Fruits Picking in Brentwood / CA, USA

Peach is ready to pick!

This weekend is a long weekend.   However, our kids has Japanese school on Saturday.   We did not have any specific plan for the long weekend.   The weather was getting hot like summer, in daytime, it is about 100F last 2 days.

On Sunday, kids enjoyed in a community pool.  Then, we went to fruits picking in Brentwood (CA, USA).   Typically, it is a good time to pick cherry around the memorial day weekend.  However, it was the last day of the long weekend, most of cherry picking farm was closed or sold out when we were there.  So as strawberry.  

We drove around to find out a place to pick other fruits.   Finally we found a farm that had yellow peaches and enjoy to pick peaches.   It seems next a couple weeks will be good for peaches and other fruits.   It could be very hot in day time especially in the afternoon.  I would really recommend to be there early in the morning before getting hot.
  

Plan to start a Recovery Training

Planter Fasciitis

I have "Planter fasciitis" on my left foot.  I got stress fracture on my left leg in late 2012 and I had to stop running for six months.  During the recovery training, I got Planter fasciitis.   It was not too bad some time late last year.  However it was getting worse and I had to stop running again at the end of last year.

I have still a little pain at the first step after getting up from a bed in the morning.  However, a doctor told me it could be OK to start running.

Plan

As I mentioned in a few posts before, I found some new training plan in Garmin Connect.   Since I was getting this problem in a recovery training from the stress structure.   Therefore, I would like to be conservative this time.  That is why I picked "Getting started Level I".

It seems that this plan would be easy for me.  But I want to slowly start running this time to avoid any other injury due to a training plan.

This plan is heart rate base training plan for beginner.

I hope it works for me well!

I will also report my progress in this blog as well.

Alum Rock Park (San Jose / CA) ~ Nice trail in wild flowers

Nice trail in wild flowers

Alum Rock Park (San Jose / CA)

This weekend, I went hiking in Alum Rock Park in San Jose when I was waiting for kids in Japanese school.  The park is  located east San Jose.   From Berryessa Rd Exit on I680, the park is about 2.5 miles away.
There is a gate at the entrance of the park and people needs to pay USD$ 6 for a day use.  However, many people park on a street before the gate to save some money.   When I was there around 9:30am on last Saturday, there were many cars parked on the street.

Once getting into the park, there were many empty parking spots in the park.  It seems that there is no problem if people are willing to pay the fee.

I parked Rustic Lands Parking and started hiking from the parking lot.   There is a trail head post and it shows overall trails in the park.  However, the map was running out.  It is better to download a map from the web site of the park and print it just in case.

Hiking

This time I took North Rim Trail and Eagle Rock Trail to get a vista point.  From the vista point, we can see South part of Silicon valley.  Since this is short hiking, there were so many people on the vista point.  After that, I took Todd Quick Trail, then getting into Santa Clara Country Open Space Authority and took Boccardo Trail to get a top of a hill.

 Still many wild flowers were blooming

The trail is nice.  There were many wild flowers along the trail.   Since there are only low height grasses and we can see the southern part of Silicon Valley almost all the time.  Some part of trail is a bit steep, it seems that people who were riding mountain bike had a hard time to climb the hills.  Some people enjoy trail running.

We can see San Jose down town from the trails

There were many people hiked in the bottom part of trails.  However, once trail is getting steeper, I did not see many people any more and it was really quite and enjoy the nice view.  Since there is almost no shade on the trail, it might be too hot in summer time.   I guess it is the best season in spring.

Other Park activity

Since this is my first time to visit this park, after hiking, I took a walk in the park what else we can try in the park.   There are many picnic tables along a creek.  Also, there is a flat trail along the creek.  It might be very nice just short walk along the creek and enjoy picnic.
Some of picnic sites require to make a reservation to use.  However, there are also many tables just walk in to enjoy picnic.   Actually, there were many people along the creek other than the trails I walked.

It might be better to pay the fee if people try to enjoy picnic.   If people try hiking, I guess it might be better to park outside of the park.  It may need to walk extra a few miles, but people can save some money.

I think it is still good season to see wild flows in the park.  You may want to tray this park some time soon!

Mission Peak / Fremont CA ~ A vista point to look over Silicon Valley

Silicon Valley!

Mission Peak (2520 FT/ 768m)

Mission Peak is in Fremont CA, a landmark of Silicon Valley.
The peak is located the east side of San Francisco Bay.  From the summit, we can see Silicon Valley and we might see San Francisco if the sky is clear.

There are some trails to reach the summit.  One of popular trail heads is located near I-680 Mission exit, the end of Stanford Avenue.  There is another trail head on the south side of Ohlone College.  The last one is Sunol Regional Park on the east side.

Today, I hiked from the Standford Avenue trail head.

Trail head

 Trail head is located the end of Stanford Avenue where is close to I680 Mission Blvd.  There are two mission exit on I680.  The one where is close to the trail head is one in the south.
There is a small parking at the trail head, however, the parking could be full in the most of weekends in a good season like spring.   Then people may need to park on a street in a residence area.   Stanford Avenue near the trail head is no parking.  Police officers could check periodically in high season, therefore it is not a good idea to park there.

It seems the trail is getting very popular and I could not find any good spot near the trail head in the residence area.  So that I had to walk extra half miles (about 1km) to get to the trail head today.   Other than very early in the morning, you might have a hard time to find out a parking spot.

There is one restroom in the trail head, however, it was crowded and people made a long line this morning around 9am.

Trails

From the trail head, there are two different trails.   One is a primary trail straight up to the summit and most of people take this trail.  However, it is usually crowded and noisy.  (Hidden Valley Trail) That is one of reason I usually take another trail that branches to right near the trail head.   This trail could be steeper than the main trail, however, there were not many people and quiet.  (Peak Meadow Trail) I like this trail better and I usually take this trail for hiking up and come back from the main trail.  The total loop is around 5 miles (8km).

Peak Meadow Trail

The both trails are wide fire truck lanes.   Except very small section near the main ridge, there is no shade and it might be very hot in a mid day in summer.   Today was not too bad.  It is hot when I climbed up, but once I stopped, there was nice wind and very nice day for hiking.

Nice view in the middle section on Peak Meadow Trail

Once getting into the middle section of the trail, we can see a whole Silicon Vally and San Francisco Bay.   The mid section is steep.   Most of trails in this area is on a small hills and there might not be that steep in the other trail.  Mission Peak and Mt. Diablo could be one of hardest one near Silicon Valley area.

Summit on the left

Once pass the middle section, the trail is getting flat and it will be a single track.   In this season, there are many wild flowers and this could be one of nice hiking trail in spring.

We can see a whole bay near the summit

From the main ridge, we can see a whole Silicon valley and San Francisco Bay.  It is really nice view and that is the reason this trail is very very popular and crowed.

Summit, so many people

At the summit, so many people took a rest and took photos.   It was really noisy and almost no space to take a rest today.   So I just pass through the summit.

On the way back, I took hidden Valley trail.  There are some choices from the top.   Most of people take one on the east side, this trail is wide and easy to walk.   I usually take one on the west side.  The west side is steep and the trail is just a single track.  But it could be a bit shorter and not many people. 

Here is where I walked today

(Total 6miles + or 10km, about 2 hours)