Point Isabel

Last month .. or rather in September .. I went with my YD, my SIL, one of my co-workers and his wife and both of their dogs to Point Isabel. It's a dog park about an hour north of our house on the San Francisco Bay.

I didn't get many pictures .. particularly of the dogs.  Here's a picture of Max in case you've forgotten what he looks like.

For whatever reason this picture makes him look small - he isn't.  He weighs about 60 pounds.

Max is getting much better at being social with other dogs -- as long as they are about his size.  Small dogs are a real problem.

While at the park, he went up to this group of people with three small dogs.  One of the dogs, a Chihuahua, decided to run from him.  Max in dog-like fashion took off after him.  They ran for at least a minute with this little teensy dog totally outrunning him.  Wish I'd gotten it on video.  The only reason they stopped was my SIL tackled his dog ...

This is a picture of the Bay Bridge from Point Isabel.

New Hike #2 - Sycamore Grove Park, Livermore

A week ago Saturday, Nevada and I drove up to Livermore for a vertical tasting at one of the wineries she belongs to, Cuda Ridge.  We went early in order to walk at a park that we've driven by several times.  Sycamore Grove Park.

It was a nice flat trail, actually several trails.  We took the winery loop, of course.  We were in a time crunch and so walked for about 20 minutes, I'm guessing about a mile.  We had hoped that the loop would take us back to the beginning, which it would have, but we didn't get far enough to actually loop.  We got as far as the winery ruins.

This is a picture, from a placard along the trail, of what it used to look like.

And this is what it looks like today.

We saw a lot of ground squirrels while walking and even some wild turkeys, but the most exciting thing we saw was a rattlesnake (probably hunting the ground squirrels).  Unfortunately, I didn't get my camera out in time to take a picture -- actually it took me a long time to even realize what it was.

A very nice walk that I'd definitely be up for again.

New Hike - Pulgas Ridge Preserve

So, Nevada and I took another new walk (yay!).  We went to the Pulgas Ridge Preserve (link to their website here. Another dog friendly place.  No bad smells this time. Although we got a late start (I overslept), it wasn't overly crowded.  Not that many dogs either.

Nice view too!

 

We even brought a dog.  She got a little tired and had to be carried some of the way. :)

After the walk we went for breakfast .. though by the time we found a place it was after noon.  We had brunch at Bistro Vida in Menlo Park. Had another eggs benedict - they were pretty good.  Much better than last week's (the Prolific Oven).

No walk this week.

New Hike #1 - Sanborn County Park

So, one of my goals this year is to take six new hikes (see #22 on the list).  This is the first of those six.

Nevada and I drove up Skyline Drive (Rt. 9) to Castle Rock -- which we've done before so we went across the street to Sanborn County Park.

The weather was perfect and we got there early so there weren't many people and parking (along the road) was easy.  The only negative was that we walked to the right instead of to the left and we weren't actually walking a loop -- or the loop was more miles than we cared to walk, so after we'd walked about 2 miles, we turned around and walked back. 

Apparently the park is huge and if you go to the main park entrance there are several other trails, some paved, to walk.  They allow dogs as well; so if we go again, perhaps Holly will join us.