Thursday, February 7, 2013

Exploring San Jose

What a ridiculous day. Hardly any sleep, rushing home at 5 am to get to the airport at 6, flying across the country and getting into San Jose by noon PST. This is when I realized that the company had only flown me out on Wednesday, leaving me by myself for the whole day. Sweet.

So what else was I to do? I took off towards aldum rock, a state park with highly reviewed hiking trails and scenic spots. The metro/train station was right outside my hotel, so I jumped aboard about as happy as can be... Before realizing my destination had 23 stops In between. The ride took an hour and a half long to complete, but it offered a great view of the city and Silicon Valley. I saw the headquarters of the likes of Samsung and Adobe.

When I finally reached my stop, I realized that I was still 2.8 miles away from the state park entrance. Crap! I almost thought about jumping back on the train, but I was not going to give up that easy. Strapping my backpack as tightly to my body as possible, I began to run. I had to follow aldum boulevard for 3 miles, which was simple enough until it began to slope upwards and the sidewalk disappeared. I found myself balancing on the side of the road, as far away from traffic as possible. I even held my thumb out a few times, but no one slowed down. About 55 minutes later, I had arrived to the entrance of the park! Walking inside, I was overcome with this overwhelming sensation that the previous 3 miles was just to warm my legs up. This park was vast, much more expansive than I had originally thought. I immediately spotted the tallest mountain bald, and made a mental note to not leave the park without climbing to the top, even if it means straying off the trail.

The first trail was pretty nice, leading up to a steep pile of rock that I was able to climb to get an awesome panorama shot of the valley below. From there I took the path east, which is where the real hiking began. I noticed a smaller trail branching off the main path, and I swear it was calling my name. I immediately began climbing it, and an hour later I found myself on a beautifully sculpted trail meandering through rolling hills. It looked like a scene out of lord of the rings. I hiked ever higher and higher and eventually saw the top of the mountain that I wanted to climb. With excitement, I ran off the trail and crawled on hands and knees up the grassy face of the hill, so steep at points that I found myself sliding down regardless of how hard I dug my fingers and toes in the ground. Half an hour later with every muscle in my body on fire, I was on top of the tallest mountain in sight. It was surreal knowing That I had been lucky enough to fly to California for free, and then to partake in such an exhausting but rewarding adventure. As I sat at the top admiring the view, a guy in his mid 30's came by on a mountain bike. We began to talk about all things hiking when he suggested that I go to glacial national park in Montana, a place he never gets tired of... Even after 20 years of going. I thanked him for his advice and finally began making my way down as the sun was beginning to set. On the way down I ran into a herd of bull, and took my chances in trying to pet one. I thoroughly enjoyed myself as I walked down, taking in as much of the beautiful view as possible.

In all, I calculated over 14 miles of hiking and 3 hours spent on a train. After getting back and solving a dispute over my room, Chris and I went and drank a few beers where I was able to finally relax and enjoy a cheese steak and two fat tires.

What an awesome day

jogged/walked 3 miles down Aldum Blvd. Hitchhiking did not work
Entrance to the park





Which way to go?!














Made friends along the way


Could walk along this forever


No comments:

Post a Comment