Hiking a long trail

Posted on | February 2, 2010 | No Comments

There are gains and losses. Or as the Greeks used to say, “Nothing comes unmixed.” Of course the Greeks said something else, but I don’t speak Greek, much less know how to type it. Anyway.

There are times, many of them, when I just want to go where I want to go. Somewhere I know. Or somewhere I have heard about and go with expectations. But other times, especially when hiking a long trail, I go where the trail leads. And when it’s a long trail, that can take some time. And take me to places I might otherwise not want to go. But then. There are the surprises. Places that offer a very big reward. Unexpected. But given to the one who hikes the long trail.

That happened today. And there was a price.

We have had a lot of rain. The ground has been soaked for weeks. And though it had not rained in the Martinez area for several days, the ground is still waterlogged. And when Jean Rusmore writes in Bay Area Ridge Trail that a climb is “unrelenting”, one should expect a steep, strenuous climb. Please know that waterlogged clay can make a steep, strenuous, unrelenting climb seem unending.

But that is the way it is on the Ridge Trail. At least in the East Bay, the ridges are on a series of long hills or low mountains, with steep approaches. Almost all of them. But once on the ridges, the views and the plop, plop, plop are almost always sublime.

I was the only one on the trail. The approaches were that difficult. The only one on the first sunny day in some time. What joy. Sunshine, views, rolling hills, the Bay, Carquinez Strait.

I went by John Muir’s home. Big. And I saw a tree that John Muir saw. When he walked with his daughters and named nearby hills Mount Wanda and Mount Helen for them.

John Muir saw this oak tree.

And then I cheated. I walked on sidewalks to get back to the car. I did not want to walk down those slick trails. I met another older fellow. A local hiker, who told me he had not been on the ridge since the rains started. I felt special. About 8 1/2 miles, with about 1,600 feet of elevation gain. I was muddy dirty when it was over and very happy.

Walk well. God is love.

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