Bad Blogger-169 Days Left

Holy Moly! where the heck have I been? Well, in my defense A LOT has happened since my last post in AUGUST! yikes. First of all I MOVED in August. Yes, I finally ventured out on my own into the big bad world of rent, bills and "adult-ness". The new place has been great, but I won't pretend that it hasn't made my hiking excursions difficult.

Another reason why I have been absent of late would be, I suppose, the weather; however i feel like kind of a weenie when I blame my negligence on rain and wind (of which we haven't had that much). But, between the days of chills and damp, plus my new living situation, finding the time to get out there and hike has been difficult.

Does this mean I have been sedentary for the past 3 months? Of course NOT! My new apartment has a great park behind it with a fabulous track. Ladies and gentlemen drumroll please... I have been... RUNNING! I know right? I've successfully gotten myself to the point where I can run 1 mile with considerable ease, however after that I need to pause and regain my cool. Never-the-less I haven't been too guilt ridden about neglecting the hills simply because I have replaced them with a justifiable physical activity. In fact I will be running a 5k this weekend, 12/11, with my roommate and friends; so there.

Back to the matter at hand. I have 169 days left before my pledged trip to Half Dome. I am not losing sight of that goal. There is a lot of potential in the changes that have occurred of late: I am in a new geographical area which I'm sure has a plethora of trails that I can frolic and bound through and with the cooler weather I should use this time to go faster, longer, stronger and all that Jazz.

Wish me luck and stay tuned... more is yet to come.

Malibu Creek State Park- 296 days left!

As we drop below 300 days I regret that I skipped last weekend (woops!). Something I forgot to blog about was the Irvine lake Mud Run i did on the 17th of July. It technically wasn't hiking but I finished a 5k which I think was an okay replacement for my weekly hike.

Doing the Mud Run made me realize A) how far I need to go and B) how far I've come. The fact that I finished a 5k (never mind that I walked 2/3 of it) made me realize that I am capable of getting fit. Not to mention that it was a SUPER fun day and I would definitely do it again.

This past weekend my sister and I hiked in Malibu Creek State Park. This is definitely a place worth going if you have a day or two to spend (parking is $12!). This is IF you can get a camp site, which i heard the reservation list is 3 months in advance...yikes. The hike was great and I would love to hike there more often:

After our hike we visited the rock pools which were PACKED with people swimming and jumping from very high cliffs.

Eryn and i both decided that we would like to come back on a weekday maybe to hang in the rock pools.

The park is a GREAT place to visit and frequent for us urbanites, I only wish it was easier to come for just a few hours.

The more and more we hike the more confident we are becoming, I am starting to feel like Half Dome might actually be possible!

Castle Peak Conquered!-316 Days Left

Today is a momentous day! At long last the "PEAK" has been conquered, not without difficulty however. After evaluating my hike today I realize that I probably could have done the whole peak a while ago, I've just needed to learn how my body "re-boots" itself. With enough breaks and careful pacing, even a moderately active person can do some very challenging up-hills.

My sister and I began our hike today at about 8:30 am. The total hike (warm up, hike and back) probably took us about 1.5 hours. We discovered that the last part of the hike, after the white "scar", is almost entirely climbing on all fours. Eryn said she released her inner monkey. the peak is continually deceiving too! Once we began climbing we reached a point that we THOUGHT was the top, only to discover that we had an entirely new slope to conquer. At that point however, we didn't think about heading down (we invested too much energy into finishing today).

The sky was overcast and so my picture doesn't capture the amazing view of the west valley from up there, but trust me: on a clear day I bet you could see almost clear accross!

I would like to know who placed the flag up at the top. According to our friend Jim Chrisman, the flag appeared some time around the 4th. Either way it was a nice addition to our accomplishment and photo opportunity.

Now that the peak has been breached I feel a bit more confident that my lofty goal can be reached. I met with a friend who hiked half dome recently to ask her advice. Some of the most important things that need to happen: I need to invest in some new hiking shoes (real hiking shoes) and perhaps some gloves!

As for next weeks hike, I think it's time to start going through my grand book of hikes! Malibu perhaps? More to come!

Sage Ranch-320 Days Left

7/7/10

After the 4th of July weekend was a great opportunity to kick off some serious summer hiking. I started feeling a little bored with castle peak so my sister and I decided to take our hike up to Sage Ranch, which is at the top of Woolsey Canyon in Chatsworth. Conveniently nestled in the hills between Simi Valley and Chatsworth, this trail has some great valley views, a camp ground (by reservation only), and happens to border the location of what has been called the 2nd worst nuclear waste spill next to chernobyl (wow!)

Radiation aside this is a great trail for hikers, bikers and.... horses? Yes, we did see a man on a horse coming around one of the turns which was COOL!

