Category: Hikes

LA Hiking

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Someone got a new backpack this weekend.

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Though you can’t tell from the picture, she’s a huge fan.

To test it out, we headed out to Griffith Park Sunday morning.

Last week I was listening to an interview with Josh Spector who came in 18th at Badwater this year.  He lives in north Hollywood and was talking about all of the great hill/trail running in LA.  Now I see what he’s talking about.  Miles and miles of trails and roads with only foot traffic.

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It is gorgeous.  Crowded on a beautiful Sunday morning, but gorgeous.  And once you get off the main trail onto one of the many smaller trails it’s a lot less crowded.  When (if) I ever train for a marathon again, that is where I am heading (though with a partner…just saw this…)

Time to get exploring.

Kentucky Hike #3: Natural Bridge

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You can barely see it, peaking out of the woods.

Location: Powell County (about 50 miles east of Lexington)

Distance: Choose your own adventure (our choice was ~5.5 miles round trip)

Entry Fee: $0

Last Sunday Paul got really amped to go for a hike.  So we got up nice and early, dropped Spike off at daycare (Marsha), and headed east into Powell County.  Which is dry.  So no post-hike beer.

You may remember our last real hike in Kentucky, which pretty much turned me off to hiking here forever.  I am a fan of hiking (see: origin of this blog), but round here it takes some serious convincing that we are going to a heavily populated area with absolutely no hunting within a 100 mile radius for me to go.  Turns out Natural Bridge is like the HOTTEST tourist attraction in Kentucky outside of Derby, which was enough to convince me we wouldn’t be confused for deer.

After a post-drive bathroom break and some superior mullet spotting at the Hemlock Lodge, we headed out on the Original trailhead, then veered off onto the Hoods Branch Trail (the trip from the lodge up to the bridge ranges anywhere from .75 miles-4 miles.)   Our mishmash route was about 3 miles to the top.

This site is adjacent to the Red River Gorge, so the rocks started getting pretty cool pretty quick.

I can’t really speak to this personally, but apparently rocks like this are a rock climber’s dream.

…so of course Paul started up with this.

the whole. hike. up.

We eventually “climbed” our way up to the bridge…

…where the final stretch to get up to the bridge must prevent about 85% of the state’s population from actually experiencing the view from the top.

It is a seriously tight squeeze, I felt a little claustrophobic going through.  I am genuinely curious if anyone’s ever gotten stuck before.

We got to the top and it was…

…completely void of any barriers to keep people from falling off.

This made me nervous.

After that it was back on the trail…

…with a quick stop at the chair lift station to buy some more water from the two teenage kids in their John Deer hats sitting there drinking Ale 8 and listening to country music.

Best job ever.

Then it was down, down, down.

The “stairs” really were that steep.

And…back to the car!  Then, of course, a stop by Miguel’s, the climber hangout, for full pizza with potatoes, mushrooms, and kielbasa.

Holy crap, delicious.

Fun, short hike, nice views, worth the trip to see one of the Seven Wonders of the Commonwealth.

The Rez

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About a year an a half ago one of our very best friends from college moved with her husband, who is a doctor, out to the middle of the Navajo Nation in Arizona so he could work at the local hospital. Last Thursday three of us met up in Albequerque and made the four hour drive out to Chinle (pronounced chin-lee) to visit the two of them along with their two year old daughter and brand new baby, who was born in September.

Our hosts were gracious enough to let us stay for three whole days (God knows why).  Our weekend consisted of:

adorable babies

 crowns, tutus, ballet, and bollywood aerobics (it’s the two-year-old’s favorite dance video)
 some hiking
 along big canyon walls
 to the bottom of canyon de chelly
 playing in the dirt
a trip to the swap meet (us in front of the house getting ready to go)
 a drive through the desert
 to monument national park
 where i learned that if you get out of the car to take pictures of goats
 your “friends” will drive about 8 miles an hour 5 feet in front of you so you can’t get back in the car, which is really fun
 there were some amazing rocks
 and amazing colors
 and amazing skies
 and amazing (?) people
 it was a fantastic trip. i miss everyone. thanks to paul and lisa for hosting. more pics to be posted here shortly.

