Hiking Trails and Trips
Trips
I can see this hill every time I traveled on Freeway 85. Finally, after black Friday, and Turkey Trot 10K run on Thanksgiving Day, I did this trail.On the southern part of the trail, it is basically fire roads, wide and gentle slope, pretty good for mountain biking. On the northern part of the trail, however, it is mostly small narrow trail for hikers only, but in shade most of the time....
This preserve is on the other side of Highway 17 from Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve, which I hiked earlier. I saw the trail across the valley and consulted with my co-worker. He highly recommended this trail.The view is nice and definitely worth to come back in the future.
This hike winds through Fremont Older Open Space Preserve and Stevens Creek County Park. I also got beautiful view of South Bay and Stevens Creek Reservoir, although the Reservoir has low level of water.The first accent was very steep, made me worry how I could come down on the way back. There are many choices of the trails you can turn in, so make sure that you have a good map of...
This is a planned long hike, recommended by my co-worker who ride mountain bike often on this trail. I started early, before the sun rise, so nobody is on the road or trail. I parked car on Redwood Gulch Road because it's No Parking on Stevens Canyon Road. It's a bit more than a mile to the trailhead of Canyon trail. The whol Canyon trail follows the Creek so it's quite gental accent. After...
This trail is very scenic. There are a lot of places that you can have a good view of the Valley down under. The most parts of the trail are fire road, although some portions do not allow mountain bikes.It's not a popular trail. I did not see hikers along the way. But it is beautiful and challenge if you hike fast.
This is a group hiking event.We arrived at the trailhead at 8:30am and already found difficult to get a parking spot, unless you are willing to wait for people to leave. I just parked car in the residential area, and hiked half mile more to the trailhead.The PGE trail is for power company to maintain their power line. So this trail follows pretty much with the power line, relatively easy on both...
Mount Sizer is a prominent peak located on Blue Ridge in Henry W. Coe State Park, just east of Morgan Hill, California. Because Mount Sizer is the highest point on Blue Ridge and under 10 miles (16 km) miles from the park's headquarters, it makes it an ideal destination for day hikers. I started early and there are only a few cars in the parking lot. I paid parking fee ($8). Some of...
Recently, I started to have long hike that's 12 to 15 miles in about 4 hours. This trail comes to my plan a week ago. I arrived the trailhead of Limekiln Trail at 6:12am, only one car is on the parking lot (usually, it's packed with cars later). The guy was not her for hiking but for fishing. I planned to hike along Limekiln Trail out and come back on Priest Rock Trail to...
Mission Peak is a very popular hiking destination in the Bay Area. On weekend, more than 1000 people hiking up. But most start from Stanford Ave Parking lot. There is another route, which is slightly longer and more gental slope, is from Ohlone College. One week after our Mt Whitney day hike, my friends and I did this Mission Peak hike. I only occationally hiked up the mission, but my friends hike twice...
This is my second time hiking up the Mt. Whitney. The first one was 3 years ago in 2009, and I did it solo. This time, I hiked with a group of 9 hikers. The gpx file is not complete, because my GPS device ran out of power before we finish the trail. So the total length should be 22 miles, not just 14.7 miles. This time, we had relatively relaxed pace. But that...
Li Shan (骊山) is a relatively small hill in the district of Litong (临潼) of Xi'An (西安) city, an ancient capital for many dynasties. The most famous attraction here is Terracotta Warriors (兵马俑). The world famous museum is only a few miles from the hill.Although it's a small hill, it's still pretty challenge for average Chinese. Many people choose to take Gondola to the summit. During my childhood and college time, I have summit this hill many...
Tai Shan is a very popular destination for tourists. The peak is about 5000ft, and close to metro area. I had hiked this mountain about 30 years ago, when the tourism is still in its very early stage in China.I arrived Tai'An train station early at 6am and took a taxi ride to Dai Temple (岱庙). I then walked towards the Red Gate (红门宫), which is the trailhead to the summit. There...
Song Shan (嵩山) is another famous mountain that is closely associated with Shaolin Temple, for which it is famous for Chinese Kongfu. It is not on the major highway/railroad, so getting there is a bit tricky. I took a high speed train from Xi'An to Luoyang, but did not get bus to the Shaolin temple. I ended up taking a taxi (200 RMB Yuan, or about $33) arrived there.There are a lot...
HuaShan (华山) is one of the most famous mountain in China. I have hiked to this mountain more than 30 years twice. This time, with celebration of college graduation with our classmates, I came to this mountain again alone.Now in China, tourism is a big business. Many mountains have Gondolas to the top. Huashan also has gondola to the North peak, and many people choose to ride the Gondola. So the trail...
San Bruno Mountain State Park is in the middle of densely populated area, therefore a each reach wildness. The hike itself is pretty easy with a lot of great views. You can see San Francisco downtown, Bay Bridges, SFO airport and all surrounding residential and Industrial areas. Highly recommended.
This has been a long planned hike trip. It explores the wildness of the Marin County, just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge.Early morning on the July 4 long weekend, I parked my car just south of Golden Gate Bridge, a free, unpaved parking lot we always use when we visit the Golden Gate Bridge. The weather is cool, perfect for the hiking.The first part of the hike is...
It was a cloudy day, and actually quite chilly for this time of year.We arrived the parking lot at trailhead and found that the small parking lot can only have 12 cars and there was not spot. Later, we found that if you driver a little bit more into Rhus Ridge Road, there is another hidden small parking lot, which hold 4 cars. So we parked car there and started the hike.The initial...
This is the longest trail of our senior hiking group, a 20 mile/6000' elevation gain day trip. This is a hard hike for any average hiker in any age group.We parked our cars in Sunol Reginal Park. The family member of one of our group member took us to the starting point of the trail in Lake Del Valle State Park in Livermore.The first accent is hard, from altitude of 500' all...
This year, we got a lot of rain and the wild flowers and grass are much better than the normal year. It is certainly very beautiful time of the time for this highest peak in the Bay Area.We started early and had fun talking along the way. This year, we bypassed Olympic Peak and North Peak and directly targeted to the Diablo Peak. Along the way, it is really magneficant view around...
Hike to the Mt. Kilimanjaro is the dream for any hiker. I got this opportunaty This January with a group of hikers, taking 7-day trek to the top.The first a few days are normal. There are 2 guides, 1 cooker and 3 porters for each hiker. We don't see our porters who collects everything we left behind each morning after we leave the site and hike quickly, passed us some time, and...