It's not a particularly difficult hike, mostly level with a few moderate inclines, but it is a fairly good distance and does give the opportunity to break a sweat.

As the picture shows, the trail is a full loop just over 1 mile. In all it took about one hour to complete, just enough for a substantial afternoon activity.

I would most definitely do this trail again on a clear day with a group of friends!

Urban Hiking- 322 Days Left

I am hesitant to call today a "hike", it was more like a haphazard walk around my neighborhood looking for a trail. After forgetting how to get to the Victory Trail head i ended up walking through some very nice neighborhoods in the hills surrounding my home. I did a good amount of walking (about 3 miles) and while it was relaxed, paved and only at a slight grade, i did work up a bit of a sweat and so i would say it was worth the while.

I found a really cool website today: www.mapmyhike.com It's a great resource for the digital age. Not only does it allow you to search for hiking trails and record your progress, but it allows you to map your hikes... like mine from today:

It's nice to see your trail laid out for you especially if it was a kind of last minute hike like mine was!

Well, I have kind of gotten off of my Saturday morning schedule (this weekend i was sick) but thankfully i've been able to fit in at least one hike a week weather it be Saturday or not.

I'm hoping i can get another hike/walk in this week and then (fingers crossed) i'll be back to my Saturday schedule this coming weekend.

Hike #5- 326 Days Left

Good Hiking Day! Jill and I took a hike on a trail at the top of Reseda Blvd. It was a vigorous hike to say the least, but it felt good! The trail follows some fire roads that run along the tops of the mountains. If it hadn't been so smoggy the trail would have offered some beautiful views!

This is a picutre of the "backbone trail". there are a number of trails that you can take through the mountains. We hiked #1 and took a right on to #2 making for about 3 miles each way. WOW!

This trail was nice because, while it did have some difficult up hill parts, it had plenty of level and down hill areas and it was very possible to finish. completing the trail definitely helped my confidence!

I should be hiking again in a few days to get back on our saturday hiking schedule. We will probably start back up on castle peak. Today added a nice variety to my hiking.

Hike #4- 338 Days left

6/19

We have moved our hiking days to SATURDAY. Sunday get's full pretty quickly with other commitments (Matt's car shows, family dinners, errand running) and we don't want to sacrifice our hikes due to scheduling woes!

Although we moved days, today was not our best hiking day. First, we got off to a rough start when we didn't leave to hike until almost 10am! As I said in my previous post, Summer is here and the heat is going to make an extra challenge for us in the coming weeks.

By the time we reached the end of Vanowen and started loading out of the car we could already feel the heat. Unlike the week before, we had little to no breeze (which really makes ALL the difference). We did our warm up hike and were already sweating by the time we started up our first hill.

Despite our best efforts, and will to surpass the week before, we only made it as far as Hike #2 (sad faces all around). Not to fear however! We all agreed that it doesn't count as a HIKING FAIL if we don't necessarily go further every time. The point is, we got up and we went. It has become increasingly more important that if we are going to finish Castle peak in the next couple of weeks we need to get our booties up earlier.

I got a wonderful suggestion from my friend Kate about some trails in Malibu. I had actually thought about changing our hiking venue to more coastal regions, and it was good to hear from someone who had actually checked the area out. We will probably check those out soon.

I got a WONDERFUL book from Costco the other day:

This has a great selection of day hikes throughout LA County, a few of which happen to be in Malibu! I've been thinking about where to get inspiration for our next hikes and this looks like it's going to be a great reference. What i like most is it not only lists the specs (elevation, difficulty etc.) but it tells you a little about the area, it's history, and other fun facts... i'm a sucker for trivia.

I also feel that if we start to get frustrated with castle peak we can always switch it up and come back to it later. No reason to keep climbing an area that you don't enjoy anymore!

So 338 days left! So far doesn't seem like it's going to be a problem. We just need to stay focused and energized this summer to make it a reality!

On another note, I would LOVE suggestions, tips or comments that anyone may have about how we can make our hikes more awesome. ALSO, just in case you're interested... our hikes are open to ANYONE who wants to come along. The more the merrier! Just as long as you don't make me look bad (just kidding). So far we are just hiking on the weekends (A.M.) and we like to do mild/moderate level hiking. If that sounds like something you're interested in let me know!

Hike # 3- 344 days Left

6/13 was a success! My sister and I ended up going farther than we have yet (baby steps). If you look at the previous posts you'll notice on a picture of castle peak there is an area on the side of the mountain that looks like a white smudge. We made it up to the base of that. We're not sure what it is or why it's there (if anyone knows i would love to find out). This part marks the end of the "walking" portion and the beginning of the climb.

Once again on this hike we started out with a "warm up walk" for about 2o minutes, just to get our heart rate up. Then, once we began up the side of the hill, we made sure to take lots of rests and to drink all our water! I made a point to try and finish 2 bottles of water during our whole excursion. It's amazing the difference your body feels when you are properly hydrated.

