A Different Plan

We had a plan. The plan was to hike the Mount Umunhum trail to the summit.

Then someone sparked a wildfire near the southern end of the Guadalupe Reservoir a few days ago, in a remote section of Almaden Quicksilver Park, and the road we needed to reach Mt. Umunhum was closed.

The fire was out, but crews remained nearby. With no certainty about when the road would be open, it was time for an alternate plan. Keeping it (relatively) local, the Kennedy trail would offer a similar uphill workout—a bit steeper, but with the same option to turn back whenever we'd had enough.

It wasn't especially warm, but it was humid (for the Bay Area). “Enough” worked out to be the landmark tree-in-the-middle-of-the-trail, giving us about 1,000 feet of climbing and a total distance of about 4.7 miles.

One of these days I'll make it to the junction with the Priest Rock trail again. One of these days.