Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Las Trampas Hike 2010



Today, we went on a hike in the Las Trampas Hills, an area of scenic land in between Danville and Alamo, for Ben to feel more welcome. Apparently, he didn't come. It was just me, Rick, Jaren, Dewlin, Ryan, and Brandon, and then Brother Spencer and Randall were our leaders. Oh yeah, and Randall brought his dog with him.

Anyway, we met at the church and then drove to the trailhead on Remington Drive here in Danville. Apparently, Remington Drive is not far from Town and Country Drive, where Dallin, Alec, Ryan, and I did Scouting for Food back in November. So, the houses around us looked very familiar.


Ryan was kind of surprised!


We started hiking up the Las Trampas Ridge Trail at a small slope.


A cow kept staring at me and Rick.


Randall let his dog run around, and sometimes we had to yell at him to come back.


The higher we hiked, the more we could see Mt. Diablo, so I took this self portrait with the mountain in the background.


We also found a stinkbug. Dewlin stepped on it, and it stuck it's butt in the air. We backed away so we wouldn't get the smell stuck on us.


We took a rest stop in a small alcove with a little bay laurel tree.


If you crush up a bay laurel leaf, it smells very minty.


We climbed around on the branches of the bigger trees, and then continued hiking.


And then we came at a fork-in-the-road. We could have either gone up to a big tree up on the ridge, or down to a pond to hunt for frogs. We chose the pond.


And yes, we saw cows along the way.


Now, the pond wasn't really the prettiest pond in the world.


Kind of swampy.


But there were frogs everywhere! They were small, because they had just come out of their pollywog stage.



I caught one by the head.


It jumped out of my hand, but then I caught it by the legs!


We went around about a third of the pond, just hunting for frogs.



And then it was time to head back. We hiked back to the Las Trampas Ridge Trail, and then back down the way we came, with the view of Mt. Diablo still ahead of us.


We kept on hiking down. When the dirt trail became a paved road, we knew we were close. And then, we got to the front gate.


Oh yeah, and Randall showed us his multi-tool that I got him for his wedding gift.


After taking a group picture (above), we got back in Brother Spencer's car and Randall's car, and drove back to the church.



So, this wasn't really the biggest hike we've done, but it was still kind of fun!

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