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!