Apartment Hike #2 (Part B)

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…continued from Part A.

Before we continue, did you know that September 17 is Constitution Day?

Chrissy did.  And did you know that Delaware was the first state to ratify the Constitution?  Now you do.

From the Inner Sunset we headed into Cole Valley for some uphill. Way, way uphill. Running sounded like a good idea, so that’s what we did.

It was easy.  And by easy I mean painful.  Ferg also figured out that skipping uphill is basically impossible.  From here, it was time for steps…which we also ran up.

These took us to…

Stop #5: Michelle and Dave’s, Mount Sutro.

Dave and Michelle (and Cooper, their dog) had an amazing view and a RIDICULOUS amount of delicious food at their house.  It was fantastic. We arrived sweaty and out of breath, and ended up hanging out there longer than the allotted 30 minutes due to some coordination problems with two other hikers who wanted to meet up (after about an hour we realized that they were waiting for us at Michelle and Dave’s old house across town.  Whoops.)  We decided to meet up with them at the next stop.

Fully fueled on pulled pork, mac and cheese, and brownies, we finally hit the road again.  This next stretch would be one of the longer ones of the day.  Road sodas in hand, we left Mount Sutro and headed down into…a forest.

Yes, really.  This little jungle is nestled right behind Michelle and Dave’s, and is home to the only mountain biking trail inside the city (we actually had to let a few bikers pass by.)  We emerged from the forest for yet another hill…

…and a few more stairs…

…to the top of Tank Hill, for a pretty fantastic cityscape.

(Note: Tank Hill was actually a hill for a water tank, not an army tank.)

At this point we were pretty far behind schedule, so we had to get our move on.  After a handstand attempt at the spot where the water tank used to be…

…we headed downhill (finally) toward Upper Market and passed a minibus that, like Chrissy, understood the importance of Constitution Day.

We successfully completed our first crossing of Market (the main drag you can see in the picture above from the top of Tank Hill)…

…and managed to find a ledge to set the camera on autoshoot and posed for a full group shot.  From here, it was down through Noe Valley to…

Stop #6: Summer and Ryan’s, The Mission

This stop resulted in 2 more hikers, 2 dogs, and a Katy Perry dance party.  But 30 minutes later we were on our way again, through the Mission to…

W-K MARKET!  The same stop we made last year.

Cutty bang time.  This year tasted a lot better, for some reason.*  We continued through the Mission without encountering A SINGLE bacon wrapped hot dog cart (a miracle)…

…successfully completed our first freeway crossing…

…and hiked up to the top of Potrero Hill to…

Stop #7: Ferg’s, Potrero Hill

Quick stop, we met up with 3 new hikers (and acquired another dog) and headed downhill (thank God)…

…to freeway crossing #2.  Completed our second freeway crossing successfully, with some people showcasing their parkour skills down into SOMA.  Counting strollers was long gone, but a few hikers were so happy to be on flat ground again that they just kept on skipping.

As dusk fell, we headed into downtown, crossed Market Street for a second time, passed City Hall…

…and marched straight into the Tenderloin to our old favorite hang out, Harrington’s Pub: where people smoke inside and dogs are welcome (which worked out great for us).  We asked a lady in the bar to take a group shot.

Apparently she’d been hanging out at the bar for a while.  But to be honest, it was probably better than any of us could do at that point.  We finished up our drinks and hit the road again, where we saw…another double decker red bus.  Why these things run through the Tenderloin I will never understand.  This meant only one thing:

Time for The Outsider, another Tenderloin gem.  From here we put on our blinders and made our way up the final hill to our FINAL STOP!

Stop #8: Sherwin & Peterson’s, the Tendernob

Victory.  Pizza and football for everyone.

Finishing time: 8:30pm

Lessons Learned: Carl is the fastest skipper in the group; they won’t let you in to a marijuana store “just to go pee”

Flora and Fauna:  Max, Lani, Cooper, and Huey.

*UPDATE: The Cutty Bang was on ice this year.  General consensus is that’s why it was so much better.


Apartment Hike #2: Skip the City (Part A)

~ meh ~ 4 Comments

Like, literally.

