Long Hike

Yesterday Debbi and I went to my friend Syd's house-cooling party. He's moving to Texas soon, his family following him once their house sells. (Anyone want to buy a 4,000-square-foot house in the east bay?) It was a fun party, seeing many of his friends - and some of mine - but it's sad that he's leaving. He's one of my best friends in the area, and one of the few I can really geek out about baseball with. He's been in the area for 18 years, but it's hard to raise a family with the Bay Area cost of living, and his family lives back in Texas, so off they go.

Hopefully they'll all be happy. I kind of cringe at the thought of living in Texas, but Syd grew up there - and even ended up with a liberal political outlook, somehow - so it's home to him.

Today Debbi and I went for a long hike in the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. We arrived around 10:30 to start hiking. If you look at the map, we parked in the area at the southeast end near Alpine Lake, and walked the Ridge Trail northwest to the marker just mast Mt. Melville, not quite to Ripley Ranch Road. On the way back we walked over Borel Hill (which is nearly half a mile above sea level). All together it took us about 3 hours.

The grasses are just starting to turn brown, especially on top of the tallest hills, and the wildflowers are in full bloom, especially the California Poppies. There are many pretty flowers blooming that I didn't recognize, as well as some small sunflowers.

However, it was also overcast and foggy for our whole hike, and rained twice, including for the last 30 minutes of the hike. Rain is pretty unusual at this time of year in the area, especially the quantity we're getting today. The rain cleared out the fog for a few nice views, but then the clouds rolled in and blocked it again (half a mile above sea level, remember? We were in the cloud bank). There were a few other hikers and bikers out, but not many.

Also, at the northwest end of the trail the grasses were overgrown so we had to ford our way through them sometimes, and Debbi got scratched up by thistles. I'm not sure why I didn't, but she ended up with a number of little red marks on her arms and legs. Maybe she had a mild allergic reaction to them. But we made it there and back safe and sound, if somewhat waterlogged. It was good to get out and exercise.

Realized today that I forgot to pay the cable bill last month. Aargh. Fortunately they don't disconnect for one month's lack-of-payment.

(It's just not a proper journal without occasional comments like that!