The day trip. We're in, we're out. The beauty of a day trip is the day
PACK. Who doesn't appreciate featherweight on their back as opposed to hauling
around half of what you own for 4 days straight.
So, it's Sunday, and our core group of hikers decide to day trip it out
in the Portola Wilderness. For reference it's up in the hills west Palo
Alto. We drove up 280, took the wrong exit, and proceeded up into the hills.
Before I forget, our crew is Rauser, Lutz, Sudeep, Joe Hu, Amy and me, Brian
Lutz. Cruising up the road, jammed into the Pathfinder, we pass by homes
where people with too much money to spend have spent it on homes that they
will eventually have to sell as part of the divorce settlement because someone
started getting down with the poolman. We talk about our trip on the way
up; as well as lame conversations about how California could succeed from
the union and become a country all it's own. I contended that someone
would go nuclear on it if not for the protection George Bush and the royal
right provide, while Joe was just spouting nonsense as usual. We didn't
even listen to Rauser because he's just a big hypocrite anyway. Ah, the
lame conversations we have on the way to the trailhead.
In any case, we get close to the trail an our anticipation rises. The
road is windy and since I am a big baby, and can't even go to Great America
because I get carsick, Joe drives slow. If I was in the backseat and Amy
in the front, Joe surely would have put on his racing goggles. We get to
the trailhead: I eats half of my salami sandwich, which is very good, and
stow the other half. Rauser and Sudeep are just kind of there, not saying
much. Joe Hu worrys that his knee might give out. We all turn around and
Amy, who is training for the Big Sur marathon, is already 3 miles down
the trail, or so it seems.
When you park, you need to walk down a paved road a short way, cross
a bridge, go up a little connector road, and then you meet up with the trailhead.
We hit the trail and it's a steady climb for the first hour and a half.
I bolt off ahead, leaving everyone in the dust. I have to wait numerous
times for everyone else to catch up.
The trail itself is beautiful. No branches or bushes lashing at your
shins. No rocks or stream beds to dance through. The trail is wide, soft
like a featherbed of pine needles and droppings from whatever tree or bush
shed them, in turn making the ground a soft landing pad for putting down
one foot after the other. The trail is heavily shrouded in shade with shafts
of sun shining through the canopy of redwood tree branches and other assorted
flora that I cannot name because I don't know a damn thing about plants
and trees. For most of us on the trail, it's either a tree, or a bush. If
we tell you what we think it is, we're probably full of shit. That's almost
a given.
All right so, the first 1 1/2-2hours of the trip is a steady uphill.
I'm not sure of the elevation gain but I think we did about 6000 feet. No
problem. Especially for me. I went up and down and back up again and still
finished first.
The next part of the trail is a short fire road. I ran down the
hills like a jack ass which probably contributed to a pulled hamstring which
we'll talk about later. It's good though because being so far ahead of everyone,
it gave people a chance to talk about how I am always late and big huge
flake. I'm sure peeps thought about causing a landslide in my general direction
but decided against it out of fear of retribution. Oh, I forgot to mention
the banana slugs. We saw these huge slugs here and there on the trail which
look like a dogshit sized booger. They were pretty nasty. Rauser licked
one at lunch which tells you all you need to know about Rauser.
Going down the fire road we talked about the show survivor. A stupid
stupid show that only dumb people watch. I hate it and I hope that if they
have Survivor 7, a huge swarm of killer bees attacks and stings all involved
a million times over. I'd laugh. Ha-ha.
The trailhead turnoff came up on our right not to far down the fire road
and we turned down it. From this point, the trail is entirely downhill,
all the way to the end. The continued shade is nice. No one is in bad shape
at all. I don't want to say this trail is easy but it was pretty close.
A short way from the trailhead, we heard what sounded like a person distress
calling to us from below. We came upon a lady who was running a half-marathon
on the trail and had gotten lost. She was crying and not a happy camper.
She'd been out on the trail for nearly 5 hours and had missed the trail
exit off the fire road, the one on the right I talked about. We consoled
her and convinced her that she wasn't lost anymore and that she could hike
with us out to the end. Her husband had told her he'd meet her at the end
of the trail because he wanted to go faster. Well, we came upon this dude
hiking up the trail looking for his wife. I told him that she was back with
my friends and that she's not in a great mood. He had a look on his face
of relief. I'm sure he was as scared as she was. He caught up to her and
they embraced. It was nice but I thought to myself that's about the only
lovin' he's going to be getting from his wife for at least a week. Nice
work pal.
So we hiked down and down and down some more. Very shaded with the carpet
of pine needles at our feet and huge mondo redwood trees with ferns dotting
the ground. Sometimes a shaft of sun would shine directly onto a fern which
would give the effect of a spotlight in the dark. We stopped for lunch when
we came to another fire road and the end of the long downhill. We all stiffened
up here because nobody stretched out while kicking back and grubbing our
lunch. We did couples pictures for the 400th time and shortly thereafter
started down the fire road. Joe, Rauser and Lutz began to feel pain. Brian's
hamstring, Joe's knee, and Rauser's fingers. I don't why Rauser complained
about his fingers. Maybe he's just weak. Amy of course didn't feel a thing.
She never does. We all could of used the soft feel of the trail at this
point but we kept going down the hard, gravelly fire road. I'm not qute
sure how long it took us but at the end we ended up doing 13 miles or so
in about 4 1/2 hours.
Towards the very end I thought my hamstring was going to snap. It felt
really good. Moral of the story, always stretch. Always.
It was a fun trip. Definitely recommend it. Not a lot of huffing
and puffing which left a lot of time to B.S. about things that don't really
matter anyway. Great trip. Peace. Out. Late. |