Sunday Sunday Sunday! 3 dogs, one pasty old white man, and one massive hill to conquer in the East Bay Hills! The vultures circled! The joggers put in their bets! My knees trembled! It wouldn't be easy - but nothing good ever is! In building on our excellent hike at Carquinez on Saturday, I and my pack decided to hit Chabot Park, and the mighty Macdonald Trail from the valley floor up to the crest above Bort Meadow and back. Originally, I was so ambitious I thought we would make it all the way to the meadow and back, but by the time we had walked the crest awhile, I realized it was best to save the second half for later and be happy with what we'd already accomplished - after all, what we accomplished was no small feat. Have a gander if you don't believe...

A few weeks back when the nephews were here - and a few months back when we were babysitting Miss Pocket - Booms and I made a hike at Bort Meadow along the Macdonald Trail in the (very awesome) Chabot Park east of Oakland, north of Castro Valley. The more time I spend around there, the more resolved I am to master the trails of Chabot Park. When we were looking for a place to hike this Sunday, I decided that the weather was warm enough on the other side of the hills for us to seek out a new stretch or two of trail out near where we had hiked before and had such a dilly of a day.

I had neglected to dig out my map, and so I sort of just resolved to just pull over wherever there was a place to park and to start hiking. Even if I had had a map, I would have not have been able to get much of a sense of the trail I was starting, which - as it turned out - all but went almost directly from the bottom of the valley to the top of the hill along Redwood Road. Phew!

Once we got on the trail, I found a map, and was drawn to the fact that, after a curvy start, the path looked to go on long and straight for almost two miles. I thought sure this meant we followed a creek through the valley, and would have loads of shade on a long, pleasant stoll beside a babbling brook. I was wrong. The curves were switchbacks that zig-zagged at brutal grades, then the straightaway was out from under all canopy and right along the crest of the hill. This dawned on me only after getting about halfway to the top, and by then, there was no turning back.

As it turns out, I was very glad to have toughed it out and made it to the crest trail. At first, it was just a little bit scrubby, but there was the payout of the sea breeze one gets atop the East Bay hills.

The real payout though was the reveal we got soon after flattening out of the ranch lands east and south of the park. It was quite excellent.

I must say, I myself had a pretty brutal case of Draggin' Butt, and yet the doggies seemed to be just fine. For reasons I don't understand, hill climbing doesn't seem to bug them like it does me. More power to them I guess.

While I found this stretch of trail awesome, it did have the drawback of having a section where one of the nasty plywood palazzo developments in the hills borders on the park, meaning the fat whities who live there can waddle in, let their dogs crap all over, then waddle home. I am sure these people tell themselves they love nature and love the park, and that is why they had that nature destroyed so they could put their sprawlville palace up there amidst it all. Ugh. I can't let myself let their cheap-n-easy access to those views denigrate the satisfaction I got for hoofing it up to the top for my access to them. Anyway...

Without doubt, even though the doggies seem to have it easier getting up top, by the time we hit the top and hiked awhile in the sun, it started to tell in the pace they were able to keep. Indeed, I am not in the best of shape, and I don't want to act like I didn't sleep well when I got home, but at the same time, I am VERY happy to report that all three of the doggies were out like little lights within 2 minutes of getting back to the car! That was awesome.

I now have the idea in mind that I am going to try to walk the entire Macdonald Trail in Chabot. It will be a heck of a lot of work, but with what I already have completed, it is a realistic goal before summer is out and the super-hot fall weather starts. Now that I have a little better sense of the lay of the land, I think I can better plan for how much to try to do in one day, and what type of weather to pick for what part of the hike. Slowly but surely, I am starting to get the sense that I won't feel truly satisfied until I have done the bulk of the trails in each of the awesome East Bay hill parks that allow off-leash pleasure for canines. To date, I can only think of one of the parks which turned out to be a mild disappointment (and even then, it isn't like I did all there was - I just gave up!) Otherwise, each of them has been a treasure for one reason or another. If the reviews of my canine companions are to be factored in, it's 12-paws up for Chabot. Actually, they seem to like all of them, at least so far. In matters of the lifted-leg, I defer to their expertise, and am inclined to continue to trust they know what they like.