August 30 - 9th Hike - Purisima Creek Redwoods

Today we hiked at Purisima Creek Redwoods. Very satisfying hike, I felt like I was really pushing myself again, but wasn't wiped out afterward. Managed to not take a nap and to stay awake after the hike until dinner...mostly because I was so excited about the big donation from

VANDANA M!
(who now takes the Grand Poo-bah of Donations crown away from Ed and Petros, so soon after they had unseated Frank and Pat).

So this hike is dedicated first to Vandana, who must have donated while I was actually hiking.
And also to the other awesome donors since the last hike (most of them except for Andrew just in the last day!)
Ed and Petros, Andrew V, Michael McC, Madeleine M, Marc G, and Sarah Y.

Reggie took the pictures posted for this hike. Above is one I really like.


I like this one too because it makes me think of the "troll under the bridge" legends. Jen dropped her water bottle and went to retrieve it. I love how everyone looks so concerned.


This hike had a nice combination of hills with some sun, and then some nice "cool inner forest" trails, and a whole section walking along a ridge with views as far as Half Moon Bay (at least Jen said it was Half Moon Bay!).

Our hike groups are usually somewhat divided into faster and slower. On this hike, since I'm now leaning toward doing one of the harder options in the Smokies, I decided to hike with the faster group.
I'm pretty proud that I was able to keep up - for most of the hike after the beginning, I was able to stay with the faster half of the fast group. (in the back, but still with them!)

Our "generous" hike leader added in an extra hill added into the 1 or 2 major hills of the hike -- she led us up another trail for 20 minutes to get extra hill training. I decided I was going to try not to stop, and managed to power up it without stopping until the very end (where it turned out I was only a few yards away from the turnaround point).
And then after that there was more hill in the hike, but I got through it!

So it turned out to be a very satisfying hike...and I could look forward to going to the 16 Mile house in Millbrae for Jim's going away dinner. (Try the pork chops, they are awesome!)