A Walk in the (Woodside) Woods

(You can read about the amazing meal we had after the hike on my other blog)

While I'm not back to regular running quite yet (this week I'm aiming for about 20 miles or so, total, and keep increasing by week until I'm back to 40ish miles a week), I wanted to get out on those trails, and my family happily obliged. 

Weather Saturday was quite wet and stormy, but, once that storm blew through, we were in for a treat - prefect 60 degree weather and crisp blue skies made it the perfect day to be outside. 

Ed went out earlier to get in a 10 miler, while my sister and I had a leisurely start from my apartment around 10:30am. We got to Woodside a little after 11 and headed off onto Bear Gulch trail, wondering how long it would be before Ed came tearing down the trails. 

Answer? Not long. He was surprised he met up with us so close to the trail head, and I had to explain we'd gotten a bit lost on our way up. 

Kortney almost immediately tried to play an April Fools Day joke on him. She had easily got me earlier by telling me she hit a car in our parking lot when she arrived that morning, which I totally bought. Ed, not so gullible. 

After a little over a mile, we happened into this beautiful redwood grove. 

And took a few minutes to take pictures. 

Ed, with his super vision spotted this shy but cute salamander as he traveled through the bushes. 

After another mile or so, we reached a dryer area (fewer redwoods), and entered into beautiful oak trees.

And then? We'd reached it. Our wonderful meadow and the halfway point. Kort was very excited to have gone over 2 miles, since she usually isn't one for a lot of hiking. 

The scenery was, simply put, spectacular. I'm thankful Arizona has many blue skies, since it is something that I love. Of course, the 60 degree temps we had to match were ideal. 

We decided that this was the perfect time to break into the delicious chocolate chip cookies I'd made that morning. Kortney was especially excited about them.

Kort and I took a break here, while Ed went out for an extra mile. There was a perfect bench to sit on and soak in the view.

Once Ed returned, we went on our way. 

Ed suggested that we head out the other way to make our hike a loop. It's always fun to go onto a brand new trail, and this one was pretty, in a very different way from the scenery we had on the way up. 

We saw some beautiful blooming plants, reminding us of how lovely the spring is in the bay area. 

As we passed through a eucalyptus grove, the trees creaked above our heads in the winds. 

As we headed down the trail, we took in some beautiful views of the bay. The weather was beautiful everywhere. 

We made one last stop to check out a very old and very big tree. 

And just a little further down, there were our cars, just as we'd left them. What a beautiful way to spend April 1st.