pinnacles
Yesterday, David & I went to Pinnacles National Monument and hiked the Chalone Peak Trail. Round trip, it was just over 8 miles, which is a new distance record for a hike for David (and I think the 2nd longest hike I've ever done). As the name of the trail suggests, it goes all the way out to the summit of North Chalone Peak, which is 3304ft. The hike out is uphill the entire way, although all but the last quarter mile isn't all that steep. We got there at 8AM, and were the first in the parking lot. When I left the house just over an hour earlier it was 41F, and when we parked, it was 26F! Needless to say, we were just a bit chilly, but he hiking kept us warm. The views along the hike up were quite nice. There was some old watch tower at the summit, that we could see for miles away. The hike out is uphill the entire way, although all but the last quarter mile isn't all that steep. But that last quarter mile was brutal, and was greater than 45 degrees. To make matters more difficult there was a locked gate just a few hundred feet from the summit. For reasons unknown, the park service locked the gate, even though there was no warning at the trailhead. We ended up just climbing over the fence, to go the rest of the way. So we did the 4.1 miles in about 2.5 hours. Once at the summit, we had a good lunch, and I took a few pictures. The valley below was still burning off the early morning fog. The hike back only took about 95 minutes, and was mostly uneventful.
Once I was home for a few hours, Denise noticed that the entire toe area of the sock on my right foot was a brownish red, and looked like it had absorbed alot of blood. I took off the sock to discover that somehow I had vertically split the nail on my 'ring finger' toe, and it proceeded to cut into my middle toe, creating a bloody mess (as I hiked). I'm still baffled how I didn't feel this earlier, as it was a fairly nasty mess.
The rest of the pictures are up here, later to be moved over here.