Mission Peak Twice - Twice

Today Duane and I woke up at the absolutely un-Godly hour of 3:20 am. We quickly showered, dressed and ate breakfast. We drank water on the drive to the Stanford Avenue trailhead to Mission Peak. We planned to start our hike at 4:45 am from the steeper Stanford Avenue side in order to avoid hiking up this portion in the hottest part of the day when we would most assuredly be tired.

This morning's climb up Stanford Avenue was certainly easier than last week's, when we did this in full sun, at approximately 85 degrees, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. We made it to the top by about 6:45 am, and saw the sunrise on the way up. It was quite beautiful watching the long shadows shorten, and the beautiful pinks and oranges disappear as the sun rose higher in the sky.

Our fellow hikers, mentor Deb and Brian, are some of the fastest hikers in the group. Deb is planning to summit Half Dome on the same day we are, though not with the Team in Training group. Brian is also preparing for Half Dome, but is juggling his time commitments because his wife is preparing to have a transplant to treat her blood cancer.

Just about all of this hike was easier than last week and I found myself enjoying it far more than the previous week. I enjoyed the wildflowers as well as the gopher snake that we saw near the summit.

On the final stretch of the hike, Duane's knee began to hurt. Downhill is always more difficult - and more stressful on the knees - than uphill. Duane got worried and decided to wait for me at that parking lot. He didn't want to risk making his knee worse.

We made it back down to the parking lot at Ohlone College at about 8:00 am. By that time, it was beginning to get hot again. I quickly changed my socks, ate half a sandwich, and made sure that my hydration pack had full water, before setting out again. One of my amateur radio friends met us at the Ohlone College parking lot and went up with me. Since my car was at the Stanford Avenue parking lot, I figured I would drive him back to his car and pick up Duane.

As it turned out, we left a bit later than we planned. My friend was on call at work starting at 10:00 am and needed to be near a computer. We didn't quite make it to the top before needing to turn back because of time. Truth be told, however, I was pretty tired. I had carried my heaviest pack of the season. My hydration pack held the full three liters, and I was carrying 4 bottles of G2, two more bottles of water, five granola bars, electrolyte gels, some trail mix and a sandwich. I just started to run out of gas around mile nine.

This surprised me because I had done it twice the week before (except for the very top), and discouraged me. I began to wonder if my choice of electrolyte and sandwich were really the best idea. This also caused me to think about how often I was eating and drinking electrolyte along the trail. Should I be doing something different to get more energy into my body and faster than I already was? Something to think about over the next week. I will make some adjustments on future hikes and see how they work.

The good news is that my new, fourth pair of boots are working quite well. I had a twinge of pain in one toe on the way down, but it wasn't lasting. This may be because I lost part of the toenail on last week's hike because I forgot to clip it the night before. I won't forget to do that again.

We had a good rest after today's hike and had a much deserved date night. We dropped our son off at a play date and we went out for dinner and a movie.

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!