My body is sore as hell from yesterday’s hike and the scrape on my right hand is bothering me because the bandaids keep falling off where I bend my wrist. Aside from that it was a good day. I did a bit of active recovery and went on 3 mile walk at Hellyer Park. I hope I start feeling better tomorrow and that it’s not a case of delayed onset muscle soreness. Ain’t nobody got time for that!

I went out with the intention to finish hiking the remaining trails at Joseph D. Grant County Park today and being 100% done. I came pretty damn close. I started at the Grant Lake Parking lot and walked almost a mile on Mount Hamilton, where they were laying down fresh new asphalt, to reach the Washburn Trail trailhead. Then I walked to the barn. From there I hiked up to Tamien Trail and got lost at the end of that trail before coming back to Washburn. That’s when it got cold and overcast. I hustled the rest of the way on the Cañada de Pala and Los Huecos trails because it was getting close to closing time and I was afraid my car would get locked in the parking lot over night. Because I was in a rush I slipped coming downhill and scraped my right palm. It stung and got a little bloody but it wasn’t bad. It hurt more using the hand sanitizer when I got to my car. It was past closing time and luckily the gate wasn’t closed. I didn’t want to press my luck so I left. I’m gonna have to come back and do that remaining 1/10 of a mile on the Yerba Buena Trail in a few days and be 100% done hiking all of Grant Park.

I went to Ed R. Levin County Park for the first time on Sunday. I wanted to hike all of the Agua Caliente Trail but I had to turn around, with less than .6 miles to go, so I could be out of the park by closing time. It was beautiful. Saw lots of animals including 2 snakes, one on the trail and the other in the dog park being escorted out by security. I can’t wait to come back. I’ll probably start hiking all the trails at Ed R. Levin when I’m done with Joseph D. Grant.

My buddy and I went on a hike at Alum Rock Park this morning. We saw deer, ducks & fish as well as some cool human-made stuff. Tonight I did some new sketches based on an idea a few days ago for a possible future project. More on that later.

I got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine this morning. I didn’t have any reactions besides my arm getting a little sore on the injection site. My appointment for the second dose is in 4 weeks. I hear that one might be a doozy.

The day started off awesome. It started with a walk at Lake Cunningham with my buddy then followed by some day drinking downtown. I can’t hang like I used to because when I got home I passed out and woke up hours later thinking it was the next morning. I’m a little bit hungover but still feeling good.

I also got news that all people, 16 and older, living or working in Santa Clara County are now eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, days before the rest of the state becomes eligible. I signed up and got my appointment set for later this morning.

The website to schedule an appointment is https://vax.sccgov.org/home

My legs were no longer sore and I was feeling good so I went on hike at Alum Rock Park. The South Rim Trail, from the No Horse Bridge to the Sycamore Switchback Trail, reopened after being closed all of last year so I hiked that. I saw some wildlife feasting, drew in my sketchbook a few times, and found spring water bubbling out of a hole in one of the parking lots. When I got in my car to leave I felt something on the back of my neck and found it was a little green worm. Gross!
At 7.43 miles, and almost 1,000 ft of elevation, this was a great warm up for my upcoming hike at Joseph D. Grant County Park. Hopefully my legs aren’t completely dead tomorrow.

My legs are pretty sore from yesterday’s hike. It was only 4.23 miles with not much elevation gain but since I haven’t hiked in over a month I’m a bit out of shape. I was hoping I could jump back in and go do the last hike at Grant Park, which is more than double what I did yesterday, but I’m gonna need to train a bit and hike other trails before doing that last stretch. Depending on how I’m feeling tomorrow I might go hike somewhere else to keep this momentum going.

I went on my first hike in over a month. I went to Grant County Park to finish the Smith Creek Trail and crossed the water this time. I slowly and carefully stepped on the big rocks and made my way across the creek without falling or getting my boots wet. When I reached the end of the trails I sat down beside the creek and drew in my sketchbook for half an hour. I drew one of the big rocks sticking out of the water. After a month of no hiking I’m a little out of practice and will need to hike other trails to prepare for my final hike at Grant to be 100% complete.

After 2 days of pulling all nighters working at my brother’s studio I took Thursday off to get some rest and do a little self grooming. I hadn’t trimmed my beard in almost 2 months.

I'm back home after spending the last 3 weeks in Hawaii. I'm getting another covid test, after being on a plane for 5 hours, just to be safe. So now I got a hot date with a cotton swab Thursday afternoon. I've got no complaints about getting tested but I do look forward to getting vaccinated as soon as I'm eligible. 

