Thanksgiving Weekend

Wow, I’ve really enjoyed this 4-day weekend. Being a contractor I don’t get paid holidays so it’s costing me, but it’s nice to have the time off. I certainly miss having vacation time… So it’s been great to get some rest, do some hiking and caching, spend time with the kid, etc.

Speaking of the kid, after the huge traditional Thanksgiving meal I was really eager to get some exercise. The next day we all went out for a hike with several other cachers, doing a six-mile loop in an overcast Almaden Quicksilver.

Allison whined through some of the later parts of it, and at times it seemed like I was pulling her along for half the hike. Despite that, she managed to get through all six miles! That’s a new record for her, by far. The Tarantula Hike several weeks back was previously the farthest she’d hiked under her own power, at 3.5 miles, although that hike had much more elevation gain.

She’s turned into a pretty good hiker for a 5-year old, said her proud daddy. After the Tarantula Hike, where she’d appropriated my hiking pole for much of the hike, I rewarded her with a hiking pole of her own, which she used for much of this last hike.

Carrie also was on the hike, which was great, although her stomach wasn’t feeling well and she ended up semi-hobbled by her hiking shoes which she wasn’t used to wearing. But “apart from the misery” she enjoyed the hike. 🙂

Then on Saturday afternoon, Joe and I drove up to Livermore and hiked Sycamore Grove Regional Park in search of a “fizzy square” cache I wanted to find. This was a 5-mile trek, mostly flat until the far end of the loop which brought some sudden uphill, but overall pretty mild. After the previous day’s hike, my legs were definitely not feeling fresh so I clearly need to get out more.

Sycamore Grove is a really nice park, particularly now with the sycamores all having their fantastic fall colors on display. The sycamore is pretty much my favorite tree, although now that I really think about that for the first time, I can’t help but note that I have a fondness for pretty much any white-to-light barked tree with leaves that change color. I say that because my two other favorites are Birch and Aspen.

Anyway we had a good hike there, and the weather was just about perfect too, as opposed to the overcast and chilly weather the previous day. After Sycamore Grove we picked up a couple of other puzzle finals before heading home.

I cranked out a quick photo gallery for each hike: Almaden Quicksilver Hike and Sycamore Grove hike.