Hiking in the Muir Woods

A couple of weeks ago, I found myself in California for a wedding. Not only did I see a side of my family that I haven't seen in over 10 years, but I also got to show off Jim to the family and some remaining friends that haven't met him.

On a side note, Gianna is the only friend left to meet him.

In 2011, I went hiking with Ashley in which we hiked the Redwoods and up to the top of Mission Peak. Since we were staying with Ashley, I immediately got excited about hiking again. Jim likes to hike, which made the selling of this particular activity easy. I wanted to do something similar to what I did in 2011, because I wanted to show Jim the majestic redwoods. We decided upon Muir Woods National Monument, which was new to me and a location site for Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Ashley, Matt, Jim, and I headed to Muir Woods on Sunday afternoon, with a quick stop to the Golden Gate Bridge Vista Point.

Jim and I at the Vista Point, photo courtesy of Matt. 

We got those stereotypical fog postcard pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge.

We got there a little late than expected and ended up parking miles away from the main area. Consequently, we looked like this until we decided to lay caution to the wind and go left.

But this doesn't match the map, but doesn't map what's on the GPS...Where are we? Where do we start? What do we do?

So, we went to the left. There's a reason why everyone headed to the right...to the main area. We knew the reason in about 15 steps. It was freaking so steep. I didn't stretch. I didn't prepare. I didn't expect for the steepness. I had a lot of stops. And if I had a dollar for every time Matt said that we are at the crest and weren't, I would be a millionaire.

We saw people always going the other way and some of them even running (showoffs). And when we got to the top, we didn't see the ocean, because of the fog. Oh well, maybe another time. 

Finally, we made it in to the redwoods part of the Muir Woods. They started out thin and gradually got bigger and bigger. The best part was that there was very little people, which made for great pictures. 

Jim and I barely make the base of this trunk. Photo courtesy of Matt.

Come on you two...we are trying to hike. 

Again, we were on the hunt for the elusive banana slugs.

Maybe this time of year, they are yellower instead of just blah yellow.

When we got the bottom, we were hit with the crowds and after all that bitching from me, I was glad we went the way we did. My new Merrell walking shoes gave me blisters and I'm hoping that it was the socks that I wore. Matt figured out that we did roughly 4-6 miles with 1,500 ft of elevation each way. Wow! No wonder I was sore for the next couple of days.

He's always got to point out the rebellion.

It was one hell of a workout and I was so glad that we did it. We even are in talks for all four of us to hike Yosemite next September.

Have you hiked the Muir Woods? This was my first time. 

Did you see in lost apes? Sadly, I didn't see any apes on this trip, but I think I heard some. 

Have you hiked Yosemite before? I'm hoping we make this happen.


These are my favorite pictures of the trip, which I'm only adding three so not to bore you even more.

Courtesy of Matt.

Courtesy of Matt.

She's at it again.

I'm almost to the end of my first week after surgery and I must say that it sucks. I'm only thankful that I have been through this before and have a routine. I'm better today and able to put more weight on the foot each day. Here's hoping this last six weeks! Any help, suggestions, or advice on some exercises is greatly appreciated.