Free to Wander

April 2-3, 2009

Whoah, so I haven’t written in a very long time! That tells you how consumed I’ve been teaching full-time, and doing the master’s program at night. Throw in fixing things around the house and it all equates to NO travel!

So, in desperation (ha-ha) I coersed a friend who also is obsessed with the outdoors to at least hike somewhere in the Bay Area during the week. She’s out of work due to the recesssion, but it gives us good excuse to hike without worry! 😀

Decided to take off Thursday morning at 8, had to take this date for the trip as the campground was only available Thursday night. Now this was a ridiculously close trip to home… but, that shouldn’t matter! 😀 The point is, backpacking! Yaee! Drove out to Livermore, and started hiking at the Del Val Staging Area to hike up to Murietta Falls. Now in the past I’ve heard from several friends that this is an intense hike. Ha, and we’re doing it with big packs on our backs! Oh well! 😀 I was sure up for the challenge, mainly because I was in backpacking withdrawal! 🙂 I finally invested in my own pack this past September, and recently got an actual WARM sleeping bag, as well as lighter tent. (Yes, I was still hauling my “3 man” Harrier (Northface) tent from back in 2000. While it was always fun to have  alot of space (and somebody along the line called it the “Taj Majaul” as it was so big for just me!)… so, it was soooo nice to have the lightweight backpacking tent! And, hiking up steep terrain like “Big Burn”, it was sure a good workout!

Another fun part about this trip was the fact that we didn’t have to worry about bears. Thought there may be squirrels, maybe a racoon or two, but we ended up not being bothered by any wildlife. Saw a snake, which was great, and some dead crawdads in the pool at the falls, but that was really the extent of it. Nice! 🙂  (I’m not a fan of running into bears- came close last year on a hike down south, and really don’t want to come that close again! : o

Anyhow, it was freezing toward the top, and I waited probably too long to put my gloves and long sleeve on as I was cold for quite a while. But, all worked out, and I was very happy to set up camp that evening. Totally tired and ready to sleep! And, we were spoiled with a water spicket at the campground and actual pit toilet! So, accomodations were good at Stewart’s Camp. The trip down in the morning was pretty intense, as it was obviously the same trip backward, involving going down all the steep hills we’d come up Thursday! Great wildflower collection, as well as plenty of green hills.

It sure felt good to finish, and we rewarded ourselves with nice juicy cheeseburgers and fries and milkshake at In and Out on the way back home. Fun few days! 🙂