Merry Christmas, Happy New Year & Holiday Hikes!!!

The holidays have come and gone. Over the holidays there was not much work and I wanted to stay local so I decided that Nico and I would spend the holidays finishing a goal I had started a long time ago: The Mid Peninsula Regional Open Space Preserves. Over the last couple of years I have run about half of them regularly as training runs but I had always wanted to visit the rest of them so we set out over the holidays to hike them together. So without further ado I give you: Things I have seen on my holiday hikes.

Teague Hill and the Bay Area Ridge Trail x 2
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1572960

The Sand Caves of Corte De Madera
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1587153

The Three Peeks of Fremont Older
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1600495

Christmas along the Saratoga Gap (Saratoga Gap, Sanborn, Castle Rock, and Longview Loop)
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1604570

The Pond at Thornwood
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1612043

The Lookout at Henry Cowell
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1640427

The Waterfall Loop at Big Basin
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1633664

Peters Creek Loop at Portola (The Graveyard)

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1640424

The views from La Honda
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1651491

Forest Loop at Sam McDonald and we say goodbye to 2008 at Ranch del Oso
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1660566

We greet the new year atop the Bay Area (Sierra Azul "The Watchotower")
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1670449

I AM the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1692492

The Night Watchman
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1692489

Nothing like wine at the finish line (Pichetti Ranch) http://connect.garmin.com/activity/1708641

In accomplishing this goal I want to thank Bay Area Hiker for making it easy by providing easy access to map data and a starting point from which to plan our hikes. I actually bought her book 60 hikes within 60 miles of SF. The plan is to do one a week for the rest of the year.

http://www.bahiker.com/index.shtml

I want to thank Chrissy for coming along on a couple of hikes. I hope she will join us regularly.

Finally, my boy Dominic for being a real trooper through 10 straight days of hiking, 55 miles, shared with me the amazing experience and got to see some of the more interesting things along the way.

You can see more pictures of things we saw on our holiday hikes here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/bernardojtapia/20089ThingsIVeSeenOnMyHolidaysHikes?authkey=-F26g-btxlU&feat=directlink