Day 3 Hike

Food log:  Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, 5 small pieces of bacon, oatmeal. Lunch:  Carne Asada Chalupa, chips and salsa. Dinner: 2 servings of Campell's Chunky beef vegetable soup.  Day snacks: Nature Valley granola bar.  Night snacks: None.

Activity Log: Hike into Point Pinole Regional Shoreline in Richmond CA., 3.9 miles.

Thoughts: A much easier hike today, but a over a mile longer.  More beautiful weather and scenery.  I think all this hiking will have good results for this week's weigh-in, but I'm worried that next week may suffer since my body is used to so much activity.

Sweat is your fat crying.

Food log:  Breakfast: 2 hard-boiled eggs, 1 piece of toast (buttered), 1 banana, 1 cup of yogurt. Lunch:  Kung Pao chicken, brown rice, Hot and sour soup, small salad with peanut sauce. Dinner: Fried catfish sandwich, 1 small cup of potato salad.  Day snacks: 1 orange.  Night snacks: None.

Activity Log: Hike into Wildcat Canyon Regional Park in Richmond CA., 2.6 miles, plus walking around onsite at work.

Thoughts: My plan was to go hiking at the Point Pinole Regional Shoreline tonight, but the gate into that park closed at 5PM, so I missed that.  However, I remembered that the Wildcat gate was open until 6PM, so I hurried over there.  I was able to get into the parking lot so that saved me another big climb up to the trail head.

Today, since I had more daylight to work with, I followed the route that I had mapped out last night.  Not only was it about a mile longer than yesterday, but the climb was much steeper.  I started out at an elevation of 157 feet.  The highest point along the trails I took was 696 feet.  That's a difference of 539 feet.  Luckily, there were stretches of gentle ascent, even ground, and downhill interspersed along the way.  But a few of those steep stretches were brutal, at least for a fat man like me.  But I did my best and didn't get discouraged.  I stopped when I needed to, but I tried to keep the forward momentum as much as possible. There were opportunities to take some short cuts and easier paths, but I stuck with the route I had begun with. It was actually kind of fun to push through it.  I was reward by beautiful views and terrain.  There were several other hikers. There were a couple people riding their bikes, and even a couple on horseback. I don't know if I can keep up the energy for another hike tomorrow, but we'll see what happens.

On the road: The true test.

Food log:  Breakfast: 1 Ham and cheese omelette (3 egg) with onions and green pepper. Lunch:  Ham and cheese quesadilla.   Dinner: 6-inch Subway turkey breast sandwich with provolone, lettuce, tomato, onion, and a little bit of light mayo.  Day snacks: 1 banana, 1 small handful of Cheese-Its, 2 small scoops of ice cream, tiny snack bag on the airplane.  Night snacks: None.

Activity Log: Hike into Wildcat Canyon Regional Park in Richmond CA., 1.8 miles.  But I probably walked 2 miles or more since I walked through the San Francisco airport.

Thoughts: I wanted to hike in the Wildcat park area since a co-worker had scoped it out the last time I traveled to Richmond for work.  Unfortunately, I landed in SFO just before 5PM and had to drive through town and over the bay bridge during rush hour, so I didn't get to the hotel until 7:15PM.  The sun was going to set at 7:58PM so I didn't have time to eat and rest before hiking.

The parking lot to the trail head was closed at 6PM, but the park was open util 10PM, So I parked below the parking lot area and hiked about 1/4 mile or more before I even got to the trailhead.  The hike was all uphill, though there were parts that were easier.  I decided to turn around at around 0.9 miles because I had just gotten to the top of a steep hill, and it was starting to get dark and I wanted to get back down to my car before it got pitch black.  Before I headed down, I climbed up an embankment and took some pictures of the East Bay.

It was a good hike, but I was pretty thirsty since I didn't bring water with me.  I was also hungry by the time I got to my car, so I found a Subway nearby.  I shouldn't eat late at night, and I should have hiked after eating to work it off, but hey at least I went on a good hike and worked up a sweat.  We'll see how it goes for the next couple days.  I mapped out another route in the park that will run about 2.8 miles.  I also wanted to get back out to Point Pinole Regional Park again.

Dry Canyon Trail

Food Log:  Breakfast: 1 Ham and cheese omelette (3 egg) with onions and green pepper, 1 banana.  Lunch:  1 quesadilla (2 flour tortillas, refried beans, shredded cheese), tortilla chips, sour cream, and salsa.   Dinner: Orange chicken over rice, 2 potstickers, corn.  Day snacks: 1 CLIF bar, 5 Ritz crackers, 1 large strawberry banana smoothie, 1 handful of pretzel thins, 2 cheese singles.  Night snacks: None.

Activity Log: Hiking the Dry Canyon Trail.  About 3 miles.

The hike was a lot of fun. You couldn't ask for a better day.  It was sunny and warm, but there was a breeze to cool off.  There was some complaining by a couple kids, but all in all I think everyone had a good experience.  I want to do lots of hiking this spring and summer, so I want to get the kids used to getting out more.  Kelley got me a trail guide and there are lots of easy to moderate trails nearby.

End to end, the trail is about 4 miles. We were limited by time due to a soccer game, so we parked one car at the church, which is near the access point from Rimrock Drive.  Then we drove to the north trail head and walked the trail back to the church. On the north end, you almost feel that you are out far away from everything, but you are actually in the middle of town.  One of the websites referred to the Dry Canyon trail as the Central Park of Redmond.  As you get down to the middle to southern end there are several parks that it connects to, as well as a dog park, and a Frisbee golf course. It's pretty nice. Kelley and I said we'd have to return and do the rest of the trail as a date night.

Thoughts: Yes, I know I had a big breakfast on a non-free day, but on Saturdays, I have time to cook, so I like to make it worth it.  I'll have to come up with a better plan for how to handle that.

If you start to get warm, unzip

Food Log:  Breakfast: 2 hashbrown patties; 2 eggs, fried.  Lunch:  2 flautas, tortilla chips, sour cream, and salsa.  Dinner: Green salad with grilled chicken strips, 1 hard-boiled egg, tomatoes, cucumber, and ranch dressing  Day snacks: 4 pieces of Starburst, 5 mini Twix bars, 2 small "Cutie" oranges Night snacks: 2 small Snickerdoodle cookies, 1 Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich

Activity Log: Short hike to Cline Falls, plus some exploring.  About 1 mile round trip.  It was a cool day, but we probably bundled up too much.  We were peeling off layers as we hiked.

Thoughts:  I should point out that I haven't been listing what I am drinking because I have pretty much limited myself to water.  No orange juice, apple juice, sodas, milk, etc.  I will, of course, have those things occasionally, and I will log them accordingly, but I will not be writing "water" with every meal.

.