Big Basin / Waddell Creek / Clark Connector - California, United States

The first 2 miles are easy and I've done that stretch before, but when I got to the junction for the Clark Connector it became very steep very quickly. I've rarely had a problem hiking uphill, it's the downhill at the end of the hike that does my knees in so I was a bit worried about how long it might take me to get back once I ascended.

I kept a pretty good pace all the way to my turn around point which was a cache named "Turkish Coffee". I didn't go any further because I had been on the Chalks Road part of this hike before and that wasn't too far off. Plus, I didn't have the ability to do this as a through-hike so I had to turn around at some point.

I hit the 4.4 mile mark at just under 2 hours from my parking spot at Waddell , and given my lack of hiking conditioning lately I was very happy with the pace. I decided to take a 15-minute lunch break near the top in the sun so I could take some ibuprofen for my knee to prepare for the descent.

The sun was "warm" as it hit me since a lot of this trail was shaded and hasn't seen the sun in months (all winter??) so it felt good.

The pace down went a lot quicker than I expected and while my knee did ache for a bit I think it was good to push through it and start to rebuild some weak connector muscles to help strengthen it back up.

There are some good views back down to the beach and even to Ano Nuevo from the 'top" but I took no pictures as I didn't want to lug the camera up here and without a REALLY big lens you can't really do the views justice anyway.

All in all, a beautiful December day to be out hiking.