The weather yesterday could not have been much better for hiking. It was a little chilly in the morning when we started, but quickly warmed up. We hiked the Sunol Regional Wilderness. There it is wilderness again, within 15 minutes of my home. Just amazing!

Here is the view coming down into a little valley. There was a water tower and windmill and a wonderful barn. Right past here the ground on either side of the trail was covered in ground squirrels. Hundreds of them, they blend right into the colors of the ground and at first you don't really see them, but once you do you notice them everywhere. They are most cute when they jump in their little holes and then poke their heads out and watch you walk by.

There was a part of the trail that looked like this. This part is flat and was not to difficult, until it started going up and I started noticing the pretty extreme drop off down the hill.

In case you thought the narrowness of this trail was due to some camera trick this is my boot on the trail. I could not even put both feet side by side at this point. This really was just a short portion of the trail, most of it was wide and welcoming.

And here we have the ever present cows. I like that they don't pay much attention to us as we hike by.

I am constantly amazed by the trees. The come in all shapes and sizes and seem to take one shapes that trees should not be able to do.

So today's hike was a five hour butt kicker. I did about 8 miles in total. In addition to the cows and ground squirrels I saw hawks and turkeys. One big old tom with his tail all spread out to the admiring glances of the girl turkeys. The wild flowers are starting to bloom and I think next week after the rains forecast for this week they should be popping out during next weeks hike. One would think this should be getting easier and in some ways it is. At least I can move on Sundays now, unlike the first couple of weeks where moving on a Sunday required great thought and lots of aspirin. In other ways it is getting harder, the hikes are getting more difficult to prepare us for the end result - the big hike we choose. I keep telling myself I can do this and I will. I want to keep hiking after my big hike, it just might not be 5 hours or 8 miles every Saturday morning.