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1303. Mission Possible (12/03/22)
Hikers (0):
Distance: 9 miles
Rating: 3 difficulty, 5 beauty
Park info: Mission Peak Regional Preserve in Fremont
Write-up by Steve -- Pictures by Jarda and Steve
It was going to rain this weekend, so decided to do an easy hike at nearby Mission Peak. The standard trailhead is so popular that no one goes there anymore (as Yogi Berra might say) but I figured the rain would solve that problem. With that in mind, there was no reason not to make it an Occasional Hike to see if anyone else wanted to hike in the rain. Despite being posted at 1am Friday morning, was surprised to see the list swell to 12 people and not-so-surprised to see it decrease down to 7 as people saw the forecast was ~100% rain.
There are generally two routes up Mission Peak from Stanford Ave. Most people take the "left" trail both ways. Some people take the "right" trail up and "left" trail down, and some do it vice-versa. But between those two trails are two connector trails/roads that people use less often unless purposely cutting their summit bid short. The plan was to take both connectors on the way up and a far flung gentle route down. It's an ugly-looking shape on the GPS track.
It was an inauspicious start. Because I live nearby, I left at the last possible minute. . .I ordered a latte and a breakfast sandwich to pick up on the way out and, as leaving, remembered "my" Starbucks hasn't been opened on weekends for many months. . .turned out I ordered from the Starbucks two miles away in the wrong direction. I didn't have the time to get it without being late. I mourned that food the whole drive. I may never get over the loss of $$$.
Sophie kindly texted that she was going to be late. Everyone else was on time. It was raining the whole drive to the trailhead, but as the hike started, the rain stopped. That lasted until the end of the first connector trail, after which the rain started again. Sarbinder, Mihail, Manfred, and I were mostly together until the second connector, after which Manfred was a little behind.
Before the final push to summit, I set off to do a geocache while Sarbinder and Mihail would take it slow up to the peak. Our plan was to celebrate what would have been Ellen's 100th leaf, but we didn't want to sit around on the summit in the wind and rain. . .but I was carrying a mostly empty bottle of tequila. The geocache took a while to find, retrieve, and replace. As I came back out, Jarda was passing above me. Eventually caught up to him on the hike to the summit, where Sarbinder and Mihail were wisely waiting just below the windy ridgeline.
We all looked back and could not spot Ellen (or any wet human objects). So we made the steps up to the summit, took some pictures, and headed down to get out of the wind. In retrospect, I might have seen Ellen just before the turn up coming from the completely wrong direction (as if going around the summit from the rear). I wasn't sure, so didn't want to yell out to some random person. . .but if that was her, she didn't go up to the summit.
Manfred hadn't stopped, so was already up and over. We had run into Sophie earlier coming in (a different) opposite direction, as she had started late and didn't know how to determine the direction for the track. So everyone had been recently seen except Ellen.
Down we went, getting temporarily lost trying to follow the gentle outer trail. But it all worked out. I used my poles (bought with kind $$$ from my 1000th INCH hike gift card) for the slippery road section of the hike. All it all, it wasn't all that terrible as far as slippery wet trails go, but everyone else was faster than me, despite not having poles.
Got e-mail from Ellen saying she'd gotten "lost" but survived. Turns out she skipped the peak, but got exercise, so that's a win.
Afterwards, we headed over to California Craft Beer, where I wore a California Craft Beer t-shirt I'd picked up after hike 906. There was a guy at the bar who asked if I was affiliated with the place (due to the shirt) so I said "Sure, I just bought it last week and all I got was this shirt." During the subsequent discussion, I realized he thought I was serious as he started listing the things he thought would make it better place. We agreed on the items--I just don't own the joint. Anyway. . .Jarda, Mihail, Sophie, and I enjoyed a few beers (Kendra showed up and watched), after which most of us then proceeded to Mission Pizza for some food.
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