Mission Peak

After a terrible week of jet lag, no exercise and high stress, you could just see the steam coming out of my head by Friday. I finally had a good nights rest of 15 hours and was convinced to go to Mission Peak. So I have to say I've been very bad at getting out and hike to train for my Macchu Picchu trip in June. Actually by bad, I mean I haven't yet gone on a steep incline hike this year (Great Wall of China last week was probably the steepest so far).

So the last time I went to Mission Peak was 2 years ago, and 20 lbs heavier. It was the worst time I've had. The sun was burning hot, the landscape was dry and burnt, the hills and elevation were just hell. I must have stopped every minute on the way up and down. It took us 6 hours that day if I remember correctly and I vowed never to go to Mission Peak again. Here I am, +20lbs:


Ok, fast forward to today. I finally got myself to Mission Peak at 6pm to meet Tim. We started walking and walking. The grass was green, the weather was great - not so hot with a bit of a breeze. We were up to the top at 7:45pm where the only place I struggled was the last bit of steep rocks. We saw a beautiful sunset all the way up and also ran into huge cows grazing. We only paused to rest/take pictures a few times and I felt great.

On the way down it was dark but the moonlight and stars quickly lit things up. It also wasn't too cold. We even took lots of night photos and played with light painting. By the end of it, I still can feel my legs. My lungs didn't feel like it wanted to collapse. And the light burn that I feel in my tummy and abs and legs feel great. It sure makes a huge difference to not have to carry an extra 20lbs when hiking!

We made it down at 9:30pm in time for some great Izakaya food at en. The sashimi was so fresh. The oden was delicious. The tofu was so nice and soft. I'm not sure if we were hungry that everything tasted incredibly good or if the restaurant is actually the great. Indeed Yelpers like it too. I'll definitely go back.

What a great relaxing and rewarding day to balance out the rough couple weeks.