Saturday we (me Anil and Phani Madahv) hiked to the Mission peak that over looks the bay area. The hill range that makes Sun's SantaClara office scenic had always attracted me. Here is the map of the region.
We started at the base on Stanford Avenue at about 2:00 in the afternoon, to reach the peak about 4. It was most part motorable path, leading to a spot from where gliders jumped down. We could see many gliding down the hill, it was probably crowded as it was a weekend. The wind there was heavenly and refreshing. The peak is about 2500 feet above MSL; in fact, we could see the whole bay. There is a pole with tubes welded to it. Looking through the tubes you can see various named mountains and cities. The hill was abundant with bright orange flowers. A local told us that it is California's state flower.
We left the peak to hike on a different trail, which was narrow and not well trodden. We saw a water spring, washed our faces and drank a bit of water naturally cold spring water. Soon mislead by a path made by cows, we lost our trail. Although we could see our parking lot below and the scared face of the peak above, we were in uncharted territory with about 1.5 feet tall grass. We had to make our way in the grass. When we saw a house in the near distance, there were two options, either to keep going down the hill or reach the house and return the path we used during ascent. The spring we saw before, had turned into a creek, we had to cross it, and jump the fence into the house. There was an abandoned ghostly house. A map provided by park wasn't much useful when wander away from marked trails. Satellite map shows the area
We returned to the base by 7:00 pm. An advantage in this side of the hemisphere is that there is Sun light till 8:30 pm (or later) during summer. That is a great advantage for outdoor adventure.
Link |