Spring Break 2013

Spring break was fun filled with several hikes and runs and a visit from my sister.  I had a long deserved 4 day weekend, which was extremely relaxing.  Pretty much an awesome spring break.

The kids had fun with their friends, with a hike on up in the Briones with the Berhens.  The weather has been perfect, with the hills in beautiful emerald green and mustard yellow.

One of the highlights of the Briones for the kids are the salamanders and newts.  This hike was no exception, with the hills alive with the amphibians.  Of course they found the typical California newts; however, they also came across tiger salamanders, which have florescent green eyes.

Our rain pattern here for the last few weeks has been one day of rain a week.  For the Briones, this means some pretty muddy trails.  The Berehens wanted to have our kids see some pretty awesome single track trails that were created for some mountain bikes.  Needless to say, they had a pretty hard time keeping upright, but they certainly had fun playing in the mud.

On Wednesday, the kids went for a hike with a family in our hall, the Hash's.  They are new to the area (from Ohio) and we have been showing them of the fun things we like to do.  A couple of weeks ago we took them through Castle Rock Regional Park.  This time, Beth met them at the Lafayette Reservoir.   The kids had a great time on the loop, which ends at the awesome play area.

On Thursday, my sister Melissa flew in for a visit with her friend Lisa in Napa.  We picked her up at the Oakland Airport and took the long way around to Napa.  First stop was at Ghiradelli for coffee and hot cocoa.  Next, we took a trip across the Golden Gate Bridge to have lunch in Sausilito.  There is a nice deli we discovered a couple years back and they have awesome sandwiches.  Melissa also bought some Smarties (the English style M&M's) and I was tempted to buy some Coffee Crisp but resisted.

After Sausilito, with a brief stop at a new running store where we bought some bread (longer story here) in Mill Valley, we drove up to Sonoma.  Emma had visited the mission here for 4th grade California state history, but Beth and I have never been.   It is a really nice town, and I can say that I prefer it much better than Napa.

All people prior to the 1900's were this tall! Except Abe Lincoln and Wyatt Erpp, no one believed me!

We visited some of the historical buildings, like the mission, the barracks, and looked at some of the shops.  It is a really quaint town and worth a trip up.  

After Sonoma, we dropped my sister in Napa with her friend Lisa.  Thank you Lisa for arranging this for her.  It really means a lot, giving her some time to decompress.  Thanks again.

I took a pretty good face-plant, good times.

After Thursday, we spent some time up on Mt. Diablo.  On Friday, Beth and I took a run on a segment of the 50K we will be running in a couple of weeks, off of Camino Tassajara.  With the rain we received on Thursday, it was pretty slick but a good run.  There was a lot of poison oak showing up by now, but somehow we made it through the run incident free.  This is beautiful country, and very jungle like. 

On Saturday, after field service, we took the kids on a hike nearby up to Eagle Peak.  After hiking through the meadows of Clayton and past a new pond we discovered, we begin our climb up through the pine and the chaparral.  This is a single track that leads up along to the ridge that overlooks Mitchell Canyon, Back Creek Canyon, and Clayton and Concord.  It is a beautiful hike.



Once we got to the top, we decided to come down the Mitchell Peak trail, which was pretty awesome.  For the kids any hike up a mountain means running down, and this was definitely a fun trail to run down.  

The wild flowers are in full bloom on the mountain, with reds, purples, oranges, yellows popping everywhere.   The meadows are so green, contrasted by the flowers, and topped off by the red rock.  It is certainly awesome country.

Once we got home, we watched Old Yeller.  Emma recently finished reading it and I had told her about the movie.  It has been nice that free -on-demand have been adding some of the old classics.  It was also fun to see how much of the country shown in the movie looked exactly like what we had just hiked through.

The kids made it through tear free, and I removed myself from the climax of the movie.  Oh well.

What an awesome spring break, now back to school and work!

Flat Stanley Takes On Mt. Diablo

With Sophie in a 2nd/3rd split class this year, there is the occasional repeat activity.  So we have the privilege of Flat Stanley making the rounds.  We didn't want to send him out this year, so we have kept him local.  This has meant traveling into San Francisco with me as well as other activities.


Saturday after service, we decided to do a hike up on Mt. Diablo.  There is a piece of single track Beth has been wanting to explore to see the feasibility of adding it to her runs.  Overall it is a 4.5 mile loop with some over 1,200 elevation gain.  Not bad for a hike or a run.


Sophie thought it would be great to bring Flat Stanley along for the adventure also.

The most challenging part of the hike is at the beginning when we climb Burma Rd.  This is a very steep part of the trail but provides a beautiful view of the valley below.   Coming down the hill is great too!  Pretty steep, however, not too steep to see the occasional mountain biker coming down.

We then proceeded to Buckeye trail, this is the single track that Beth had been eying.  It is part of a 50K we are considering towards the end of April.  The poppies are finally out, as well as other wild flowers.  Leading up to the day, it had been sunny and in the 70's; however, it was overcast for our hike.  We came across a couple of creek crossings with one nice little waterfall added in. 

We finally made it to Stage Road, which dropped us back into Pine Canyon.  We came across a really old "Rattlesnake Gulch" sign which we wondered what the history was behind it, but have come up dry on Google.  While we haven't had much rain since December, we have had enough for the hills to turn green.  We also came across some of our favorite creek crossings, with Myles playing in the mud.  Beth and I get the biggest kick out of passerby's who remark how awesome we are for letting our kids play in the mud,  and I don't know why.


