My blog about our hike Sunday at Russian Ridge Open Space unexpectedly grew large- just like the hike itself more than doubled in length based on choices we made on the fly- so I've split it into a second blog entry.

I left off in part 1 of our hike at Russian Ridge with us angling up a wide-open hillside just beneath the ridge. After climbing ( Read more... )

This past Sunday we broke our spell of being stay-home slugs over the weekend and got out hiking. We'd been saying for a few weeks, "Let's go hiking this weekend." Yesterday was the day we finally did it ( Read more... )

So, what did we do this past weekend other than eat at a skeezy restaurant with a sign illustrating how NOT to pee on a toilet? Well, a lot. And also a little. It was a mostly relaxing weekend at home.

Our relaxing began Friday night with a soak in the hot tub. Saturday morning I planned to get up early and spend at least an hour on housecleaning ( Read more... )

Saturday afternoon we weren't sure at first what we were going to do. I set out in the morning intending a twofer- we'd hike the Brooks Falls loop in the morning, eat lunch, then hike somewhere on the peninsula, likely Russian Ridge. The morning hike ran later than expected because we left a little late then met up with our friend David in Pacifica ( Read more... )

I have enough pictures I want to share from hiking to Mindego Hill on Friday that I split them across two blog entries. I posted part 1 yesterday. Here's part 2, picking up with us still atop Mindego Hill in Russian RIdge Preserve.

In the previous blog I noted that being atop Mindego Hill provides 360° views... though I only showed one direction of ( Read more... )

Friday we had the day off- and weren't in Chicago for New Year's Eve- so we went hiking locally. We made a return trip to Mindego Hill in the Russian Ridge Open Space. This time we even went to the correct trailhead so we wouldn't have a hiking fail like last time.

You see, whenever something happens that stops us from doing outdoors stuff we want ( Read more... )

This weekend was a frustrating one. I'd planned to enjoy it outdoors, getting out for good hikes both days to take advantage of the window of clear weather in between winter rains. Instead we spend most of Saturday indoors, planning a last minute trip to Hawaii- which brought its own set of aggravations. At times I felt I was being taught a ( Read more... )

Yesterday we hiked at Russian Ridge Open Space in the Santa Cruz Mountains a little bit northwest of here. As I showed in my previous blog, even the parking is scenic, let alone trail. Here are more pictures & trail notes.


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I've said it countless times before and I'll say it again: in the San Francisco Bay Area we are blessed not just with natural beauty but also with natural beauty that thoughtfully has been protected as park land. In addition to state and federally protected areas there are also county and city parks, plus several networks of regional parklands.


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This past weekend we were discussing where to meet up with friends who were interested in seeing us- from a safe 6' away. We all like hiking, so Hawk and I suggested meeting at Russian Ridge in the coast range mountains west of Palo Alto. It has trails for people of many ability levels and it split the distance as being roughly halfway between us. ( Read more... )