Up and Up and oh what was that Up some more

The bay area has been RAINY and Wendy has been sick, thus no weekend training hikes. That was until this weekend.

Wendy and I decided we should find an East Bay hike and rep Oakland or Berkeley or wherever it was we could find a hill to climb. Most of the training hikes revolve around Mount Tam and we didn't want to spend the gas, (and more realistically the time) it takes to get over there. We decided to do the Claremont Canyon hike, which is almost literally in our backyard.

I had done the up hill a couple of times before I moved to another part of Oakland, with roommates, friends, the occasional boy. The views from the top of the steep hill are amazing and it always seemed like a quick jaunt.

Yeah, a quick jaunt was not quite the case when you are carrying your pack with you.

Wendy came and got me just before 11 and by 11:15 we were off. And we were up. The trail goes from a not so gradual up hill, to a pretty steep climb. Wendy and I kept the pace up, and she felt better than she had in a long time.

We passed the occasional hiker on the way up, some asked if we were training others just looked at us like we were off our rockers.

We reached the top of the first climb and there was the option to go right or left. Left takes you down a road and back on a trail, a gradual descent towards the Berkeley fire trail which gets you behind Cal's I House, right as we found out takes you up, and then up again, and what was that, up one more time (at least).



Wendy and I decided to go right and continue on for about another hour, in that time we reached the top of the trail, which drops off to an area that looks like a semi post apocalyptic area of dead trees (I know not the best mental picture) and we were both pretty impressed with our timing.

The climb down was interesting, loose rock and steep downhills that killed my knees. We made it down pretty quickly all things considered and with out injury (as a rather klutzy person a thing I value a ton)

All in all it was a nice mid day hike, sweeping hills of the bay, blooming flowers, a couple of good belly laughs, some person care recommendations and a pair of painful feet.

Alas, there were no post hike burritos this time but for me there was a badly needed pedicure.

(Don't ask to see the bottom of my feet they are still a little on the scary side :))

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