Pole-less in Windy Hill

Packing your bags and making sure all is in ready is not fail safe. We left the house at 7:00 am this morning, only for me to discover, half way to the trail head, that I had forgotten my hiking poles. It was too late to return and retrieve them. Well, I've hiked before without poles, so I would hike this time without poles. More on that later... On the up side, at least I remembered toilet paper and, this time, I also brought Cottonelles.

We gathered at the trail head and got ready. Duane's birthday had passed, but he did not escape. He was given a plastic purple hardhat with a silver propeller to wear. I think it really works, don't you? The birthday boy today, however, was Reggie, who got to wear the same jester hat that I wore previously.

It was an absolutely gorgeous morning. Windy Hill got that name for a reason. It is often very windy and foggy and there is often a view similar to what we saw at El Corte de Madera Open Space Preserve last week. But not today. We had gorgeous views of the ocean on one side of Skyline, but than as we began to hike the trail down the east side of the mountains, we had gorgeous views of Stanford, the bay and parts of Silicon Valley.

The trail went down, via a series of switchbacks, from Skyline to Alpine Road - a distance of 5.2 miles (via the red trail on the map). I was enjoyed the scenery, but about two thirds of the way down the mountain it fast became apparent that something was wrong with my boots.

I had put "Superfeet" in my boots. These are a replacement insole that offers more arch support. These insoles are, however, a little bit thicker at the toe than the insoles that come with the boot. That left very little extra room in the toe box and, after all the downhill, my feet were really hurting by the time we reached Alpine Road. I began to realize that my boots were marginal, but that inserting the Superfeet had put them over the edge.

At the same time, having forgotten my poles, I discovered that my lower back muscles and my knees were starting to get a little sore. In a way, that was a good thing, because it really confirmed for me how much better it is to hike with poles. It obviously saves a lot of wear and tear on the body.

Duane was a real gentlemen, of course. He wanted to give me his poles for a while. I just didn't want to think about it, and I didn't want Duane to pay the consequences for my mistake, so I politely declined.

The wildflowers were a pleasant distraction. Duane took lots of photos. (See the Picasa album in the right hand sidebar for all of the photos of our hikes.) In addition, as we hiked we played "Who Am I?" A hiker would think of a famous person, and the rest of us would have to ask yes/no questions until one of us guessed the answer. The winner then got to think of another person, and so on. Reggie, the birthday boy, thought of Val Kilmer, but then misdirected us when he told us that he'd never had a leading role in a movie. Huh? I guess he's never seen Top Gun, Willow, Batman Forever, Tombstone, or The Doors. What's up with that?? When it was my turn to think of a famous person, I switched to history and thought of Alexander Hamilton. I think Duane got that one.

Despite all of the distractions however, I was limping by the time I arrived at the second parking lot. I chose not to walk the last half mile to the first parking lot, so Duane got the car and came back for me. Fortunately, I had a pair of sandals in the car, which I put on and my feet began to feel much better. Clearly it was time to go back to REI and see if I could get a different, larger pair of boots.

After our hike, several of us drove the 1.8 miles back to La Honda for a refreshing lunch at Alice's Restaurant, a popular spot for motorcyclists who like to drive on Skyline.