About 20 years ago I discovered a book called East Bay Trails and fell in love with the idea of doing a 3 day backpacking trip in the Sunol, Ohlone & Del Valle Wilderness areas. At the time I was heavy but I hadn't hit my ceiling weight yet. I went about doing the preliminaries of getting ready to go backpacking...buying a pack (the belt wouldn't close when I bought it because I was too heavy), a cool mess kit, and some other random supplies. This stuff has been moved from garage storage to paid storage to another garage and then into a shed in my backyard. The pack was in storage for so long that the spiders had laid eggs and tried to claim it as their own. About a month ago I thought that I should try out my pack and see if I needed to buy a new one or if my "old" one (which had never been used) would work. I had this huge internal panic going on...thinking that there was no way that the belt was going to fit me. With the belt pulled tight in its storage setting, I put the pack on and snapped the belt closed!!!!! I almost fell over! It fit...AND...it was pulled tight! WAHOO!!!!
With my pack fitting me, I was determined to make my 3 day backpacking trip happen. I got new boots, started getting other supplies (a set of alpine light cooking utensils, sleeping bag, sleeping mat, more socks, a fancy reflective hat, sterilizing pen, and platypus water bags) and made a food list! Invites were sent out and plans were set in place! Last Friday morning we loaded up the cars and drove out to the trail. We dropped a car off in Livermore, where the trail ends, and then drove on back over to Sunol to the start of our adventure!
Here's a little snapshot of what our trip looked like:
Day 1: 3.4 miles, 1500 ft. elevation gain
Day 2: 10.6 miles, 5,000 ft. elevation gain
Day 3: 5.4 miles, 500 ft elevation gain & 3,000 ft elevation loss
The days were long, the trail was a challenge and, I'm not gonna lie, there were times along the way that I wanted to lay down on the trail and cry. The elevation gain was GRUELING on day 2! GRUELING! My toes felt like they had been treated with a baseball bat by the end of the elevation loss (I even got a blister under a toenail...under!) BUT even though it was painful at times...and a bit scary when Joanna had to take a tick off of my neck...this weekend has changed my life! I can not believe how strong my body is! I can not believe how much endurance I have and that I took on a nearly 20 mile challenge with a giant pack on my back (When I got home, minus food & water, my pack weighed 30 pounds! HOLY MOLY! Our packs must have weighed close to 40 pounds when we first headed out!)! I have wanted this for SO long!!!!!! The tears I have now are tears of joy and pride!
An extra bonus from the weekend is that I am now newly in love with California! I've never spent so much time in the oak grasslands of my state and I am SO in love! It is gorgeous land, full of a huge variety of wildlife and plant life!!! It is just beautiful!!!
Things we saw on our adventure:
Animals-
- Red-tailed hawks
- Killdeer
- Northern alligator lizards
- Turkey vultures
- California condor
- Western scrub-jay
- Anna's hummingbird
- California ground squirrel
- Western gray squirrel
- Banana slugs
- Sara orangetip butterflies
- Jerusalem crickets
- California prionus
- Nuttall's woodpecker
- Acorn woodpecker
- Black-tailed deer
- Black legged ticks
- Cows
- Dragonflies
Plants-
- Coyote mint
- California poppies
- Anise swallowtail
- Blue-eyed grass
- California ringlet
- Chamise
- Buckbrush
- Sticky monkeyflower
- California sagebrush
- Coyote brush
- Black oak
- Blue oak
- California bay laurel
- Indian warrior
- Narrow-leaf mule ears
- Yarrow
- Gray pines
- Water lilies
- Blue elderberry
- Various lichen
- Bigleaf maple
- Western sycamore
- California buckeye
- Foxtail grass
- Poison oak
*More pictures can be found on my Facebook page!!!!!
