get going

Mt. Wittenberg

merde

the flora

panoramae

all done

There are many trails from which to choose; our favorite is the loop which brings us to the Mt. Wittenberg summit. (Actually, we've only once climbed from the false summit, the local maxima, to the real summit, which is tree-bound and not as interesting as one might hope for. Hey, a trip to the Italian Alps it isn't.)

Here's a panorama of the main intersection of paths on the way to Mt. Wittenberg.

One of the things I love about hiking in the outdoors, especially early in the morning, is the wildlife that can be seen. Especially the amphibians and reptiles, before the sun bakes them into wakefulness. (There was this time in Yosemite, you see, where Dave and I came across two very sluggish rattlesnakes...)

This area is just north of "Hawk Alley", the most concentrated migration choke point for raptors known in the world. From Mt. Tamalpais one can see dozens of varieties of hunting birds, especially during the migration season. I wasn't much of a birder before meeting Rose, but now I get pretty excited when I hear the scream of a red-tailed eagle, or see a falcon swoop out of the sky, getting the drop on some prey. We even have a sparrow hawk who lives just up the hill from our house.

Rose was pregnant [update: with our son, Isaac] and so our pace wasn't perhaps as fast as it's been in visits past. Still, we made to all the spots we wanted to see. This picture, for example, shows us at the true summit. There's less to see here than from the false summit. But we had to reach the top, peak baggers we :-)

Now we continue to the, how do I say it, crappy part of our trek.