After weeks of wanting to hike Mission Peaks, my best friend Danielle finally agreed to come with me yesterday afternoon. The weather was around the upper 70s lower 80s when we started sometime around 2:30pm.
(Note: If you want to hike this hilltop in the future... coming from 680N you'll need to exit right on Mission Boulevard, and then make another right on Stanford. The small parking lot leads you to the beginning of the trail.)
Walking up to the trail I figured it would be a piece of cake, but actually within the first 15 minutes you can already feel the burn. When we came across the first fork in the road we decided to turn right. The view here is gorgeous even from the bottom of the hill. There's tons of cows grazing, squirrels squirreling, and grasshoppers hopping. Some people have even mentioned finding snakes along the trails, but the only scary thing I came across was a hawk preying on us from afar.....lol. At every turn in the trail you have the option to hike the curves, which takes longer but is less steep; or you can cut the corners to go straight up, which is shorter but steeper. To cut the time in half, Danielle and I cut all the corners to and from.
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| View from the halfway point (I think) lol. |
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| Some cows. |
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| Made it to the top! |
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| Obligatory shot from the "you did it!" pole. |
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| Panoramic view |
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| Mama Turkey and her babies |
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| More cows when we went back down. |
Overall the hike was a great 2.5 hour workout. Right now my legs hurt so good and I've already lost 5 pounds! Although the hike looks intimidating because it's a nonstop 4 miles uphill, it's definitely not impossible. I'm contemplating doing MP this weekend. Anyone want to come?
