Change of plans

Coppertone and I had planned on doing the docent guided hike here to kick off our Klondike Challenge effort this year.  We expected to follow along and do about 4 miles of hiking at a leisurly pace.  We did do that up to Vista Trail and learned a good deal about some of the California flora and fauna that we're still trying to pick up.

Once the time came to work our way down the mountain with the rest of the group a couple of our hiking partners had the idea to break away from the group and continue up hill to the top of Bald Mountain.  We bid farewell to the rest of the group and continued to climb.

We got to the top of Bald Mountain and tried to find as many landmarks (with the help of the signage at the peak) as we could.  San Pablo Bay was visible as was Mount Tam, but conditions were a bit hazy, preventing us from seeing San Francisco proper.

For the way back we descended on Gray Pine Trail.  Occassionally muddy and sometimes rocky, but almost always steep, it was a bit of a workout for our knees.  We were relieved when the terrain flattened out as we turned back to the welcome center on Meadow Trail.

Having done double in mileage what we planned to do, we were fairly tired and quite hungry.  Drove up to Santa Rosa afterward to get some food afterwards.