Mission Peak (on the left) from our balcony, 1/22. Mount Allison is the rounded bump in the center of the picture (you can just make out the TV towers on top). After 2 (or 3) dips to the right there is the unnamed peak, and then right of that (a sharp point) is Monument Peak.
Close up.
Mount Diablo covered by clouds and snow.
On Saturday the 23rd there was a break in the weather after a week of rain and I decided to try hiking up Mission Peak the second time. The weather was still bad early in the morning, but it looked like it would be clearing so I left a little after 9am. I drove through heavy rain at times, wondering if I'd made the right decision, but when I got there the weather had indeed cleared.
I was able to park on the street a lot closer than I did last time, and it was much less crowded. There were a fair number of people already heading down, though, and they didn't look wet, so maybe the weather here was better than on the Peninsula.
I got started at 9:37am. The guy in blue with his dog went about the same pace as me and we got to the top around the same time. His dog was very friendly and walked with me a bit. I didn't see them at all on the way down until right at the end, strangely. Maybe they went down the other way.
I was worried it would be very muddy, but although it was slightly muddy near the bottom it was fine after that and the damp packed dirt on the top section was much easier to walk on than the loose dirt the last time. There were many cows right next to the trail. This is the only picture I stopped to take on the way up or down. On the way up I stopped twice more (once to take off my coat, the second to put on a baseball cap), and I also took a wrong branch at one place which cost 2-3 minutes but let me walk right next to a baby cow and its mother.
The hike is 3 miles gaining 2100 feet. I reached the summit in 58 minutes (compared to an hour the first time). Here's the summit and marker.
Mount Allison in the distance.
View toward the east.
The south bay.
View northwest.
View north. Sadly it was too cloudy to see Mt. Diablo.
Fremont
View northeast.
This post has many numbered pipes through it that point to landmarks thoughout the Bay Area. Sadly the post is badly vandalized and only one of the four plaques describing the views is left.
Fremont again.
Shoreline Park in Mountain View in the distance.
NASA Ames in Mountain View.
Going downhill seems to be better on my ankle than going up, surprisingly. I was almost able to go at a jogging pace using my poles, and made it down in 40 minutes (versus 50 last time). The whole trip was again 3 hours door to door. Here's a picture of the range just as I got home. Sadly I wasn't able to see the snow-covered peak on the right from the top of Mission Peak. Maybe Mt. Allison was blocking it or it was too cloudy.
Close up of Mission Peak.
The snow covered peak further south. I found out this is Black Mountain (3955 feet), not to be confused with the Black Mountain in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Further south is another snow-covered peak. I didn't realize until today that this is Mount Hamilton! I'd thought it wasn't so far east. The buildings on top housing the telescopes can be clearly seen (17x zoom). The picture is tilted since I stabilized the camera on the balcony railing, which is tilted.
Saturday morning 1/30 I did Mission Peak again. It had rained overnight and was clear (according to the internet) in the morning, so I hurried out when it was still dark. I got there about 6:45am and the parking lot was again full. It turned out to not be as clear as I hoped, but it was wonderful starting the hike pre-dawn. The air was crisp and cold, just perfect. And I had a nice view of the full moon.
I stopped a couple times to take pictures, and got this one of the moon just before it was covered by clouds.
A runner passed me just after I started the hike, and I was jealous since I still can't run. But he slowed to a walk when it got steeper, and despite stopping twice I passed him after 1.5 miles. I made it to the top in 52:45. Sadly the view was no better than last week.
Since I had a lot of time I thought I'd try hiking further this time, to try something new. Here's the view toward Mt. Allison.
The Ridge Trail steers well clear of Mt. Allison, so I followed use trails and went cross-country in parts. Here's the view looking back at Mission Peak.
The TV towers atop Mt. Allison.
I was surprised to find a paved road leading to the summit. I shouldn't have been surprised, but the road doesn't show up on maps.
There was a nice bench next to the facility to sit on and enjoy the view.
I was thinking of going on Monument Peak in the distance, but decided to save it for a future trip.
The view from Mt. Allison.
Looking back down at Mission Peak. I followed the paved road down to the junction with the Ridge Trail.
These cows seemed to be guarding the gate. I have a feeling it's only a matter of time before they figure out how to charge someone who is going through so they can get to the other side.
Two curious calves.
Plenty of cows on this side of the mountain.
I thought I'd try taking the Horse Heaven Trail down this time. It goes through this pretty area.
I read on the internet that this trail gets very muddy, and I should have believed them. It may be great for horses, but there were a lot of painful parts for humans. A nice feature though was far better views of the mountain than you get on the Hidden Valley Trail.
Also as with any popular hike as soon as you're off the main trail you can easily avoid everyone. I saw only 4 hikers going up this trail, and no one else going down.
This was a gate that was left open, and the barbed wire fence was trampled down next to it. A cow was right in front of the gate so I went over the fence and just left the gate open. The cows didn't seem interested in crossing over, though.
More great views of Mission Peak.
