I took the dog up to Fremont Older yesterday by myself, cuz Roya is getting ready for science camp (so jealous!). We did the usual hike - up the Cora Older trail, over to the Hayfield trail, and then up to Hunter's Point. It was a beautiful clear day, and you could see the whole bay area - awesome.

Elliott was being his usual crazy bunny-hopping self, and at one point, he found a patch of long fresh green grass, and laid down in it for a short rest. There were a ton of blooming wildflowers, and I'll mention one in particular: Gnaphalium californicum. Here's a picture:


Pretty ordinary, right? Well, in case you go hiking with your dog, and he or she tends to barrel through grasses and plants beside the trail, here's something to note. 

This plant makes your dog smell like maple syrup. 

Yup. 

I woke up this morning to my dog jumping on my bed, thinking that someone, somewhere was making pancakes. 

Seriously. 

Can I get a Hell Yea for Google, folks? :) 

Note to self - don't take long breaks from hiking.

This was not our fastest hike - sitting it out for a few weeks after hiking 3-4 times a week put us very close to back where we started - panting up the damn hill again. Grr.

But hey, we made it once again to Hunter's Point:


On our way down the hill, we passed the Monday hiking group, which now has morphed into a sort of "hike with your dog" group. Copycats.

(Also, on our way down, we heard some, uh, screaming. We're almost totally completely sure it was a peacock. We think. Or there's a crazy mountain people cult up there. But that's probably not what it was. It was for sure peacocks. probably.)

We took the Creekside trail back to Prospect Road this time - very pretty now that the mud has dried up. Anyway, it was a good segue back into the hiking habit, and we should be out again in a few days.

So - Roya has been sick, it's been raining, and I've been lazy. So, when Roya suggested we walk near Lake Almaden, I was totally in. And, judging by the pace we set, it was a good call.

I had never been to Lake Almaden before, just driven past it on Almaden Expressway on my way to other places (Hi, Bobby!).  We actually went to a trail that starts right at the end of Winfield drive and runs alongside Alamitos creek. The dogs enjoyed it in their own special ways: Elliott barked at all the dogs, and tried to catch all the squirrels and birds. Koda was far more well-behaved, only snarling at one puppy, and making us laugh by wading in the stream and coming out looking like a small gray alpaca.

heh. Koda the Alpaca. Still gets me every time :)

Google Maps says that our walk was 2.3 mile, and that feels about right - a good post-time change, after work beginning :)

Waiting for the weather to clear sucks when you're trying to start a hiking blog. And you know, actual hiking. The dog and I tried yesterday to walk through a field near my house, and as it turns out, fields generally get kinda muddy when it rains. And dogs get muddy when they wander muddy fields. Funny how that works... 

So yea, looking forward to actual trails, less mud.

Got a bit braver today, and tried a trail that I haven't been on in years, and that what I did remember about it was steep trails.

Yea, funny thing about memory - mine is pretty damned good, dammit.


Saint Joseph's Hill Open Space Preserve is great, because it is right in the middle of Los Gatos, but is still very wilderness-ish. It goes from Los Gatos, over the eponymous hill, and down again to Lexington Reservoir.

I planned this one, so did a bit of research on the best way to access the trails for an after-work hike, and found that the Novitiate Park would be the easiest for both parking and access. It's at the very end of Jones street (which is also the name of the trail) and there seemed to be plenty of on street parking, and I didn't see any signs for permits, so I felt OK leaving the car there.

The trail was muddy in places after yesterday's storm, but it wasn't impassable, and the dogs seemed to enjoy sniffing around through it. Also, the trail starts up right away on a slope - no easy flats to get you started. The first half mile alternated between decently steep grades, followed by easy slopes - it was timed just enough to get you panting, then give you a rest, then back to panting. At the one-mile mark, there is a nice place to rest and take in the view before the last bit of upward slope. Then comes the downhill trail to the reservoir - we debated about going, because we knew we'd have to come back up... Roya decided to let me decide, so we went for it.

