Yesterday morning, i hopped in the car and zipped across the bay to Sunol Regional Wilderness. The highway that runs directly south of the bay has some nice views of marshland, while Monument and Mission Peaks provide a destination focal point, due south of the 662' Mission Pass. The route feels far more open to me compared to taking 101 south through San Jose.

I arrived about 15 minutes after the gates opened and struck out on what i thought would be an easy nature trail. Due to a large social hiking group that also set out about the same time as i, i dawdled over some photos, grumbling to myself that local fauna would be well clear of the trail. At one point the main trail headed up the slope, and a less traveled trail continued by the creek. I chose the creek route, staying in the shade of the willows and sycamores. One asteraceae presented itself for documentation. A Stellar's Jay followed me, announcing my presence to all and sundry. I was no more stealthy with that companion than the whole crowd of chattering hikers.

Having not established a good rapport with the map (oh, i am spoiled by the GPS tools), i thought i was continuing on the Canyon View trail, which would meet up with the nature trail. Indeed, i figured i was doing the loop counter clock wise, hoping the large group was going clockwise. As i continued walking, though, the trail was more track like and less and less clear. The sand had occasional bootprints but was generally not clearly marked to my eye as the sand was just more uneven and drifting, not wet and taking much of an impression. As i got to a place where the apparent trail would require me to ford the creek, i got out the map again and studied some more. I was pretty sure i was still on the north bank of Alameda creek and not walking along the other creek (which is the seasonal Indian Joe creek). I'd clearly tracked along an unmarked trail. I back tracked to where i'd seen a cow or dear track heading up a grassy slope, and clambered up the 60' to find the trail and the fork i needed to take.

The clamber up the slope with the worry in the back of my mind of how lost i might be got my heart pounding and, as happens when i engage in such a climb, my face becomes beet red. It takes forever for such a flush to drain from my face, and i suppose the folks who met me afterwards might worry. I've had this flush for years, my dissertation advisor remarked upon it when we were hiking in New Hampshire during a break in a conference. My usual breakfast was not meeting my needs though, and i could feel the need to boost my sugar levels. Along the dry creekbed i found a number of blooming flowers (no profusion, at all), and my hands shook as i tried to shoot. My battery died as l looked out over a grassland at low circling buzzards. Even though i didn't get the shots i would have liked, the sun on the golden hills dotted with the oaks delighted me.

Eventually i remembered i had a nut and fruit bar, so i ate that as i returned to the car. I'd taken a good while longer than i'd planned on the hike, and texted Christine, to find the text on my departure hadn't left the phone, either. I drove home south from the park, on the winding road well frequented by cyclists. I listened to The Game, a Mary Russel novel set in the context of Kipling's Kim's India, twenty to thirty years later. The narrative of the brutal and dangerous adventure of "pig sticking" is now overlaid in my mind with the visual memory of the twists and turns of the road with vistas of golden hills, banks covered with the magenta clarkias (never where i could pull over and get photos), and tree-arched tunnels through groves of oak.

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Home, an errand with Christine and lunch at a diner (hearty egg whites over veggies and potatoes), a deep weariness, home to read Kim in the shaded living room and to edit photos from the hike. In the evening, as a party started up across the pool, we went out to See Man of Steel. I found the story very engaging, but, oy, the lens flares, the faux camera jitter, the extreme special effects. I wonder just how dense contemporary battlefields really are: the documentary images i recall of panzer attacks in WWII are of dispersed vehicles. The density of special effect laden screens seems to me to be an effort to pull whole worlds into frame, a surreal wide angle view. The sky is so much bigger.

Mrrgghhugh.

Maybe i do have a sinus infection. I feel well, except for the awful headache. If it were a tension headache it would be gone by now, right?

Visit with my brother brief but pleasant. A meeting i was attending by phone ended early and i was able to see him out the door between his phone meetings.

Midday i got out for a walk with my neighbor's dog and took some phone-photos of plants (list of observations, not yet updated with the names). In the evening i identified many of them at least to the genus. I've decided non-native weedy plants like hawksbeard and radish are fine left at the genus. The note in the online Jepson manual about the radishes is that they hybridize, anyhow, so the identification isn't just a decision between A or B. I've grown somewhat distrustful of the Calflora crowdsourced photos. How many folks take the time to tell the difference between the two radish species? Best i can tell the differentiation is in the hairiness of the stem, the basal leaf shape, and the seed shapes, but it seems that they have overlapping variations.

The book i bought recently, Botany In A Day, helped me identify the families of some of the plants i didn't know. From the family, i can use CalFlora to narrow in on the identification.

I had a half cup of coffee yesterday afternoon when i was craving sweets and then powered on all evening, until we had dinner around 9 pm. This would be why caffeine is in diet pills. Today i'll limit myself to a quarter cup of coffee.

Yesterday's pleasure was a walk with the neighbor's dog down the Hetch Hetchy trail to a coffee shop. The dog is just the right size for an apartment dog, some sort of short haired terrier mut, with wonderfully expressive ears, doleful eyes, and an enthusiasm for "covering" his markings that is no where near where he marked. We arrived to find the shop closed, because i misread the map and we'd headed for a branch that is open only workdays. We headed up a street to the main shop, and ended instead at a Deli and Donut place, because it's patio was so welcoming.

The interior was a bit of a greasy spoon, but i should think we'll return. I'm on the look out for "hang outs" that we can walk to. While there are nice places down town, there's a Castro St premium. This place seemed inexpensive and with a lovely patio facing a parking lot instead of a busy street. The coffee shop was on the return path to our home. I can imagine waiting for Christine get coffee there to take to the Deli & Donuts place on some summer morning.

We sat under an umbrella as the day was a bit warmer than the temperature in our apartment hinted. i bought a few drinks from the cooler and got a small bowl of water for the dog. The dog was in heaven, snuffling under the nearby tables and vacuuming up food. A high chair proved to be particularly delightful.
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Trying to transition to eastern time quickly, so I ate lunch on the first leg of my flight. I only have moments in dallas before boarding the flight to ohio....