Category: Hiking

Sierra canyon Hiking Group Hike on the Pacific Crest Trail to Benson Hut

The Del Webb over 55 community that we live in, Sierra Canyon, has a hiking group that does an  easier hike on Mondays and a longer hike on Thursdays. Today Duke and I did our first Thursday hike. It was wonderful. We met at 7:30 at the lodge and were on the trail by 8:30. We started just south of highway 80 at Donner Pass and followed the Pacific Crest Trail to a Sierra Club hut called Benson hut. It was beautiful day and the trail followed the crest of the mountains. We had phenomenal views although it was a bit hazy because of the California fires. The first part of the trail went through Sugar Bowl ski area and over the top of the long tunnel that trains go through to get over the pass.

The first pass we went over was Roller pass where the Donner party used logs and oxen to pull their wagons over the pass.

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The trail followed the crest and gave us breath taking views in all directions.

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While we were walking along here Duke fell and hit his head. Although it was a scary fall and his head looked bad he didn’t even get a headache. I guess he has a hard head!

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Our destination was the Sierra Club Benson hut which was 5.8 miles from the trail head. We had lunch and then headed back.

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Although my feet are sore and I am tired it was great hike. I think we should get hiking poles for Duke before our next hike. The ones I have were a gift from Bonnie and they worked great!

Here is a link to my flickr page with all my pictures of the hike.

Sierra Canyon Hiking Group Hike in the Tahoe-Donner Ski Area

Duke and I went hiking again with the Sierra Canyon Hiking group again on Monday. Sierra Canyon is the 55 and over community that we live in so all the hikers are 55 or older. Monday we hiked around the Tahoe-Donner Ski area and Euer Valley Cross-country ski Area. We were just north of Interstate 80 overlooking Donner pass. We hiked about 5 miles and had great panoramic views of the Pacific Crest.

Here are a few pictures. You can click on them to see them full size

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Here is the Flickr link for all of my pictures of this hike.

Directions: to Tahoe-Donner

I80 west to Truckee
Exit 184 (Donner State Park/Donner Pass Rd)
Turn Right
0.4 miles turn left at light on Northwoods Blvd
1.3 miles to blinking light
Turn left on to Northwoods Rd
0.7 miles turn left on Skislope Rd
4.2 miles to Glacier Way
Glacier Way Trailhead #24 on left
Park in trailhead parking lot.

Sierra Canyon Hiking Group – Lake Tahoe Hike

One of my retirement goals is to hike. Hiking is something I have always enjoyed hiking and I want to hike often in a wide variety of places. Sierra Canyon, the Del Webb over 55 community that we live in has a very active hiking group that hikes every Monday and Thursday. The hikes are usually 5-7 miles. Monday are easier and shorter than the hikes on Thursdays.

Last Monday Duke and I did our first hike with the group. We hiked along the shore of Lake Tahoe’s Emerald Bay from D.L. Bliss State Park to Vikingsholm. Here is a picture of the group getting ready to leave the parking lot. The drivers took the cars down to the end of the route and then all came back in one car.

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Lake Tahoe is one of the most beautiful places on earth. The walk along the lake was gorgeous.

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The Vikinsholm is a stone home built iTahoehike8272007_032n authentic Norwegian style back in the late 1920’s.

From Vikinsholm we hiked  to Eagle Falls and then about a mile back up to the parking area road. On the way home we stopped for beer and snacks at Sunnyside Restaurant. We sat on the deck overlooking the lake. It was great group of people and a lot of fun. The total hike was about 5.5 miles and quite easy.

Here is the Flickr link of all the pictures from the hike.

Inspiration

It took all my energy and will power several year ago to hike Mount Whitney. Hiking at 14,000 ft is no fun and in fact is incredibly hard. So if you want an inspirational story you should read this post from Tom Mangan’s Bay Area (California) Hiking Blog. I can’t even imagine what it took for Bob Coomber AKA 4WheelBob to take a wheel chair up 14,000 ft plus White Mountain. It is impressive and inspiring. Wow!

Sunol Regional Park

The San Francisco bay Area has a lot of wonderful parks and spring is an especially beautiful time to visit. There are lots of wild flowers and all the hills that will be brown in the summer are beautiful and green right now. Last Sunday we put Aidan in the jogging stroller and went for a hike at Sunol Regional Park. Afterward we cooked polish sausage over a fire and enjoyed them in the picnic area at the trail head.Sunol_3182007_001