Some fortunate people with calves like this had an advantage:

Most of us did not.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Location: San Francisco

Distance: 14.04 m

Entry Fee: A good attitude, willingness to walk up hills

Apartment Hike #2 was a massive success…no thanks to me.  A huge HUGE thank you goes out to Molly, Peterson, and Ferg for making this happen.  And, of course, all of the hosts.  Without you, there would be no Urban Apartment Hiking.

ROUTE:

ROOLS:

  • 30 minutes at each house
  • Bacon Wrapped Hot Dog Carts–duh
  • Red Double Decker Tour Buses = chug a beer at the nearest bar.  5 minutes max.
  • Bay Quackers Duck Bus = shot of the warmest garbage tequila on the dusty bottom shelf from the nearest bar
  • Every time you see a stroller, you get to tell someone to skip.  That person has to skip until the next stroller is spotted, and the skipping gets passed along to someone else.

AND WE WERE OFF!

Stop #1: T. Dude and Eden’s, The Richmond.  Newly engaged.  Champagne for everyone.

Eden couldn’t join, but was gracious enough to host.  Their new apartment is awesome.  We left the first stop with almost 20 people in tow…21 if you count the one in utero (Summer is a TROOPER).

Pat and Foster skipped through the park…

…and right into our first Red Double Decker bus.

Which landed us in Yancy’s at 10:45am.  Sherwin (attempted to) skip through the door.

On our way to stop #2, we saw Red Double Decker Bus #2…but decided to hold off on our second bar stop until after we had hit all the stops on our Inner Sunset lineup.

Stops #2 (Telleen, where we were provided with delicious fresh fruit), #3 (Molly, who made some fantastic cookies), and #4 (the Hesslers, who provided a wide range of delicacies) were all within 4 blocks of each other in the Inner Sunset.  And that’s exactly how it went: boom boom boom.

Telleen's backyard
Happy Hikers, The Hesslers backyard

Then we hit the road again…

…and walked the 3 blocks down to the Blackthorn Tavern for the second bus stop.  Lara skipped.

(Gold star to anyone who can identify the origin of the yellow sunglasses.)

At this point we were halfway through our stops but had only been hiking for about 2 hours.  And it had all been flat. We were fully fueled and ready to attack the upcoming hills. Things were about to get a lot gnarlier…especially for skipping.

To be continued…

The First Sighting

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Another morning.  What day was it?  Not sure.  We woke up to another delish breakfast of granola, yogurt, fresh fruit, juice, and uh-mazing coffee, packed up our stuff, and headed out the door and downhill…into the jungle.

From high desert to snowy mountains to Scottish highlands to jungle.  Ridiculous.

But on this day, after some downhill through the jungle, we stumbled upon our first set ruins.

…and through that, our first view of Machu Picchu in the distance.

I feel almost stupid posting photos of it, because they simply don’t do any of this justice.  It was beautiful.

From here, we headed down some pretty steep, pretty muddy trails to a little place that was undergoing a renovation…

…for an amazing lunch of avocadosomethingdelicious.

After lunch, the we relaxed a little bit in the clearing, a few people took naps…

…and used the toilet that almost at Bernhard.

Finally, we rallied, and headed out into some serious downhill.

look how happy everyone looks!

It was muddy.  It was steep.  It was far.  There were a few minor spills.  It was hard.  Some even said it was our hardest day of hiking to that point.  When it finally started to flatten out, we hit this:

A suspension bridge suspended about a thousand feet above a raging, angry, rocky river.  Our guides were so confident in the engineering that they made us cross one at a time.  I was not a fan.

But we all survived.  And made it to the train station.

It was here that we grabbed a bite to eat…

…and Susie’s hair did this…

…and we said goodbye to our superamazing guide Johann, snapping a final group shot with him before he departed.

Then, were on the train…

…to Aguas Calientes…

…where we stayed in a RIDICULOUS “hotel”/village tucked into the foothills of the mountains.

Everyone was beat after all the downhill, so after a group dinner that evening at the hotel restaurant everyone prepared for an early, early morning (3:30am meeting time) to catch the bus up to Machu Picchu the next day.

Next up: Machu Picchu

Day 5: Into the Cloud Forest and the Mini-Bus Ride of Terror

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After a relaxing day and a night of great food and dancing, it was up and at ’em bright and early the next morning to head out of the mountains.