At the bottom is the reservoir parking, with a few porta potties, but a lovely view of the reservoir:


After we totally passed out from "teh Qte",. we turned to face the hill from the bottom. I suggested to Roya that we "climb that bitch like a ladder", but she wasn't buying it. So, up we trudged, thankfully encountering two older (and I gotta say, in awesome shape) ladies coming down the hill, who stopped to adore our dogs.

Yes, we totally used the cuteness of our dogs to put off a very steep hill. You'd totally do it too, don't lie.

Once we made it to the top of that hill, there was only a few rises before the trail turned completely downhill. Great for Roya, who has a well-trained, leash-led dog. Not so great for the tiny strong-man at the end of my leash. I finally had to hold the leash in one hand, and lead it behind my waist to keep Elliott from pulling me down into the mud with him. We made it to the bottom with only one small injury (I accidentally stepped on Ell's foot, but he was totally faking that squeal) and Roya pointed out that we managed about 3 miles of fairly challenging terrain in only an hour. WHOO, we are actually making progress!

Let's see how this next few days of rain go... maybe a weekend hike? :)

Since this was a normal workday Monday (wah) we went to Fremont Older again. We were a bit worried that it might be muddy after the rain, but the paths we took were mostly dry, so no major damage. Our pace is improving, although we still make stops here and there for the dogs (seriously. it's the dogs. we're not resting for ourselves. nope. not at all.). We made it up to Hunter's Point again, and Elliott was overcome with the romantic-ness of it all, and worked it out by humping Koda.

On our way down, we heard the shooting gallery again but I also heard a noise that sounded like a cross between a baby and a cat. I'm pretty sure it was a mountain lion, but I could be wrong. We also actually saw all kinds of animals this trip - a few bunnies jumping through the grasses, and about 6-10 deer grazing in a group on a hill. Luckily, it didn't seem like the dogs saw those animals.... However, they did manage to find the only other dogs in the park at the end of our hike, and Koda got so excited that he pulled away from Roya and ran straight to kill a Pomeranian puppy that was obviously thinking about killing us all. Thanks for saving us, Koda!!

Roya's last day off, and I manage to leave early again, due to another (!) 6:00 AM meeting with my East Coast peeps, yo.

Yea, I really can't pull that off, can I?

Anyway, since we got an earlier start, we decided to go further out, to Uvas Canyon County Park

(By the way, Uvas is Spanish for grape. However, I saw no grapes there. Way to go, namers.)

I had been here once before, when Elliott was much younger, but since I was by myself and it happened to be another rainy day, I didn't go far enough to really appreciate it.

The park is directly south of San Jose, and there are a few ways to get there. The first time I went, I took the 101 south, got off at the Bailey road exit, and turned left at McKean. This time,we went to the end of Almaden Expressway, and turned right on Harry, then left on McKean. Either way you get to McKeen, you'll be heading south for about 6 miles from Bailey road before you turn right on Croy. (Also, you won't notice, but McKean turns into Uvas road about halfway there). Once you are on Croy, you just drive. It's a pretty, curvy road, with horses and various yards to look at, and it slowly climbs until you're driving among trees. You'll know you're almost to the park when you get to Sveadal.



Sveadal is a private resort owned by the Swedish American Patriotic League, with adorable Swedish looking houses and decorations... Roya swears that it's where serial killers take kids to keep for a while before they kill them.

I say Tomatoe, You say grisly site for holding children. Moving on.

So, drive nice and slow through Sveadal, and just at the end of the resort, the road will curve to the left, and Voila!

The parking lot was mostly empty, since rain was predicted for the day, but at the time we got there, it was actually blue skies with a few clouds. The dogs were pumped, so we got them out of the back seat (more humping) and Koda decided to celebrate right away by laying a fresh one on the pavement. Koda never stands on circumstance :)

We scooped up (of course!) and got the dogs moving generally in the direction of the trail, stopping to see if there was a "You are here" thingy on the map. There wasn't, but we managed to find ourselves after all. We waved, and started for the Waterfall Loop.

Yes, you heard it - WATERFALL. This place has a bunch of really lovely waterfalls. They're not Niagara in scale, but the setting they're in is so beautiful, and they're all so accessible, that their smaller size is not even an issue. For example: