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In Which Spring Has Sprung
Feb. 11th, 2018 12:08 amIt's been a few weeks now that we've been having wonderfully spring-like weather. Warm-ish weather, clear skies. Some of my friends have been hating the wrongness of it, but my impending departure from the area has helped me to get beyond the weather fear-mongering of the media and to disconnect my feelings of self-being with that of the Bay Area environment. So I've been basking in it instead.
In Which Christmas Ends. For spring to begin, Christmas must end, and it did, just barely. Last Saturday, K. and I got together with my sister Melody and her husband Jared. We never manage to do Christmas with them at Christmas time because they're out of town and I'm busy going out and about. But we finally connected up. We had good talk and a great lunch out of Chevy's. It's one of the furthest trips that we've been able to make since K. discovered her broken foot. On the way back we were sitting in horrible bumper-to-bumper traffic in Emeryville, watching a Baskin n' Robbins taunting us from the nearby strip mall. Eventually, after not passing it for long moments, we pulled in and had bonus ice cream to end the day. It's always great getting together with them. Maybe we'll be able to spend a bit more time with them next year, when BART extends to just pass their house.
In Which I Enjoy A Beautiful Hike. So last Sunday I hiked up to Tilden, making it all the way out to Jewel Lake. It was a gorgeous hike in very nice weather that was warm and pleasant.
In Which My Mood Improves. Mid-last week I realized that I was feeling quite good. In a good mood and generally happy. I've long known that the dark, cold, and gray winter months get me down, here in the Bay Area. But I'd never seen quite as sharp of a reversal as this, where a couple of weeks of spring weather in winter notably changed my outlook.
In Which I Conquer Briones Reservoir. Yesterday my gaming got cancelled. We've actually had a rough time lately, only managing one session since September, and that with only three of us, which I usually pass on. So that happened again on Saturday (for understandable reasons). As is usually the case, I got out in the sun instead, and rather delightfully so thanks to that nice weather.
I've been seeing Briones Reservoir a lot lately, from Kennedy and Tilden, so I planned to head out there. This was my second trip, following a cold hike through a small portion of it in December the year before last. My plan this time was to bike out to the corner of San Pablo Reservoir; rather than exhausting myself biking up to Briones, I was going to hike it instead along a short little 1 mile connector trail, then I'd hike the west and north third of the reservoir, out to the Hampton Staging Area, and back. Because I'd previously learned that the Reservoir was too big to hike in a day.
Surprise! I made it to the Hampton Trail around 1pm, after about two hours of hiking, and I decided it was silly to walk back my path, for two-thirds of the Reservoir total, but going over the same ground twice, when I could just go a little further, be at the halfway point, and then complete the whole Reservoir, so I did. The only catch was that the EBMUD maps (unshockingly) measure one of their mileages wrong. They mark the south side as 3 miles and it's 4. Which I should have guessed because when I walked part of the Reservoir 14 months ago, I couldn't make it that whole leg in the time I had allotted.
Total trip was a mile to the Reservoir, then 4 + 5.4 + 4 + .3 around (unless EMBUD also shorted other distances), then a mile back for a total hike of about 16 miles. Also a bit more than 250 flights of stair in elevation change, as there was lots of up and down. I was out walking about 6.5 hours, from 11am to 5.30pm, without much in the way of stopping, as there are only 3.5 benches on the whole loop, and those were all in the last few miles.
I was tired by the end, and I was a bit sore today, but neither horribly so.
The hike is beautiful and has very distinct characters on the Reservoir's different sides. The west side is not beautiful, as it's along a road and is the business side of the reservoir with all kinds of measuring stuff and buildings and some construction. The north side rises up into the hills along the Oursan Ridge and has great views in all directions, even to San Pablo Bay at one point; it reminded me of the hills above the nearby Lafayette Reservoir. The east side runs the closest to the water and struck me as similar to Chabot Lake. The south side, which is what I'd walked before, has heavy tree cover and as noted the only benches.
I think I liked the north the best.
There are never many people on the EBMUD trails, as they do their best to discourage usage. But I saw around a dozen people over the 6.5 hours. The most notable occurred along the east shore. First there was an older couple, then there was a jogging British lady, then there was jacket man. Jacket man had lost his jacket somewhere on the trail and was searching for it. I was about 6 miles into my walk around the reservoir and told him I hadn't seen it. He continued on past me. 3.5 miles on, I saw his jacket, hanging across from the sign-in board at the next staging area. It was exactly where I'd been thinking I would have put it if I'd found it on the trail. Some miles further on, the British lady jogged by me a second time. Then, when I was close to my exit, I saw the older couple again, clearly going a little bit faster than me (but not a lot). I hoped to see jacket man next, but I never did. Hopefully he turned back instead, and found his jacket.
My previous best hiking day, since getting my Fitbit, was 40,000 steps, one memorable day in New York when I walked from Brooklyn to the garment district in Manhattan (and then a few other places too). I've never been able to equal that, as when I hike out here I start too late, end too early, and usually find places to write along the way. Well, there was no writing on Saturday because I needed to keep going to make it all the way around the Reservoir. Much to my delight, I hit my 40k mark again, for the second time, and then even managed 45k before I made it home.
Yay for a beautiful and strenuous day of walking in Contra Costa County.
In Which Christmas Ends. For spring to begin, Christmas must end, and it did, just barely. Last Saturday, K. and I got together with my sister Melody and her husband Jared. We never manage to do Christmas with them at Christmas time because they're out of town and I'm busy going out and about. But we finally connected up. We had good talk and a great lunch out of Chevy's. It's one of the furthest trips that we've been able to make since K. discovered her broken foot. On the way back we were sitting in horrible bumper-to-bumper traffic in Emeryville, watching a Baskin n' Robbins taunting us from the nearby strip mall. Eventually, after not passing it for long moments, we pulled in and had bonus ice cream to end the day. It's always great getting together with them. Maybe we'll be able to spend a bit more time with them next year, when BART extends to just pass their house.
In Which I Enjoy A Beautiful Hike. So last Sunday I hiked up to Tilden, making it all the way out to Jewel Lake. It was a gorgeous hike in very nice weather that was warm and pleasant.
In Which My Mood Improves. Mid-last week I realized that I was feeling quite good. In a good mood and generally happy. I've long known that the dark, cold, and gray winter months get me down, here in the Bay Area. But I'd never seen quite as sharp of a reversal as this, where a couple of weeks of spring weather in winter notably changed my outlook.
In Which I Conquer Briones Reservoir. Yesterday my gaming got cancelled. We've actually had a rough time lately, only managing one session since September, and that with only three of us, which I usually pass on. So that happened again on Saturday (for understandable reasons). As is usually the case, I got out in the sun instead, and rather delightfully so thanks to that nice weather.
I've been seeing Briones Reservoir a lot lately, from Kennedy and Tilden, so I planned to head out there. This was my second trip, following a cold hike through a small portion of it in December the year before last. My plan this time was to bike out to the corner of San Pablo Reservoir; rather than exhausting myself biking up to Briones, I was going to hike it instead along a short little 1 mile connector trail, then I'd hike the west and north third of the reservoir, out to the Hampton Staging Area, and back. Because I'd previously learned that the Reservoir was too big to hike in a day.
Surprise! I made it to the Hampton Trail around 1pm, after about two hours of hiking, and I decided it was silly to walk back my path, for two-thirds of the Reservoir total, but going over the same ground twice, when I could just go a little further, be at the halfway point, and then complete the whole Reservoir, so I did. The only catch was that the EBMUD maps (unshockingly) measure one of their mileages wrong. They mark the south side as 3 miles and it's 4. Which I should have guessed because when I walked part of the Reservoir 14 months ago, I couldn't make it that whole leg in the time I had allotted.
Total trip was a mile to the Reservoir, then 4 + 5.4 + 4 + .3 around (unless EMBUD also shorted other distances), then a mile back for a total hike of about 16 miles. Also a bit more than 250 flights of stair in elevation change, as there was lots of up and down. I was out walking about 6.5 hours, from 11am to 5.30pm, without much in the way of stopping, as there are only 3.5 benches on the whole loop, and those were all in the last few miles.
I was tired by the end, and I was a bit sore today, but neither horribly so.
The hike is beautiful and has very distinct characters on the Reservoir's different sides. The west side is not beautiful, as it's along a road and is the business side of the reservoir with all kinds of measuring stuff and buildings and some construction. The north side rises up into the hills along the Oursan Ridge and has great views in all directions, even to San Pablo Bay at one point; it reminded me of the hills above the nearby Lafayette Reservoir. The east side runs the closest to the water and struck me as similar to Chabot Lake. The south side, which is what I'd walked before, has heavy tree cover and as noted the only benches.
I think I liked the north the best.
There are never many people on the EBMUD trails, as they do their best to discourage usage. But I saw around a dozen people over the 6.5 hours. The most notable occurred along the east shore. First there was an older couple, then there was a jogging British lady, then there was jacket man. Jacket man had lost his jacket somewhere on the trail and was searching for it. I was about 6 miles into my walk around the reservoir and told him I hadn't seen it. He continued on past me. 3.5 miles on, I saw his jacket, hanging across from the sign-in board at the next staging area. It was exactly where I'd been thinking I would have put it if I'd found it on the trail. Some miles further on, the British lady jogged by me a second time. Then, when I was close to my exit, I saw the older couple again, clearly going a little bit faster than me (but not a lot). I hoped to see jacket man next, but I never did. Hopefully he turned back instead, and found his jacket.
My previous best hiking day, since getting my Fitbit, was 40,000 steps, one memorable day in New York when I walked from Brooklyn to the garment district in Manhattan (and then a few other places too). I've never been able to equal that, as when I hike out here I start too late, end too early, and usually find places to write along the way. Well, there was no writing on Saturday because I needed to keep going to make it all the way around the Reservoir. Much to my delight, I hit my 40k mark again, for the second time, and then even managed 45k before I made it home.
Yay for a beautiful and strenuous day of walking in Contra Costa County.