After a reasonably restful night, I was up early to get my day started with Steven's Trail. I don't know how many Steven's trails I've hiked so far, but it is starting to get confusing. This blog helps me remember and better navigate my adventures. I arrived at the trailhead nice and early with only 2 other cars parked in the small parking lot. It was smoky that day, so maybe this deterred others from hiking. Oh wait, maybe it was because it was only Friday.
The first solo hike in the trip is always somewhat strange. A bit anxious, but determined to hike, I headed down on the first hike of the day. And down it was. The trail descended rapidly, and soon enough I could see smoke covered views from the side of the hill.
The river was peacefully flowing far down the hill on which I was walking. As you see, the pictures have a yellowish/orange hue to them. This is because of the smoke. Somehow the camera on my phone captured the view that way.
The way down was easy, as always. But I knew that the return trip was coming up. In the meantime, I enjoyed the nice head net - protection from insects - while debating whether it was time to wear an N-95.
Some leaves were starting to change. These beautiful trees were first in the forest of mostly pine.
As I reached the river, the temperature was getting up there - it was supposed to be the hottest weekend in California this year.
I didn't stay too long by the river, just long enough to finish my snack, and headed back uphill. It was pretty brutal with the air quality the way it was and the heat. Also, I decided to try and wear the N-95 mask, and realized that breathing through this thing is rather difficult, especially going uphill. As I was getting close to the end of the trail, overheating, I made an executive decision to take it off and finally was able to finish the hike. I was soaked and tired. And that was just day one of the trip. I wondered if I was just so out of shape or it was the heat.
I had a few hikes to choose from as my second hike of the day and opted for an easy one. Windy Point Trail on paper seemed to be very easy at about 2 miles round trip, but 740 ft elevation gain. I've gained that amount of elevation in a mile before, so I thought it would be a good way to finish the hiking day. Wrong! The trail is not easy at all when it is 95 degrees and smoky. Again, the way down was pretty easy, but it was really hot, so I decided to turn around just before the official finish of the trail and head back up. It was a good decision, because for whatever reason (oh wait, I know, it was 95F!) my cardio was not up to following my intentions.
The views from the trail were very similar to Steven's trail, and in different circumstances I would rate this hike as outstanding, but it is too exposed to the sun to do it in the middle of the afternoon on a hot day.
Exhausted, I was ready for lunch and got a delicious pizza at a local Italian place, Il Pizzaiolo Wood-fired Pizza, that was probably one of the better pizza's I tried in California (a spoiled New Yorker with a travel history to Italy here...).
I drove back to my AirBnb and truly enjoyed the rest of the day lounging on a hammock. Did I mention I should get one myself? Maybe I will...
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