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Kathy and I prehiked a new place for us -- the Sunol Regional Wilderness.
This will be a relatively easy, relatively short hike. The views, however, are rather spectacular.
The hike will be 4.5 to 7 miles long, depending on our mood. We'll start near the park visitor center on Geary Road, and hike towards Little Yosemite. Our current plan is to take a sort of "X" path, or a figure 8, there and back. The hike is mostly an easy climb until just before Little Yosemite. There are a few, short, steeper bits of hiking, but we'll be taking the hike slowly because there are just so many excuses to stop and look around. This hike probably will have the most beautiful set of meadows of any we'll do this year. By that, I mean the topography and sheer "isn't that beautiful" comments -- not to be confused with the beauty of Grant Ranch's flat, expansive meadows when the wild flowers are in full bloom.
We can do one of two things on this hike about food: eat along the trail, somewhere near Little Yosemite (a cut in the mountain with large boulders and a cascading stream), or have a more extensive picnic at the picnic grounds afterwards. You tell us which you'd prefer to do.
Bring a camera! There are lots of places for unique photos - on logs, on rocks, on hillocks, near cows, in the streams, and so on.
You probably don't want to bring sneakers. You can probably do ok with sneakers, but there are portions of the trail that are a bit slippery with loose gravel. Much of the trail is cow paths. And, yes, I mean real, actual, cow paths, with the natural hazards that entails, so bring an extra pair of shoes for after the hike :-)
Speaking of Grant Ranch, boy did those of you who didn't come miss a hike and a half. It could hardly have been a more perfect hike. The weather was perfect, the grounds were beautiful, the company was a riot of fun; everything was just great. Thanks to all who joined us.
We'll leave here at 8:30 instead of 9, so we can perhaps beat any weekend crowd, though it didn't look like the trails were heavily travelled. The hike will start a bit after 9:30. Plan on 2 to 3 hours for the hike, or a bit after if we stop a lot for pictures.
If there are one or more of you out there who would like to come and putter around the flat stream bed at the end of the hike rather than do the climb with us, then perhaps we could get them to put picnic baskets in their car, and start up a charcoal fire for a picnic after the hike. Think about it and let us know if you'd like to do that. You'll have plenty of beautiful scenery to stroll just around the picnic grounds.
