In an effort to kick my butt back into shape, at the advice of a wise man on TGR, I am attempting to hike or run at least one peak or park every single week. The additional benefit of this exercise is that it has me learning about and discovering a plethora of cool places here in the San Francisco bay area (and eventually, beyond!), and of course getting my dog out for some fun and exercise in the woods. Yes. *ahem* Because… as you know, the dog allowed himself to get really fat and out of shape over the past year. The dog was a little more concerned with his career change than working out and the dog didn’t use his period of unemployment as well as he could have to exercise during his free time and stay healthy. Well, good for the dog (now), because now that the dog has a stable job that not only pays the bills but that he really loves, the dog is finally motivated to get back at it, utilize his time outside of work wisely, and to get healthy again. Yay, dog.

In a “getting out of a rut” workout advice thread someone posted over on TGR, one of our members suggested to hike a new peak every single week. This struck me as a BRILLIANT idea, and I have adopted as a goal moving forward. I plan to either hike or run these peaks and report about them here with photos and write up once I return. As often as possible, I will try to bring a friend along for company and conversation, and of course bring ze woof!

Here is my first “Peak a Week” Report, which was the towering Mount Sutro in San Francisco, a staggering 908 feet. Linus and I hiked Mt. Sutro with our friend Andrea, who is here from Germany. Andrea’s husband, Matthias, is Earl’s former coworker. Andrea is sorting through some visa/work study/internship issues right now from her German university, and until that comes through she is generally free in the days, which works out wonderfully with my oddball EMT schedule. It makes her the perfect hiking partner for a Tuesday morning hike!

Linus and I walked over to the UCSF area where Andrea and Matthias live. Mt. Sutro is located right behind UCSF. Despite having lived there for a few months and having been avid hikers in Germany (this couple has hiked all over the alps!) neither Andrea or Mattius have explored Mt. Sutro yet. Perfect!

We walked up Willard Ave and followed this beautiful staircase to the trailhead. San Francisco is filled with gorgeous staircases, which I am discovering and attempting to document here. This one off of Willard was covered in green moss and particularly enchanting.

The view from the staircase was sweeping. You can see downtown all the way to SOMA.

Once on the trail, it went up and up. Not at too steep a pace- this would be the perfect place to come for a woodland jog.

Looping through Eucalyptus groves. I’ve heard that Mount Sutro is so infrequently used because most citizens of San Francisco think it belongs to UCSF and is off limits. That’s unfortunate, because it’s such a peaceful, serene escape. Then again, the less people who use these trails the better condition they’re in and the more isolated they feel. We didn’t pass a single person on our hike through this little forest.

At the top, there was a little meadow. The meadow was underwhelming- you could say our summit was anticlimactic.

The meadow was mostly filled with dead plants- must be a lot nicer in the spring when everything is in bloom. Plus, there really was no view to be had because it was all blocked by trees. Linus had a good time, though!

Andrea smiling on the way down. I asked her if San Francisco’s “Mount Sutro” compared to anything she’d hiked in the Alps. She laughed.

We came across this little glen with a shrine inside.

It was pretty faded, so you couldn’t really read it, but appears to be an old Native American of some sort.

Look at all the green! These green vines completely filled this valley. Looking at this photo, can you believe you are in the middle of a city?

And back down! If you look to Linus’ left, you can see the wine barrel signpost. Wine barrel furniture adaptations are HUGE trend in this city. I’ve seen about a dozen just in our neighborhood. Sort of bourgeois chic.

Final view from the staircase. It turned into a very grey day! Our skyscape is so dull due to the overcast. Still, not a bad little urban hike and nice catching up with a friend. We capped of our day with some coffees and salads at Boulange de Cole. It was chilly and almost rainy by the afternoon so we had an enjoyable time parking ourselves in a cozy booth to warm up.

Coming up: Amy and I tackle Mount Tam, Linus and I at Skyline Ridge, Edgewood Park and then beyond. I found a few Bay Area hiking websites (this one and this one in particular are great resources; I’m sure there is some overlap, however between the two of them there are almost 500 hikes!). If I do a peak a week, I should be done exploring all the hiking around here in about 9 years. Shesh.

While planning a beach day for this weekend coming up (have I mentioned I have class ALL DAY on Saturdays?) on Sunday, I realized I never posted up the photos from our last little escape to the beach.  Which is unfortunate, because I snagged some rather cute ones.

So how am I going to swing a beach day while having very limited free time between school and work, and also needing to train for a marathon? First, I am planning to rope one of my friends into training with me.  (Hello, Kathleen!). The plan for Sunday is while our friends relax, chill, and drink beers at the beach, I’m going to take poor, unsuspecting Kathleen on a 10 mile trail run up to the top of Montara Mountain and back down.  Then we can meet everyone at the beach and enjoy a scrumptious Colombos Deli crazy sangwich reward.  Mmm, mmm.  I’m not sure how nutritionally sound those wonderful sandwiches are when it comes to recovery fuel, but… hey. If this human garbage disposal hauls her butt up a mountain on a 10 mile trail run, you she will be inhaling those sandwiches as a reward when she is through!

Seeing as the half marathon we’re training for (note the “we’re” … I’m lobbying Kathleen to do it with- she is not *entirely* convinced yet, but I am working on it) has a course elevation profile as follows (TWO LOOPS OF THIS):

Napa Half Marathon Course- two loops

I figure it’s time to start training by running up some mountains. Because… shesh, look at that elevation profile! At least the California International Marathon will be a cakewalk once December comes around, because that course is mostly downhill.

Backing up, here are the belated pics from our previous weekend beach escape. It was a foggy day, but we still had a relaxing and fun time.
It was practically deserted:

Our picnic spot

Some of us went for a dip

swimming corgi

and then needed to shake off

shake shake shake

a good post-swim shake calls for a good post-swim roll

nooooo don't get all sandy

Well, he’s already totally sandy, so might as well have some fun.

sand monster

Isn’t it funny that he lets us do that? He is totally complacent while you pile sand on him. It was so funny when we discovered this dogsonality quirk during our roadtrip at the Indiana State Dunes off of the Great Lakes. This remains one of my all time favorite pictures ze woofer.
My feet also got buried… with proper accompaniments.

nice

this was my view. also, i am loving these $10 Target sunglasses! Amazingly, I have managed to avoid sitting on them all summer.

almost too foggy for sunglasses

Earl took Linus in for one last “cleaning” while our friend Matt looked on with amusement

dog, you are coming in!

of course there was some fetch

the beach has squeaky toys!

and some chase. chase is Linus’ FAVORITE game. Favorite, favorite, favorite.

just try and catch me

All in all, I would take an overcast beach day over no beach day. I also ran staircase repeats on these stairs descending to the beach, and did a 40 minute jog afterward baywatch style along the water. I did NOT take any photos of running or stairclimbing because I was a gross sweaty mess! There were some Latinos playing fútbol near the bottom of the stairs and they kept laughing, pointing, cheering and waving each time I returned to the bottom of the staircase for another repeat (managed to pull out 7 ascents total). At the end when I was heading back to collapse at our picnic site, they called out to me “you are very strong, Mamí.”