Hiking and Beer: Mt. Sizer and Blue Ridge

Sometimes I wake up before sunrise on a day off and get crazy ideas of big hikes without really thinking about whether or not I'm in decent enough shape to tackle an 18 mile hike. Today was one of those days...

This summer's backpack trips in the Eastern Sierra have a couple of 14ers on the todo list so I'm in need of some elevation training. Mt Sizer in Henry Coe SP offers almost a mile elevation gain on some of the steepest trails in the Bay Area and it's my favorite park. I put together a heavy pack(25lbs) using my DSLR and some lenses as ballast, also packed lunch, 100ozs water, 32ozs of gatorade, first aid kit, flashlight and a spare jacket. I had intended to use the lenses but never really came across anything worth unpacking them for, in the end I opted to shoot the entire hike with my 35mm f/1.8. I enjoyed getting back to when I first really got into photography and only had a 50mm f/1.8, no easy zoom to form a composition forces you to look at scenes a little differently and you use your legs to get more or less in the frame.

Pulled into HQ at Coe around 8:30 to absolutely packed parking lots but found a spot next to the barn, I think most of the people were camping as I saw very few people on the trails today. Contributed my eight bucks to the state and hit the trail.

The sky was a dull gray and it was quite cold with a brisk breeze.

I headed up over the Monument Trail to Hobbs Road and took that all the way out to Blue Ridge Road. Along Hobbs there were some interesting views of the 2011 Middle Ridge controlled burn. Almost looks fall like with the dead trees mimicking fall colors.

After Middle Ridge and about half way down Hobbs I managed a nice body slam when my left foot slid out from under me. This enabled a good drop test of my 4s Otter commuter case, despite flying a good six feet in the air, taking a nice bounce off the road and ending up face down, it was dirty but unscathed. The battery grip on my DSLR took the brunt of its impact and also ended up with just a small scratch. The only real casualty was my left knee which a day later as I write this is pretty sore.

Coyote Creek was easily crossed due to our very dry winter this year.

From this point on most geocachers that have done the Hardcore Hiker geocache on Mt. Sizer know to record their Creek to Bench times, this probably came from the INCH hiking groups which ascend these hills at an ungodly pace. I'm not anywhere near as fast but did the roughly 1.4 miles and 1400' elevation in 52:05 which knocked eight minutes off my previous time so I was quite pleased.

A quick rest stop at the unusually tall bench and I headed over to Mt. Sizer for the second time. The sun had come out so it was a pleasant if not windy hike along the ridge.

Coe was absolutely packed with all kinds of birds today, more than I had ever seen. Disturbed quite a few flocks of band tail pigeons, juncos and the occasional red tail but the 35mm does not do bird pictures very well so no photies.

Shot a quick self portrait video with the 4s on the summit of Sizer...

...then headed North on Blue Ridge to about 1.5 miles past the bench, this was the highpoint of the northern section from which you can see San Jose in the distance. I didn't go all the way to the park boundary(only another 0.3 miles) since I was too lazy to take the pack off and check the map, also was getting concerned about getting out before sunset (I don't like hiking alone at dusk in case I come across a hungry Mt. Lion). This was stupid in retrospect since I could have checked this full segment off on my Coe map. I'd love to someday hike all of the trails in Coe but it's really a monumental task.

Booze Lake

Looking south from Blue Ridge

I headed back down Hobbs with a time of 37 minutes to the creek, slower than the INCH hikers go up and then slowed to 1:18:00 heading up to Middle Ridge from the creek. My heels and knee were in bad shape going up there. I was tempted to flag down a couple coming back from Booze lake in their truck but decided to slog on.

Hobbs Road Steepness Shot

At the top of Middle Ridge I headed south to get off the fireroads and enjoy some more gradual single tracks back to HQ. There is still a ways to go from here and it seems to take an eternity when you're tired.

Middle Ridge Controlled Burn along Frog Lake Trail

Made a quick stop at Frog Lake, which looked amazing in the afternoon light with its ghost trees, I consider it to be one of the prettiest "lakes" in Coe.