Swan song to 2012: Mission Peak

31 December 2012

2012 departed with a series of nice days. One for running, one for cycling. Today, on a cold and crisp Monday, I decided to hike Mission peak. Up Peak Meadow and Horse Heaven trails, and down the standard route. I usually go down the backside to Sunol, but it has been quite rainy lately, and some of the flat area beyond the peak turns into a muddy mess. Without extras, the peak hike is only a bit more than 6 miles, but upward of 2000 feet of gain, some of it quite steep. Good way to get a little exercise, and I didn’t need gloves or jacket until I came out on the exposed ridge at the top and stopped working.

Although the hill is mostly open country, there are a few pleasant little wooded areas, this one dipping into a small stream valley fed by a spring.

A clear day. San Francisco in the background, with Mt Tamalpais on the horizon. I’m told that the Bay bridge is the world’s only fully independent double suspension bridge.

From the top, looking west across the bay.

Very little traffic on the way up, but by the time I got back down, a moderate number of people were out. The high-res version of this photo shows seven switches and backs before the trail reaches the pass at the top right. That’s the point at which the trail becomes mostly rock and ascends that last few hundred feet to the top.

The upper part of the ridge, right from the pass we see in the previous picture.

When I got home, I tallied the logbook statistics for 2012: about 3k miles, upward of 180 000 vertical feet (that’s the part that contributes to fitness), and 450 hours out there doing it.

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