Flat Stanley made the hike intact and dry and the kids made it home thrilled but tired from the adventure we had.

Bobcat and Roasted Hot Dogs

So we had a nice weekend filled with field service, a run around Lafayette Reservoir for Beth and Emma, a run up Mt. Diablo and back for me and another brother in our hall, and a hot dog and S’more roast in the backyard with Jill and David.

We are in our final week of the Convention invitation work and had a wonderful time the last few weeks placing them.  We have had nice groups out, and the final Saturday we met at the hall.  This means that this coming weekend will be the Convention, which we are really looking forward to.  Look for pictures early next week on this blog as well as Beth’s.

Later that afternoon, we went the reservoir. I took Sophie and Myles to the play structure while Beth and Emma did a lap around the lake.  Beth has been taking the kids during the week, so it was nice for her to be able to run unhindered by the jogging stroller.  Sophie and Emma have no problem running a couple of times around the lake (2.8 miles each lap) but Myles is still wanting a ride.

Sunday morning I got up early and went on a run with Ryan who is currently training for his first 100 mile run in Tahoe on the 21^st.  You can find the recap of the run here.  But the most outstanding part of the run was that we got to see a bobcat!!  While common on the mountain, these cats like to stay out of view, so this was something truly special to see.  It also highlighted that really Mt. Diablo is definitely its own ecosystem surrounded by cities. 

After meeting, Jill and David took the kids to the skateboard park and to ice cream at Guanatos.  There Emma had talked them into trying cheese ice cream as well as avocado ice cream.  Myles favorite is Lacuma, which is South American fruit that taste like a combination of sweet potato and maple syrup.

Later that evening, David broke out his Sky Hog, which Myles promptly landed on the roof.  It was nice to have them over to experience the “Latham Cookout” of roasted hot dogs.  Have you ever tasted the Guy Fieri Tequila Lime Chicken sausages?  Boy they are good.   Later on we played spoons.

All in all, it was a pretty nice weekend.

Why We Love This Area!!!

There are so many places to explore within 15 minutes of home.  With Mt. Diablo State Park and a dozen or so East Bay Regional Parks, as well as three Open Spaces, there is so many chances to see Jehovah's awesome creative power.  Over the last three weeks, after field service, we have hit the trails. 

Week One:  Shell Ridge Open Space to Castle Rock Regional Park

 

Week one, we decided to follow the trail from the Shell Ridge Open Space in Walnut Creek to the Castle Rock Regional park.    This trip also exposed us for the first time to the Diablo Foothills Regional Park  

This combined two of our favorite hikes; however, without any rain, the hills are not the typical emerald green for this time of the year.  It was wonderful to share this hike with our friends the Bulkoski's. 

The trail consisted of rolling hills, steep ridges, and the kids favorite, Buckeye Ravine.  From Buckeye Ravine, you drop into what has been called Little Yosemite because of the wonderful Granite and Sandstone that make up Castle Rocks.  This was a five mile hike, one way; however, we did park a car at the end point so that the kids wouldn't have to hike back.

Week Two:  The China Wall

Beth discovered this place on-line.  At the end of Stone Valley Rd, you can get to the Macedo Ranch Staging Area.  This is located in the Mt. Diablo State Park and is an easy 3 mile round trip hike.  

This beautiful hike takes you to wonderful rock formations that look like the top of the the Great Wall of China.  I am eager to get back to this place after the rain, when the hill should be a lovely green with yellow mustard.

Week Three:  Rock City

We discovered Rock City last year when we took a trip to Mt. Diablo Summit.  I really love this place!!!  It so reminds me of when my parents would take us to Joshua Tree.  This place is beautiful, with awesome pinnacles of sandstone.  There are tunnels carved out by the wind to explore.  It is just one big playground for the kids, with natural slides and places to explore.

You could spend days finding something new and rare.  Emma stumbled on this weird rock formation.  It looks like a boulder dropped in a puddle of mud then froze this way.  What amazes me even further is that the wind then perfectly ate around the sandstone to expose this treasure.  What a wonderful gift from our grand creator.

The North Side of Mt. Diablo

So beside the hiking, Beth and I are training for a 50K in April.  So a sister in our hall was gracious enough to watch the kids while we ran to the mountain from our house.  Our first 3 miles is to the Mitchell Canyon Staging area.  From there, we ran up the Back Canyon Trail, in total 2,600 feet of elevation climb.  In fact the final 1.7 miles of the climb consisted of 1,500 feet of switchback.  From there it was down 3.57 miles down Mitchell Canyon to the staging area, then back to home.   In total we covered exactly 13 miles in 3 hours 21 minutes.

The Back Canyon trail is beautiful single track and is challenging at times.  However, you get a wonderful view of the Delta and the Sierra off in the distance.  At one point a rabbit jumped out to scare us, but it was all good.  The Mitchell Canyon Trail is fire road, and makes for wonderful cruising down hill.  Both trails give wonderful vistas of Eagle Peak.

All in all, we love having such easy access to these trails.  This isn't even to mention all of the trails in the Oakland Hills, Las Trampas, and Briones that are 30 minutes from home.