The Adventure Begins... After the Hike

This morning we awoke at our usual early Saturday morning hour for a six hour hike in Sanborn Park. We had been to this park before, but because we attended the pole clinic, we didn't get much hiking done.

Today was, however, a different story. We met on Skyline Road near the entrance to Castle Rock State Park and walked across the street to the trailhead. We hiked down Skyline trail to where it joined Sanborn trail and then to the main picnic grounds and YSI building of the park. That took about a third of the time alotted for our hike.

The uphill climb back to the parking lot took most of the remainder of our time. We took a different trail back, the Peterson trail is apparently a fire road, which proved to be much steeper and more direct than the path we had taken down the mountain. This was the most difficult part of the hike to date.

This was also the first day that we really had to pack a lunch as we were on the trail until 2:00 pm. Until today, we only packed snacks. One of my many errands yesterday was to stop at the grocery store and get a couple of deli sandwiches to throw in our backpacks. We stopped to eat our lunch at the junction of the Peterson trail with the Sanborn trail and we all had a much needed rest. That was good enough for me. I had my second wind after that and I was in the lead of our "Hot On Your Trail" group for most of the rest of the way.

When we reached the Skyline trail once again, we hiked in the opposite direction until the trail ended in a meadow with many beautiful wildflowers - and a conveniently located outhouse, of which some of us took advantage before hiking back to the parking lot. I was very pleased with my new orthotics. They held up very well and by the end of this six hour hike, my feet were still happy and in no pain whatsoever.

We rushed home after the hike, showered and napped, and then had dinner. I took our son to the Easter Vigil Mass - the most beautiful Mass of the year. After Mass, we rushed home, loaded the already packed suitcases into the car. Our southern California adventure begins! Since we planned to drive all the way to Oceanside, we decided to break up the drive over two days, and drove about three hours to Kettleman City where we spent the night.