Mission Peak - Twice

Today's hike was at Mission Peak, a 2200 foot elevation change and 14 miles. This was the closest we've come so far to simulating the Half Dome hike.

After dropping our son off at his T-Ball coach's home, we headed over to Ohlone College to meet those of our teammates going on this hike. Unbeknownst to us, several others had already started from the Stanford Avenue entrance at 4:45 am.

We thought we were going to do the hike twice to the Ohlone College side, but as it turned out we were going down the Stanford Avenue entrance and back over. Thus, we didn't have everything in our packs, thinking that we would refill water, electrolyte, energy bars and a fresh pair of socks out of our car after the first trip. We hurriedly threw that stuff in our packs, but in our haste, I forgot my extra granola bars, and fresh socks.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize this until I was 15 minutes into the hike and it was too late to turn back. Not that it really mattered. I had a sandwich and five granola bars, so I wouldn't starve and I'm dieting anyway. I did have all of my G2 and water with me, so I was good to go, even if not perfect.

The first part of this hike, along the the Peak Trail near Ohlone College, is a series of switchbacks that takes you over and behind the ridge and into an oak forest. The forest eventually peters out as you enter a chaparral microclimate. As we headed up the ridge, we entered grasslands. From here on out, we were fully exposed to the sun, which at this time of the morning - about 10:00 am - wasn't at its hottest. At this point, the switchbacks began to get steeper until we reached the plain at the top of hill. At this point, there was a junction at which you could continue on up to the peak, circle around just below, or continue on down to the Stanford Avenue entrance. Of course, we continued on up to the peak.

The final ascent involved a steep grade, followed by an even steeper grade clamboring over rocks the final 100 feet. At last we reached the top - and, oh, what a view! We could see the entire South Bay, the NUMI plant, the salt flats, all the way up to Mt. Tamalpais peeking up through the Marin County fog. Behind us we could see the 680 corridor running through the valley beyond.

We sat down and rested for about half an hour. I ate half of my sandwich, a granola bar, finished my first bottle of G2 and just enjoyed the view. After that we took off again, continuing in the same direction taking the Eagle Trail in a circuit around the peak, before coming to the same junction again, this time taking the Grove Trail, which is the beginning of the way down to the Stanford Avenue entrance. From there we took the Ohlone Wilderness Trail the rest of the way down.

This side of the mountain is quite steep and there is little cover. Just two clumps of trees providing minimal shade to passing hikers. This was, however, a good test of my boots for the kinds of terrain that we will experience on the Half Dome hike. The result: almost perfect, but not quite. I still was experiencing some minor jamming of my toes on the way down. It wasn't too bad and once I retied my boots, I did much better.

We arrived down at the Stanford Avenue entrance around 12:30 pm. We had a half an hour rest. I ate the rest of my sandwich and some trail mix, and finished a second bottle of G2. Joy, one of our mentors, had some ice cold lemonade waiting for us, which was wonderful!

Then we took off again, this time ascending the mountain from Stanford Avenue. In retrospect, this was really a mistake. It put us on the steepest side of the mountain, with no cover, in the heat of the day and the temperature was about 85 degrees. The going was very tough. One of my teammates used up all her water on the way up and she had refilled her hydration pack before we started.

We got back up to the junction with the Peak Trail. We began the final ascent and I just ran out of gas. I just didn't want to take one more step up. I also didn't want to climb the steepest rocky part because I didn't want to come down the same way (too steep) and there was no longer time to do the more gentle circuit back. Duane and one of our teammates walked about 100 feet more before turning back as well.

From there it was back down to Ohlone College, a more gentle decline with plenty of shade. We reached our car at about 4:20 pm, very tired and sore, but we very happy that we did it!