Climbing Mission Peak

Well here I find myself, just over a month since the day we climbed Mission Peak and still have not written the blog post to go with the pictures. It has been a crazy month!!

It was one of the biodesign fellows, Jonathan's, idea to climb Mission Peak on Saturday November 14th, and we knew we wanted to come along on this hike, although he warned us it was "not an easy hike" and probably best done without little ones.

Rich was unfazed by this warning and thought if we could get our hands on a toddler hiking backpack we could bring Valerie along. Of course, standard procedure for us is to wait until the last possible second for everything, so Friday afternoon, I found a post on Craigslist for a backpack in the price range we wanted to pay only a few minutes' drive away, and I reached out to see if it was still available. A few hours later, I got a response that it was. That was around dinnertime. We said we'd be there to pick it up as soon as we got Valerie to bed, and we headed over to buy the backpack.

It was perfect, and we were so relieved we found it in the nick of time! We definitely got lucky with this one.

Saturday morning we rounded up our things and drove to meet the group for the hike, about 45 minutes behind schedule. I expected it to be cold and windy since it was still morning and I dressed in layers including my winter coat, hat, scarf and gloves.  But when we arrived the sun was shining and it was a glorious day. I left all my winter gear in the car and did not need it after all.

We worked up a solid sweat doing this 3 mile climb, ascending 2100 feet to the peak, taking in amazing views and wishing we had brought more water.

Valerie did great in the backpack! Rich was a beast, carrying her and the backpack for an extra total of about 40 lbs to the top.

 

At one point she asked to get down and walk so we got her out, she made it a few steps up the steep incline and then wanted to get back in the backpack, so that was the end of her climb. She rode the whole way up. Her favorite thing was the cows we saw along the trail and looking out for animals, although we didn't see many others. 

in case we were not sure which way to the peak.

this summit pole made for an awesome photo op, and is hugely popular! there was a constant line to get photos.

so many views from the top!

Some beautiful fall foliage in the Fremont area

The hike was awesome and we were totally beat by the end. We had planned to tailgate at the Stanford football game that afternoon but instead we went to the Freewheel Brewing Company for beers afterwards and since they weren't serving food, Mexican from Los Gallos Taqueria next door. No beer tastes as good as the tall cold one you drink after an intense six mile hike! So satisfying.

By the time we hit the couch, we were not getting back up. So much for tailgating at a Stanford game this year! None of them ended up working out for us. Oh well. We are very glad we chose the hike over the game; it was well worth it!