Hike in Hayward Hills
Christine and I take turns hanging out with Anders in the afternoons. Sometimes we do what Anders wants to do, which is invariably either the library or the park. Some days, we do what we want to do like go to the mall, hardware store, go to the bank, or run errands.
On the days that Christine and Anders are out romping, I try to head out to the Hayward Hills trail in the next canyon over. It is 3.5 miles of uphill and downhill rolling terrain. The entire trail is under a dense canopy of trees that shelters hikers even on the hottest days. The trail follows a two streams that carve out the canyon face.
What I like about the trail is that it changes every time I hike. The steep terrain makes it hard for the trees to establish a firm foothold. Any rainstorm will cause a number of weaker to trees to fall. The dense vegetation amplifies the competition for sunlight. You see trees bending their trunks, growing parallel to the ground, to work around other more established trees. Naturally, these two factors don’t work well together, and calamity ensues, big trees fall, some with trunks larger than my arms in a bear hug.
I used to run these trails when I was in better condition. Lately, I’ve been trying to slow down. Bringing my camera along with me, I had goals other than to use nature as a treadmill and spend more time in appreciation.
