Nov 12, 18, and 20, 2024.
Broke this 31-mile NRT into three ten-ish mile sections. It mostly coincides with the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail (Spanish colonist route of late 1700s), and it intersects with the American Discovery Trail…which means I will see this area again when I do the ADT.
This lovely path goes up, down, and along the ridge of the hills to the east and northeast of Oakland and Berkeley, CA. Total elevation gain is about 6000 feet. The southern/eastern two thirds is mostly in the trees with some lookouts here and there while the northwest third is mostly exposed with 360 degree views. The wind blew hard on the exposed section and pushed me around like I was on the Presis. A storm arrived on the third day and I beat the worst of the rain, but enough precipitation fell to make the ground ball up with moisture and stick to my shoes. Hiking then felt similar to walking on clumped snow attached to microspikes.
This is a great trail and various entry points are easily accessible with a combo of bus, BART, and car/Uber.
I feel okay doing ten miles at a time now carrying a daypack with water and a jacket. Any farther and my injury reminds me that it hasn’t healed yet.
