Sunday 11/22/2020
So by a little after 9 I had drunk my coffee, read the paper, watered the plants, and done the NYT crossword. And remembered my determination to go walk someplace different. A couple of minutes with the computer and I decided to go walk the Sneath Lane trail to Sweeney Ridge. (Easy to find on Google Maps.) Having in mind how fast recreational things fill up on a Sunday, I hustled away the 25 miles up I280, and got the last good parking spot at the trailhead.
I had no idea of the topography of this trail, although I realized it was going to be mostly climbing going up, as it ends up on the crest of the Coast Range, near where, supposedly, Gaspar de Portola and his gang, who were lost and looking for Monterey Bay, first caught sight of San Francisco Bay.
Later I worked out that it was almost exactly 600 feet of elevation gain, from the low end of the parking lot to the top. At the time I just knew I was trudging uphill, sometimes steeply and sometimes less so. At the start you get a look down the length of San Francisco’s water supply, Crystal Springs reservoir.
Higher up you can look back and see where you were before.
Near the top the Bay Area Fog was starting to blow in, making me glad I had my jacket.
It took just over an hour for me to climb 600 feet up and 1.7 miles along. I was pleased however that although I often paused to rest, it felt like all my body parts were working correctly.
Also this gave a useful check on the pedometer or “Health” app in the iPhone. For the 1.7 mile return trip it only counted 1.5 miles. So it is a bit more than 10% short.
I pretty much couched the rest of the day.
Codgerville 