We were without Matt this day, Sunday's have become difficult days for scheduling our hikes.

Here is Eryn at the white "smudge" I'm going to call it. We started this hike at approximately 9 am and were done by 10:30. Seeing that Summer is just about in full swing I don't think I would want to start a hike later than this. I just need to work on waking up earlier.

Onward!

HIKING FAIL- 351 days left

Not much to update on today except that this past weekend was a hike FAIL. Sunday, which we had decided was our "hike day" was HORRIBLY hot. In fact it was my first pool day of the summer. We had said that we would get up super early and go, but after being up late the night before that didn't happen.

This presents a new challenge. Summer is here and i don't want that to deter me from being consistent with my hikes. I would like to get to a point that i don't have to think about doing it i just go. I know that by skimping on hikes now it is easier for me to neglect future hikes. The question is: how do i keep up my hiking without becoming discouraged by the summer weather?

Memorial Day (Hike #2) 357 Days left

This past Memorial Day (5/31) marked hike number 2! We again went to Castle Peak (AKA El Escorpion peak) and made a tid bit of progress.

This is a satellite view of the peak. Our goal is to get to the center of the photo where you see the rocks and trees gather. That is the peak!

<---If you can see on the picture where it says Canyon wood peak and look to the left about half an inch that's about as far as we got.

approximately at arrow.

Not quite half way to the top but we went further than the week before and we both agreed that was an accomplishment in itself. Another correction on my previous post. I think i said we made it half way up the peak, but if you look again at the picture here we probably only made it about 1/3 of the way up. The peak is deceivingly steep.

We also noted that the reason why we are getting so tired so early in our hike is probably because we weren't warming up. Essentially once leaving the car we immediately start up the side of the peak... probably not the best idea. We realized this on monday, only after we were left puffing at the end of our hike. We decided to do our "warm up" at the end of our hike and took about 20 minutes to walk back to the "bat caves"

This trail is immediately off of Vanowen and is frequented by hikers, joggers, bikers and the occasional equestrian! It's definitely a more relaxing and mellow hike, for those who don't want to do the vertical trek to the peak.

We ultimately felt good about this most recent hike and even if not very much we felt like we had made some progress. Matt took a nice picture at the end of the "moore canyon road" trail:

Summer is here, and right before they have to clear the brush for fire season, the grass grows tall and looks quite lovely.

Next week we hope to make it up and over "mini" hill number 2 and hopefully by the end of summer we can conquer the peak!

Till next week... 357 days to go!

First Hike (365 days left)

Today we embarked on our first hike to Castle peak. To learn more about the area check out this article:

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-01-24/travel/tr-2463_1_castle-peak

Fun Fact: I just learned today that the peak is also known as El Escorpion peak and was the site of a chumash civilization for about 8,000 years and was a site known for trading and meetings of tribes.

We began our hike around 10:30 am and decided we would just hike until we were tired. The hike up to the peak is steep practically the whole way up and so we were prepared to make many stops and rests. To get up to the peak you have to make it over 2 "pre" hills. The trail itself is about 1,475 feet to the top and the "peak" is the last leg of the hike, consisting of mostly vertical climbing over rocks and boulders.

We started off slow and steady making it up the first hill, stopping once or twice for breath and water. I had forgotten how steep the climb is from the beginning. The first hill is a fairly easy hike. It's short grass (when it's been recently cleared), a visible trail and few rocks or any obstructions to climb over. It took us about 10 minutes to get up the hill and we took about 5-10 minutes to catch our breath before we started on hill number 2.

The second hill, similar to the first in grade, had more obstacles in our way. The path was not as clear and we had to deal with denser vegetation and deeper grooves in the trail. About half way up the second hill we stopped to rest and looked at the remainder of the hike. We had made it about half way to the top. After evaluating our persons we decided that we were going to call that a day.

The entire hike took us about 30 min and if we did the whole thing we could probably make it up to the top in an hour. The goal for next week is to get at least to the top of the 2nd hill if not to start up the side of the peak!

365 Days and Counting

After a recent trip to Yosemite, my boyfriend and I came up with a brilliant (or crazy) idea. We've both been looking for ways to incorporate more exercise in to our lives and have yet to find anything that will actually motivate us. Upon visiting Yosemite we were blown away with the park's beauty and expanse. Unfortunately, many of the great things to do in Yosemite require a bit more physical exertion than either of us could do at the time. While walking through the valley we spotted half dome, and one of us commented on the fact that it's amazing that people actually hike up to it. That got me thinking... why can't we do that? And so we decided, if we started training NOW maybe in a year we could actually make it up half dome!
So the challenge is: 365 days to train, eat healthier and hike our way up to half dome.

A picture from our most recent trip to yosemite.