Half Dome trip, July 4, 2014
From the back side.
You can actually see the climbers.

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Unfortunately, I didn't make it all the way this trip.
It's an amazing trip nevertheless, and I will make it the next time.
I was so tired and beat up from this trip that I'm only now beginning to post pics and stuff.

It starts along the Merced River, and you can even see Vernal Falls upstream. 

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Then come stairs, miles of granite stairs, going up the Mist Trail past Vernal Falls, and Nevada Falls.

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And above Vernal Falls comes Nevada Falls

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Here I am around the back side, the side you can't see from the valley
You can actually see the line of people going up Half Dome.
I didn't get much further than this this year, but I will next.

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Well, this give you a start.
For more check out the Hikes page or the Photo's page.

Sorry. I meant well.
I've been busy on-and-off and haven't gotten around to it, but I have gotten some slight hiking done.
This is in spite of working 6-days a week.

This beautiful little one-horse ranch is directly below you when you stand up on Eagle Rock itself.
About 100 yards behind us is an old abandoned fire lookout, overlooking Little Basin, so you know the view is great.
You aren't all that high, but it's enough.
About 3 miles and 807' elevation gain according to MapMyHike.
We're usually fairly slow and leisurely; it says just over 40 minutes of actual walking time, but we went in about 7 and came out about 11, so it was a nice morning. I'm not sure it keeps an accurate walking time since it has this auto-pause feature. It seems to me that making 4 mph uphill is not too likely. 
I always especially like one pullout to the right with a good view of another small peak just a few hundred yards away, and the valley you've just come up. It's only about 20' or so, so you don't want to miss it. It looks to be about the half way point on my MapMyHike route.

I did Eagle Peak with Jerry.
We went up Back Creek Trail to Meridian Ridge Road, and then Eagle Peak Trail back to the bottom... except we took a detour past Mitchell Rock. Once you reach the flatland's there are several trails you can cut across back to Regency Drive. You can't get lost there. 

8.56 miles and 2,109' elevation gain.

As usual we parked at the Regency Drive / Donner Canyon entrance, but we park on the other side of the canyon, (Mountaire Parkway, off of Marsh whatever road.)

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Then Black Mountain.
Jerry was busy this weekend so I went over on the peninsula and did Black Mountain.
10.71 miles and 2,358' elevation gain.


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And last week, Eagle Rock Lookout with Jerry again.

Eagle Rock Lookout is in Big Basin, out at the end of Little Basin road. 
(Mile marker 6.5, about 3 miles south of park HQ.
Park at what used to be the HP Gate. 

(which has been renamed. IT says something about group camps, and there is a dirt fire road going up to the left which is actually a private road about 100 feet up.


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And this coming weekend we're supposed to be going to Tomales Point.
From the pics I see online it looks to be really interesting.
It actually seems to stick out into the Pacific and split the ocean from the bay.
We're going to be walking all the way out the the tip you see below. 

Also, that's right where the San Andreas fault goes through, as you can see.
We should get some really great scenery.

Well, I'll try to get back to you again soon.
Have fun in the meantime.

Jou Baur

Hikes come from somewhere.
The question is, "Where?"

Well, my hikes come from lots of places, but one of my favorites is the stuff from Weekend Sherpa. Every week they send out a newsletter with cool stuff in it to do. Unfortunately, some of it is crap! You know, restaurants and other stuff. However, most of it is some pretty cool stuff. I definitely recommend their weekly newsletter; just ignore the crap and the occasional stuff from real far away, like S.L.O., CA. That might be OK if you get multiple days off, and have lots of money to make the trip, but that puts it out of my range.

They do have lots of local hikes, though, plus a summer contest each year. I've got a couple of nice 'Weekend Sherpa' t-shirts from them, and show them off whenever I get the chance, (you'll see them in some of my pics.)

Some of my hikes come from this other website, Bay Area Hiker, where hikes are rated on distance and difficulty. It's really great, but it's harder to find a hike there by name or location. However, distance and difficulty are great ways to present hikes! (At least for me.)

I'll try to start tying hikes back to some other source, although that's not always possible. Sometimes hikes come from multiple sources or from offline sources, such as a hiker I ran into on the trail.

Other things like Day-trips and events also come from somewhere, and one of those sources is Funcheap. Funcheap gives me all kinds of interesting things like the 'Superhero Street Fair' and the 'How Weird Street Faire', and many, many more. 

I definitely recommend you sign up for both of these free emails if you live in the bay area.
If you don't like them you can always unsubscribe, but you won't.

Speaking of Half Dome...
I'm trying to figure out which days to apply for, for my Half Dome trip.
I've only got about 2 weeks to get my application in so I'd better get busy.
I'm going to apply mostly for Mondays, since I can take Monday and Tuesday off along with my Sunday for three days total. That gives me a day to get there and set up, a day for the hike, and a day to drive home and recuperate.  I can live with that.

I am, however, going to apply for one Wednesday... my birthday. If that gets drawn, my boss is just going to have to live with me taking Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday off. The chance to sit atop Half Dome on my 9th anniversary of getting out... WOW!  
I'm sure as hell not going to miss that if that day gets chosen!

In the meantime, I'm still working at updating and posting, although you may not always notice what I've done since it may be on another page than the one you're looking at, or it might not even be visible yet.  Nevertheless, keep coming back. It gets better with time.

Meanwhile, have a happy hike, buddy.
Here's looking at you atop some cool peak.
May you always climb another mountain.