INCH Hike: Vista Point

363. Vista Point (12/13/03)

Hikers (21): Andy, Barbara, Blinky, Cal, David, Elaine, Eugene, George, Jinglan, Kelly, Kevin T, Linda L, Miwako, Nancy, Peter, Russ, Sparky, Steve, Taylor, Wei-Kai, Wendell
Distance: 8 miles
Rating: 2 difficulty, 8 beauty
Park info: Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve in Cupertino

Write-up by Russ -- Pictures by Russ

This hike felt of a continuation of my birthday party from last weekend. There was a whole birthday cake left over and Taylor suggested that I bring it to the hike. Sure why not. I was focusing so hard on remembering to bring the birthday cake, plates, forks and a knife, I forgot to bring water! Doh! Luckily the Man had an extra bottle and I had a bottle of Gatorade with me.

On the other hand, parking at Rancho was actually pretty easy for once. The threat of rain must have scared people off. Even with the easy parking it still took another 20 minutes for everyone to arrive and finally get the hike started. Time to hike!

1, 2, 3...INCH!

We had just walked about 2 minutes before I heard the Man say that someone was missing. "Missing, what do you mean missing?! We just started hiking!" Apparently someone was using the facilities when we did it the cheer first time. Of course, this was spite of waiting 20 minutes for the late people to show up. I sent Steve back to get her, so we could get on with this hike. Lesson, don't wait to use the facilities, one never knows when the hike will get started.

1, 2, 3...INCH!

As we got started again, we noticed wild turkeys running around the field near the tennis courts. Mmmmm...turkeys, I'm getting hungry already. Or was this the episode of South Park with genetically mutated turkeys running amok. Better keep going.

Genetically mutated turkeys on the loose!

The hike was not getting off to a good start. I got trapped between Sparky and Barbara talking about castration (don't ask me why) and Eugene telling everyone about Atkins (nothing new). Sparky asked Steve if talking about castration made him want to cover his ears and he said no because his hands were busy protecting something else. And later I overheard Barbara, Elaine and Blinky talking about dress shopping. There is way too much estrogen on this hike!

Less talk about dress shopping, more walk

The big news of the hike was when we found out that Wendell and Kelly were just married. Congratulations. Nancy heard that I was going to make this hike a level 2, it was really too easy. Even when the weather is hot. Nancy said she would only do level 3 to 5 hikes. Nothing less. I promptly lowered the difficulty to a 2 and Peter says all the hikes from now on are going to be 2's.

Since I went through all the trouble of bringing the cake, We capped off this hike with INCH'ers singing Happy Birthday for me. Very nice...thanks guys! Then the starving hikers tore into cake. In INCH fashion we almost completely demolished it. The perfect ending to my 2nd birthday hike of '03.

Milestones:
Elaine's 30^th leaf
George's 10^th leaf
Jinglan's 40^th leaf
Linda L's 1^st leaf
Miwako's 30^th leaf