January 14th – January
20th 2013
Monday and Tuesday, J. was working. I
took some walks in the neighborhood, did some reading and started my
community college class (that will be interesting). The weather got
more stable (no more rain) and is was looking like the place we
wanted to come and enjoy. Tuesday night (after work day), I drove J.
to the airport as she was flying to Michigan over night. Leaving nice
spring weather for gray and cold Michigan. Enjoy!
I drove to Huddart Park in Woodside. I
crossed the valley and drove through the small town of Woodside, and
again I was in very different world. Nice one though. It was really
big park geared towards picnicking and children. As it was work day
(and winter), there were almost no people. I had about 4 miles walk
planned for this park. There was actually pretty nice network of
trails. It was nice forest.
J. took our camera to Michigan (to take
pictures of babies and dogs, I guess), so I had to use our back up
old one (which J. damaged long time ago). Out of five pictures, three
of them ended up blurry and unusable. Oh well … I walked up and
down, there were some nice gulches, few creeks and nice sound of
birds singing (sometimes making just annoying noise). Nice trees
though.
Two times, I had to cross the path of
power lines. That was as well only place, where I could see a bit of
the bay. This park did not have really any other views, but it was
nice and secluded (really close to town) place to enjoy the walk. I
met two or three runners and towards the end a girl, which asked
about the time and then said, she was running since 9 o'clock (it was
11.30). It was really pleasant walk. After that, I drove thought some
new parts of towns, did some shopping and cooking.
Another day, I took train to San
Francisco. The morning was colder, but brisk walk kept me warm. I got
to the city around 9.27 am. I did not have any plan, so I just
started to walk along the bay. The sun was coming up and everything
was pretty bright.
Close to the train station (and as well
some sport stadium) there was not many people. I passed few homeless
people (how sad). And as well some people running or biking.
Otherwise, most of the piers were converted into business or some
type of warehouse setting. Yet, there were some public paths close or
on the bay. It was interesting. There is as well a lot of
construction going on. In the middle of this year, there is going to
be some boat (speed race of some sorts) competition. For that, there
are already some shops and they are working on other buildings etc. I
walked on small pier, that had observation platform at the end. It
does not get much better, relatively empty and peaceful, really nice
weather and ducks making a lot of noises.
Obviously, big part of my walk, I could
see Coit tower overlooking the bay and this part of town. It was
really nice picture. Pretty early in my walk, I as well started to
see Alcatraz. And later, to finish main tourist attractions, I saw
Golden Gate. It was really nice. Getting closer to the tourist area
(Pier 39), there were more and more people. Even it was early work
day. Oh well …. it was still very pleasant.
Slowly, I got to Pier 39. I passed few
tour stands offering Alcatraz or Bay Cruises (so many people). And of
course, Pier 39, there was a lot of people (lines for Alcatraz) and
so on … who knew. I walked through the pier. Later I found an
information board explaining the history of the pier. It was actually
constructed as a tourist attraction (and shopping area). I guess,
that explains why there are just shops and restaurants. A bit sad for
me, but I guess business is business. At the end, there is the draw
for the pier, bunch of floating platforms and sea lions on them. I
stood for a while with many other people watching those animals. They
were really close (and funny).
Then I left the shore and walked
towards the city. After I gave up on touring the submarine (there was
about 16 people just entering it), I figured I could go on the Coit
tower. So I walked towards the tower, just wandering the streets. It
was actually getting too warm. Along the way, I found small park with
maybe eight trees and a lot of bird's noises. I stood there, watching
for those birds, to find out that they are parrots. Interesting
(there was as well this statue in the park).
And then … surprise … uphill to get
to the tower. There were some people, but it was not too bad. I
bought the ticket (apparently just cash) and waited for the elevator.
Old fashioned with the guy in it. The views were incredible. The
weather was pretty good and I could probably see as far as possible.
I have enjoyed the views, look around
and was glad I did it. After that, I just slowly walked through the
city towards the train. Downhill, residential streets and later
Chinatown. More less by accident, I chose the main street and was
surprised by the number of people on the street. As well, the prices
of some produce were really low (compare to the normal store or
farmers market). Interesting.
Good for traffic, bad for the visiting
place was my Saturday trip. I drove across San Mateo bridge
(following my paper directions) and switched between the freeways and
successfully exited in Hayward. I wanted to visit European Deli
Market. It was not too hard to find (even the store was off the main
road hidden in kind of alley). I went inside and was somewhat
disappointed. It was tiny place with very limited selection (mostly
Russian) of goods. Too bad. I can just wish for the type of Polish
stores from metro Detroit. I had to get back on freeway and drove
towards Mount Diablo State Park (and hill). Not too bad (to follow my
directions), I found it and drove to the top. It was very “dinky”
drive. Going up and up and turn and turn. We drove worse, but there
was one difference, bicyclists. So many of them. And to pass them …
it was not good. It was probably half an hour before noon when I got
to the top and parked.
Unfortunately, the visitor's center was
closed, so I could just walk around and look down. Even it was a bit
hazy in the distance, the view was incredible. Maybe even too broad,
too big to absorb (maybe a bit like Grand Canyon, it is amazing, but
just maybe impossible to take in). It was sunny and there were some
people, but not too many. I took a picture of some lonely hiker, he
said he was training for some hike in Argentina (damn it, I would
like to go there). I tried to take some pictures, but the old camera
is too old (and some damaged), so it was hard to get some good ones.
I walked around a bit, just enjoying
the site. I even found this: (sliver of snow)
Hard to see on those pictures, but
still possible, you can see snow covered peaks in the distance. So
all that was incredible, standing on the hill (or mountain) and
looking around. Hard to believe, that all this makes Bay Area.
I had to drive down, there were two
ways to get up (at one point they merged). Going up, I took South
Gate, doing down I took North Gate. I had walk planned on the
foothills of the mountain. I had to drive through some towns (and
follow my directions). I did not get lost. It was not ordinary trail
head. It was dead end street with on street parking. When I got
there, I could not believe how many cars there was. I had to turn
around and drive back to find the spot. And then I just walked.
I got Bay Area hikes book for
Christmas, and this hike was there. I made a copy of the page with
map. It was Donner Falls hike. For a big part, it was nice fire road
next to the creek. And … unfortunately, it was somewhat loud. There
was too many people. It was somewhat uphill and I walked too fast. I
started to pass some people. The actual Falls trail was really uphill
and at one point, I had troubles to catch the breath. But just before
that, I passed some people and did not want to get passed, so I just
kept going. It was really nice, narrow trail, for most of the way
following the creek.
Obviously, the water falls were tiny,
yet few of them were really pretty and it looked very much like
Washington state. Again, who knew? (Probably a lot of people.) I
found few spots with some frost and snow. Funny. There were some nice
views of the gulch and the hills around, very few places had narrow
view of the valley. But it was still really nice.
I thought it was supposed to be about
3.5 miles, so at some point it started to feel much longer. It was
still nice walk, but nothing super exciting, so I sped up and tried
to pass as many people as I could. And there was a lot of people. The
group of four woman (I could hear them for like ten minutes) was
talking so loud. So, all that kind of took some beauty of the walk.
Back on the fire road, I saw sign 1.5 miles to the parking lot, so
the walk was longer then I thought. There were some buds on the trees
and I saw some flowers starting to bloom. Spring is here! (Drive
home, via Oakland bridge and San Francisco.)