A portion of the trail we were supposed to take had gotten washed out, so instead of trying to hike over a rockslide we opted for an alternative route.  Because of this, the first part of the hike was some serious up and downhill along cliffs with narrow, partially washed-out trails.

After the initial up and down the road flattened out, and the next few miles were on a wide dirt road running along a ravine, at bottom of which a (pretty raging) river ran.

pit stop

Eventually we reached our destination in the middle of the mountains, the end of this part of our trek.  From here we were going to catch a ride to our next trail head.

So we bought a few refreshments from the tenants…

…said goodbye to our mules…

note: the guy in this pic is apparently over 100 years old

…and to the team that had helped us get there.

And then, we all hopped onto the mini-bus of terror for a death ride.

For the next 45 minutes we wound our way along a narrow dirt road packed in a top-heavy mini-bus, wedged between a rocky mountain face and a sheer cliff that dropped, oh, about a thousand feet down to the river.  I was, of course, in the seat by the window on the cliff side. It was not one of my finer moments.

A few heart palpitations later, we made it down to the river, where the bus dropped us off and I dropped to my knees and kissed the ground.  We followed the trail through a bunch of plantain trees and coffee plants…

coffee plant

…into the cloud forest to the 4th lodge.

Which was, of course, ridiculously awesome.

Plus everyone was feeling great because we were no longer at altitude.

That evening we took a little walk down the trail into the jungle to visit the house of a couple who grows coffee…

…where we learned how the beans are roasted and ground and, with a little help, made our own little pot of fresh ground coffee and got to taste it straight off the stove.  It was AMAZING.

And yes, of course there were guinea pigs running around the house.

Waiting for dinner to start that night we played some local (?) games that Leo suggested.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for some people) it doesn’t look like I have copies of any of those pictures.

It also happened to be the 50th birthday of one of our hiking mates.  The staff baked a beautiful cake and we celebrated with a lot of Peruvian wine.  It was a great night with great people, we went to bed happy and ready for our final day of hiking along the trail.

Next up: The First Sighting

Day 4: The Downhill Begins

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We woke up the next morning to another absolutely beautiful day.  Salkantay, which had been shrouded in clouds the evening before, was visible through the window of our room and was completely spectacular.

We got to sleep in a little bit (till 6:30), and after a good breakfast and saying goodbye to the staff, we headed out into this.

Downhill.

As we dropped further and further the vegetation became more lush, and eventually we started seeing small villages and huts along the way.  About 2 hours in we took a break in front of a home on the path…

…where this couple lived.

We (meaning the guides) talked to them for a while while the group regrouped. They asked how to say a few things in English (we practiced “have a nice day”), then we were on our way again, across a few waterfalls…

…and out of the altitude.  Everyone (literally) breathed a big sigh of relief.  Eventually we made our way down to the river running through the valley…

…went over the saggy bridge and up the hill to Lodge #3.

We arrived to a whole meal of guinea pig and other local cuisine.  After a delicious lunch of local produce and guinea pig (yes, I ate some…Susie refused), we had some time to hang out.  Some people sat in the chairs in front of the lodge…

…overlooking the valley.

A few people played volleyball with the staff…

…and a few others went down to the river we had crossed to do some fishing…

…with a piece of string.

Directly across the valley from our lodge was a pretty significant landslide, and we spent the better part of the evening watching two cows slowly slide down the side of the mountain.

(Apparently landslides weren’t uncommon in the area, in the opposite valley across from the lodge was a town whose name literally translated to “Big Scary Landslide.”)

That evening, after a delicious dinner (and a few drinks), some of the staff performed a traditional dance for us involving a creepy mask and a whip.

Masks are everywhere in this region of Peru, there are festivals in a number of towns that involve dancing for days wearing masks.   There is even a town named “Black Underwear” because of one of these festivals held there and all the women wear masks and short skirts and do this dance where they flash their underwear, which is black (obviously).

So, naturally, there were masks lining the wall of the lodge.  A guy in our group named Bob really liked one of them.

Next up: Day 5–Into the Cloud Forest and the Mini-Bus Ride of Terror