You can just barely make out the people on the sub-summit.
With 17x zoom, you can see them well.
Looking down at Fremont.
I thought this trail was longer and so would be not so steep, and thus a good descent route. However it's about the same length (maybe slightly shorter) and has long flat sections, which means there are incredibly steep sections. Combined with the mud, it was quite treacherous. The average grade of the trail up (according to Topo) was 15%, with steep sections up to 21%. The steepest sections going down were 42%, double that!
This is the top of the longest steepest section, although you can't really tell from the photo. It's the steepest pure dirt trail I've ever been on. Since it's dirt you don't really have anything to gain purchase on, and once the bottom of your shoes is coated with mud you lose all traction and just start to slide. I was happy to have my hiking poles and tried to avoid the dirt, but it was still tough. I fell on my butt once, but no harm. This trail might be fun to go up when it's drier, but I wouldn't descend it again.
I finally remembered to bring my GPS watch, the first time I've used it since the marathon over 3 months ago. So this is where I went. The hike was 7.5 miles and took 2:50. A wonderful hike!
I went back the next day, Sunday 1/31, started about the same time and made it up in 50:20 with one stop to take off my fleece when I was getting too hot. This was supposed to be a clear day but again there were a lot of clouds and also fog. But for the first time in 4 visits I could see Mt. Diabo, here rising out of the sea of fog.
I decided to try hiking to Monument Peak this time, bypassing Mt. Allison which can be seen here.
Both gates seemed to be locked, which was strange since this is the Ridge Trail and open to everyone. I went through a gap in the barbed wire in between the gates in both directions. Only after this did I look more closely and find that the right gate was in fact not locked. It was kept shut with a chain and padlock, but one end of the chain could be detached.
A TV tower past Mt. Allison, and a confusing sign, since the road the sign points to says no trespassing. It turns out you're supposed to follow a road leading left and back, but there was a use trail that provided a shortcut. The Ridge Trail to Monument Peak was mostly a dirt road, in some places very muddy but mostly decent.
On the summit of Monument Peak, looking southeast, unfortunately into the sun. Since Monument Peak is on the south end of the ridge that starts with Mission Peak, you finally get all the views south that it blocks.
Looking toward the east.
Into Silicon Valley. Hazy but I could make out the tall buildings in downtown San Jose.
Back toward Mt. Allison.
I decided to try climbing this unnamed peak north of Monument Peak. Despite not being named it's about 2600 feet, and so higher than both Monument Peak and Mission Peak. I thought maybe it was unnamed since the ridge blocks the view from the valley, but looking out my window as I type this I can see it clearly.
Mount Diablo from the unnamed peak.
View northeast. You can't make it out in the picture (nor in the zoomed pictures I tried to take) but I was pretty sure I could see snow-capped mountains in the far distance, likely the Sierra near Tahoe.
On the way back there were a lot of cows at the road junction I was headed toward, but they scattered when I got closer.
I decided to try taking the Moore Grove Trail this time, which goes right along the steep face of Mission Peak. This meant I had to take the Horse Heaven Trail again a short ways, but it was the top part which isn't very steep or muddy. The Moore Grove Trail was very muddy near the beginning, but got better.
You get excellent closeup views of the steep face of Mission Peak.
I wonder if the rock is solid enough to climb safely. I haven't seen anything about rock climbing here.
3/4 of a mile from the previous junction you reach the main trail. I hadn't seen anyone in 2.5 hours since I left the summit of Mission Peak. It's a cool feeling to return to civilization again. I did a slow jog down to the bottom, 4.8 mph using my poles. There were tons of people coming up around 10:30am as I was finishing.
Here's my route. 11.1 miles in 3:47. I've now pretty much explored the entire ridge and the major peaks on it.
Sunday, February 7. My 6th time to hike up Mission Peak, and the first time I went with someone else: Shuyuan Wang, a colleague from Castilleja School. This day, although still cloudy, was the clearest day yet I've done the hike and for the first time I could see San Francisco.
This should be downtown Palo Alto. My apartment building must be there somewhere, but I couldn't stabilize the camera and the image is too fuzzy.
The white thing just right of center must be Hoover Tower on the Stanford campus.
For the first time I could see both Mount Diabo and the terrain leading up to it. I took this picture in a hurry because it looked like the clouds were getting thicker and indeed it was soon covered.
Shuyuan on the summit. The summit was inside the clouds and quite cold and eerie. Very cool. A little windy but not nearly as much as the day before when a storm was blowing in.
We got a guy to take a picture of us at the sub-summit monument.
I took this picture. We didn't bother looking through the pipes because you couldn't see anything on top. We only stayed there a couple minutes before heading down.
Shuyuan with the cows. They don't mind if you walk past but don't like it if you stop for photos. One started to lunge at Shuyuan, scaring her, just before I took this picture.
Downtown San Jose.
Downtown SF again, in better lighting and focus. The vantage point of Mission Peak is excellent--you can see the entire peninsula from San Jose to San Francisco.
