Rose Peak Hike (April 10, 2010 – Saturday)

Thanks to Chetan for getting permit, planning the hike and driving to it, we all had a great long endurance hike of 20 miles from Sunol Wilderness to Rose Peak. Again this was for preparation for Half Dome and Mount Whitney later in the year. How appropriate was it that there was a place called Little Yosemite which came early on the trail, followed by a rock which looks like Half Dome.

Park opens up at 7, and we reached around that time. Chetan spoke edgily couple of times before start of the hike, about forgetting of key and some other stuff. He apologized immediately. He is a new father; lack of sleep might be the cause. I told him that it was ok, this was our 3rd hike together and it seemed he felt fairly close enough to us to be able to express his angst. Well, at least this was what my manager’s boss told her when she yelled in a meeting. (Ummm…wondering if I can use this reasoning at home. Nope, it would not work.)

Sky was overcast, and ideal for hiking, however I thought it would clear up soon. It didn’t. It became more windy and cold. We missed the trail, had to come back a bit. By now everybody was chatting with gusto. Prasad was fatherly explaining to Chetan as how not to move his hand fast while taking video, sit on his knees to take photos and remove his fingers from flash. Chetan complied dutifully. I did not feel thirsty, and thus was not stopping to drink. All other hikers had Camelback. (Note to self – Remind myself to thank Prasad for taking frequent breaks, otherwise I probably would have been dehydrated)

We talked about the books we just finished. I talked about inverse relationship of praise and kid’s confidence (not that Indian parents have to worry about it); as per the book ‘NurtureShock’. Nitin talked about ‘Autobiography of Yogi’ where in, apart from other things, there was an interpretation of Bible story of ‘Adam and Eve’. As per Nitin, interpretation was that God made humans as perfect where they do not have to eat anything to survive. If they live as per His advice and not give into temptation (apple); they could have lived peacefully forever. Everybody in the group had vehemently agreed on this, that there were people who had survived without eating anything and it was very much possible. And we ate, between 4 of us, three huge omelet sandwiches (Chetan did not eat them as he was vegetarian), 8 half vegetarian sandwiches (thanks to Promila for making cucumber, tomatoes, avocados, chard and alpha-alpha sprouts on oat-nut-whole-grain bread), countless cliff bars, nature bars, biscuits, drank ginger tea; and later in evening, topped it with 7 beers and a large Pizza pie.


Chetan was a walking encyclopedia. He knew so many trails and hikes, it was as if he had been doing them forever. His knowledge about various religions was great. He spoke about rise of Mormon sect of Christianity and temples. And when we were cribbing about the taxes, he told us that they had amended the constitution in 1913, Amendment 16; to collect taxes. His love about Geography was obvious, he knew more than one way whether to explore Cloud Rest, Half Dome, Mission Peak or one of his favorite place, Twin Peaks. I only know Amendment 1 and 5.

Again thanks to Chetan, who decided that Mission Pizza would be a great place to go after the hike. I had to admit here, I did not have high expectations, however, this place truly surprised me. It had 32 beers on tap. It was apparent from the décor, countless beer bottles, photos, live music; that the owner took pride in his work. I was not sure about which beer to get, and I was given sample in chilled glass. Pizza was also one of a kind, overall excellent choice. While everybody else was having second round, two cops came in. I had been told that it was another testimony that Mission Pizza was a great joint, as cops ate at only the best places.

It was apparent that we had a perfect day. It started early, hiked for 10 hours in cool breeze (very windy at the peak), chatted ( occasional swearing), venting, pulled each other legs, lot of sweat (I can tell; as people moved away from me when I was tasting beer at the bar), followed by great pizza and real cool beers.


Well it had to end somewhere. Prasad started to schedule some TV time together with Nitin. Nitin said that he had to check the weather; and he was not talking about the weather outside. We were all thinking of how to bribe our wives to keep this perfect-day-feeling a little bit longer.


Logistics: Drive north on I-680 and exit at Calaveras Road. Turn right on Calaveras and proceed to Geary Road, which leads directly into the park. There is plenty of parking in parking lot. The permit for Sunol wilderness can be bought at Coyote Hills entrance, it is valid for full year ($2/person) More details/Logistics Video