. Then I was done contemplating and decided to move on.





Graffiti is bad enough on street corner signs, but even worse in nature. Although I had to admit this made me smile.




After checking the map I decided I would try to hike Eagles View Trail. The description said excellent views of the park, Calaveras Resevoir and south bay area, PLUS it leads through "The Valley of the Giants". That sounded intriguing. My heat addled brain was thinking giants=giant sequoias, but then I realized Sunol was not the right climate for the giant trees, and it must mean rocks or something. I never found out because the trail leading through the Valley of the Giants was out in the open, with no shade from the sun, and I was just too hot to hike what the guide book said was 1.5 "short but strenous miles".





This is looking across the valley from Eagles Point Road.




My favorite picture from the hike. If you click on it to make it bigger you'll see the rock formation resembles a huge funny face.




Feeling hot and tired I decided to take Hayfield Road back to the parking lot. Thankfully hiking .81 miles of crappy downhill fireroad goes a lot faster than hiking up the nice, woodsy trail, so I was back to my car in no time.




I think the best time to hike Sunol would be the winter time. It would be a lot cooler for one thing, plus there is a gorge called Little Yosemite about 2 miles from the visitor center that has lots of small waterfalls that appear after the rains. So I'll put it on my calendar and head back in a few months!