Hiking Archives

Hiking Sugarloaf Mountain in San Mateo

Paulina DaoFebruary 24, 20171688 views

Three day weekends are not for sitting around. With the constant downpour California has been receiving, there was no place dry this past weekend within a reasonable driving distance. Josh and I got out on Sunday for a little bit. Suddenly, I remembered what it was like to be outside and not sloth-y. Josh had school on Monday so I was stuck at home sans car.

Try as I might, I laid in bed, watched TV, made biscuits… but by the time noon rolled around, cabin fever had hit. It was time to get out of the house. Luckily, there’s a good number of parks within walking and biking distance of where I live. I put on all the waterproof stuff I own and headed out into the downpour to Laurelwood Park to summit Sugarloaf Mountain.

Hiking Purisima Creek Redwoods

Paulina DaoFebruary 20, 20170821 views

It’s basically been raining in the Bay Area for the last 2 months. Save for a couple patches of sunlight here and there, I’m beginning to think I live in the Pacific Northwest. The gloomy weather has made outdoor climbing more or less nonexistent. Our favorite local crag, Castle Rock, is soaked. Yosemite Valley and Bishop have mostly been under snow, or just too wet to climb. Most of my free time has been spent training or hibernating or some combination of the two. Finally, this past weekend, we decided to get out and stretch our legs; rain or shine. Our pick was Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve just south of Half Moon Bay.

Hiking Castle Crags

Paulina DaoMay 23, 20160665 views

I feel like a reoccurring theme in my life is bad weather on climbing weekends. Josh and I drove up to Castle Crags for a weekend to hop on the Cosmic Wall for some nice, runout easy trad, but once again, Mother Nature threw a wrench in our plans.

Hiking Lower Echo Lake

Paulina DaoMay 11, 20160545 views

Even with ski resorts closing their doors for the season and uncharacteristically warm weather in the Bay Area, winter is still very much alive and kicking in the Sierra. After a short day of wrestling pebbles and battling high winds on Hogsback, Josh and I called it quits and decided to go catch a sunset somewhere. We always talk about sunset, but by the time the sun starts to go down, we’re maybe still stuck on a route, or bouldering stoke is high, or we’re in the midst of preparing dinner. We headed east on highway 50 with Lower Echo Lake in mind, something nice and easy that we could drive up to and relax at.

Hiking Lake Matheson, New Zealand

Paulina DaoMay 9, 20161873 views

The rain doesn’t stop on the West Coast of New Zealand. It pours and pours and pours. My trip onto the glacier was canceled due to inclement weather. Shoes were still still soaking wet. The giant bed in the hostel welcomed me with loving arms. My desire to lay around was very, very high. I thought about walking all the way out to Lake Matheson, but with the previous day’s soaking excursion still in mind, I wussed out and paid an old man a few dollars to drive me there and back.