I didn’t want to forget to blog about this, it is a little late.

Over a month ago (Jan 31st), Jenny invited me to hike Mount Diablo with the Stanford Outing Group, lead by “V”. I’ve posted her photos to the gallery here, and you should read her post on our trip. Its more entertaining than mine :)

http://jettagirl.wordpress.com/2009/02/01/mount-diablo-hike-to-the-summit/

This was a 14 mile hike, took about 6-7 hours (I think) and made my legs feel like jelly. That’s definitely my kind of workout, now only if it was 20 miles instead…

The start of our hike, at Mitchell Canyon Road, is about 15 minutes away from my house. Thats right, I have a freaking mountain to hike in my backyard and I’ve never actually done it. For that matter, its been about 10 - 12 years since I was last at Mt. Diablo. I really do need a group of people to get me out of the house on a weekend. The entire group ( Jenny is excluded from this statement, because she’s always cool) was cool, and the leader, V, was hilarious. I loved how he would mention ways we could die, or how to check for ticks (or you’ll die!), or if you trip… you get the idea. He comes off as overly- cautious, but he was great to hike with and talk too.

This was my first hike, and I was glad I could ask Jenny before hand what I should bring or wear. I brought a couple of bottles of water, and I ended up re-filling one on the way back down. The three of you that check out this blog already know how much I sweat, so the minimum water recommendation for a normal human being should be doubled for me :)

The trip up was strenuous, I would zone out and put one foot in front of the othe during the real up-hill parts. We took a few breaks to get some water, have a snack, but the real enjoyment was when we reached the peak. After all the “hard” work was done, I felt I could look around more, check out the scenery, and even talk a little. On the way down, “V” and Jenny told me about the different rock types (“scree” is difficult to walk on), saw a little waterfall and a cave on the side of a cliff, and then we found our own little cave on the side of the path. It was cool.

Overall it was a awesome trip and I look forward to doing one again. I don’t think I’ll get lucky with it being 15 minutes away from my house any time soon though. Eventually I’ll have to start learning to get up before 8am :)

So thanks Jenny and “V” for a memorable trip.