Today I got a covid test and it was much more pleasant than the last time I got in June. I made some minor tweaks to my heart-eyes logo and uploaded it to Instagram for Valentine’s Day. Several friends said I should make it into a shirt and I just might. I also finished the “Scents by Drea” label design for my friend. I’m still working on a logo design for another friend which I’m almost done with.

I knocked out 10 miles of new trails Monday afternoon at Grant Park. That leaves me with approximately 5 miles of trails to hike before I can say I’ve hiked all of Joseph D. Grant County Park.

I went on a 7.59 mile hike today and I’m closing in on my goal of hiking every trail at Joseph D. Grant County Park. I still have about 15.5 miles of trails to cover, not including the distance to reach those trails. I’m hoping I can finish in the next 2-3 visits.

I hiked a few new trails at Joseph D. Grant County Park and took some pictures. I’m almost done hiking every trail there. It’ll probably take me 3-4 trips to cover the perimeter and a couple more to hike the trails I missed.

I visited Henry Cowell State Park today for the first time. I went with some friends. We parked somewhere along highway 9 and moved fast towards the San Lorenzo river. By the time we reached the water we’d already gone on a few sketchy trails and we were gonna go on more questionable trails along the river towards The Garden Of Eden. A few of us didn’t feel comfortable going that way so we all turned back the way we came then followed the train tracks to the swimming hole. There were a few people there, including an annoying group playing music really loud on their portable speaker. We hung out for a little while before following the train tracks some more then heading back to our cars. The maps I brought, and my phone’s gps, weren’t very helpful because we didn’t enter through any of the designated entrances and there weren’t any trail markers anywhere. I still had fun but next time I’ll come better prepared and take my time and really enjoy it.

It feels like an adventure, exploring new places with the help of a map. Instead of carrying a sword I got a small pocket knife. My phone’s gps serves as my compass. Grant Park has wild pigs and Hyrule has moblins. Today (Wednesday) I came across a hallowed out tree that looked like the the entrance to level 1 from the original Legend of Zelda for the NES. I was wearing my Zelda: Wind Waker mask today too FTW.

This is my 500th blog post! It'd be cool if I had some profound shit to write about. Instead I'm sharing the collection of maps I've printed, highlighted and carried with me on my hikes over the last couple months. I've thrown them away and fished them out of the trash at least twice now and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with them.

The whole thing started after Covid struck and my gym was forced to close. I started going to Lake Cunningham Park to walk & run until that got boring so I started hiking the Eagle Rock Trail at Alum Rock Park. I kept hiking the same trail over & over till I decided to explore the rest of the park. In November I decided I was going to hike every trail at Alum Rock before the end of the year. I finished Alum Rock sooner than expected and moved on to the Sierra Vista Open Space Preserve and managed to hike all those trails before New Years. Now I'm working on completing Joseph D. Grant County Park and I'm about 1/4 to 1/3 of the way done. Since Grant Park is so big, and has tons of trails, I've been selecting my route and printing a portion of the map (middle pic) to carry in my pocket. When I get back home I highlight the trails I hiked that day on to the full map (bottom.) I'm hoping to finish Grant Park in February and starting someplace new. I'm thinking Ed R. Levin Park.

I’m making it sound a lot cooler than it really is but I went on a 6 mile hike this afternoon and covered new trails, bringing me a tiny bit closer to completing the whole park. I saw a few animal bones, large moss covered rocks, a fallen tree obstructing a bike trail, a tree that looks like it belongs on a motivational poster, the ass-end of huge grasshopper or something and views of Lick Observatory & the valley below from the top of the Yerba Buena Trail. When I left the park I drove further up Mount Hamilton Road to check out the Twin Gates parking lot & trail head and the Smith Creek Fire Station. On the way I up a saw a coyote eating a dead snake on the side of the road (see video) then again posing for sunset photos on my way back down.

The day started off with an early morning hike at Grant Park with my friend Martine. I was already running late due to phone issues then I was stuck behind a slow moving fire truck for miles going up the narrow winding road leading to the park. Then the hike was cut short after realizing I’d made a wrong turn and we were headed backwards. After coming home, a little disappointed in myself, I showered and got ready to go shopping. I went to the new Costco Business Center near the house, Office Depot across town, a regular Costco, then to the Safeway back home. I had about half a cart full of groceries and was next in line at the check out stand when I noticed the guy behind me only was buying a single bouquet of flowers so I let him go in front of me. After he paid for his flowers and left I loaded my items on the conveyer and walked up the cashier who said the guy had given her $20 to pay for part of my groceries. How cool was that? And as an added bonus I received an additional $10 discount at the register. What an awesome way to end a long day.