good friday

started off pretty nicely, next to W, although it turned out that someone set the alarm clock wrong and we were up an hour early. oh well, we got to have breakfast together - crepes, of course.

then it was off to anthony chabot regional park in OAK, with some help/distraction from The Internet.

so i went down the Brittle Leaf trail, where I'd been before. After a while, I began to suspect I was no longer on an actual trail. I was enjoying the hike, though, so I pressed on. My suspicions grew stronger and I once again phoned The Internet. It was the opinion of The Internet that if I have to crouch down and duck beneath brush to proceed, then I am no longer upon a trail. Not only that, according to a map on the web, I was... no longer upon a trail. Right. Back up the hill I went, then. Fun!

So back to the main drag. Took it all the way to the end, past several cow warnings and gates and such. Saw a ranger or something and turned around. Took a side trail promising to lead to bort meadow. Heh. Bort.

On the way, I saw a weird frowny hill. That was swell.

As promised, I ended up in bort meadow where I spooked a guy playing with his dog. Boo, mofo! Boo! It was a very nice meadow, as a matter of fact. I don't get to see a lot of meadows. I really didn't know what a meadow was before this. Lots of tallish grass and a few trees and stuff. And a spooked guy and his dog. Boo!!!

Walked around bort for a little then found a not-well-advertised trail named something-or-another. Took something-or-another Trail and climbed up some hills. It was there that I acquired my mountain lion stick, just in case I ran into a scary big cat. It's a good thing I got that, too, as will be seen.

Presently, I came upon a bridge and some greenery. And I do mean greenery. I stopped my march and exclaimed "wow!" It was truly a stunning view. Sadly, my photography is lacking; the best I can do is crank up the green in photoshop to poorly imitate the real-life experience of Total Green that was had at that bridge. You don't believe that it was really That Green? Well, my good friend, let me know what you're doing next weekend and we can go have a look see. It's really amazingly saturated-ly green.

Upon crossing the Total Green Bridge I noticed a warning penned upon the inside of the left guard rail, regarding the trail up ahead. Good thing I had my trusty lion stick, eh?

As it happened, I didn't have to use it. Whew!

Oof!

No really, Oof!

And then, the fun bit. I arrived at a stream crossing. That water is aboot 8-9 inches deep. My boots are 8 inches high and not water proof. They have water drainage holes for the case where you were smart and brought extra socks. I had no extra socks and that water didn't look appealing. The banks were so muddy I could not possibly jump, even if I had the ability to jump that far on solid ground. There were no good sticks or branches to bridge the icky pool. I decided to jump it anyhow and get a little wet. I fashionably tucked my jeans into the tops of my boots, flexed my knees, got ready....

...

...

and changed my mind. I didn't want to be covered in that crud. So I went back up the trail a bit and found a place where I could climb through the thick brush and step across the stream. I did that, carefully, though I got some decent scratches and bugs on me and stuff. Then I pushed my way through more brush on the other side, and was considering how I was going to climb over the barb-wire fence when i decided just to trek through more dense brush to the trail and go thru the gate.

That was a load of fun. I was a bushman!

Then it was back to Bort, where that guy was still there with his dog! I really spooked him that time, crouching down under a tree and staring at him. I left before he did but I heard him leave a little later.

Boo!!

Presently, I arrived back at the gate near the river ford. And what did I see right in front of me?

What? you ask?

Yup, a big honkin hill. Well, if you know me, you know what came next.

I walked, though, too tired to run, and that hill is much bigger than it looks. What fun!

It was a great little trip. I did a much much much shorter version a week or 3 ago, but then I was wearing vans and not my boots, so I couldn't do the bushman-river-fording-brush-ducking-offroading thing that I did this time. That makes the difference between "lame" and "kickass". It sorta made up for the abortive beach walk of last weekend, though i had no burger afterward.

After that, I went back to berkeley to say hi to W. Before that, I stopped off at telegraph to update my style.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm fackin tired.