We really enjoyed this hike.  You'll need a permit to park on Welch Creek Road at or near the trailhead.  There's a Lower and an Upper Maguire Peaks trailhead.  We chose the upper because it was a little longer, but the lower (being lower) probably has more elevation gain.To get the permit, from I-680 take Calaveras Road past Welch Creek Road and turn left on Geary Road.

This was a great hike.  Parts of it reminded me of the East Bay Parks hikes with rolling hills.  It's a multi-use trail so you'll encounter mountain bikers and equestrians, but all were very nice.  There are a series of loop trails here, so you can pick and choose the ones you want to make as long or short a hike as you like.  We hiked around the circumference, which was about 6.4 miles.

We walked the four treks: Tamang Heritage Trail, Langtang Valley, Gosainkunda and part of Helambu in 17 days. It was really beautiful and we recommend anyone interested to do at least one of these treks. You can see more details on my blog 2ndtrip.blogspot.com

We hired an awesome guide, Sappa Lama Gomso sappagomso@hotmail.com or sappayesnepal@gmail.

Mais uma das tradicionais Tertúlias da Piriquita que termina com um passeio em Monserrate, depois de um pequeno-almoço piquenique onde os travesseiros são obrigatórios.

Pode-se comer no parque de merendas fora do parque, junto à sua entrada. O parque e o palácio só abrem as portas às 10:00.

Another nice ride, this time to the Arte da Guerra (Art of War) exhibition, with a good collection of propaganda from most of the countries involved in World War II.

It is relatively safe to leave your bike locked to the bike holders in front of the Centro Cultural de Belém.

We decided to spend this week of vacancies revisiting Lisbon and her surroundings. This time we made a nice ride to the beach in Costa da Caparica. A long day, but we did manage to stay in the beach a while. We even took a bath.

You may take you bike to the boat. You may also take it to the train leaving from Alcântara-Terra. Avoid the Cova do Vapor. It is really ugly.

Sunday morning. Our kid in Madeira, with his cousins. A whole day for ourselves. How about rediscovering a bit of Lisbon? We took our bikes and this was the result. The light was very beautiful. It always is. It was one of those blue skyed, almost warm winter days, which magically transform Lisbon. The only less good part as lunch. We ought to have entered the restaurant across the street.

Short 3 mile hike with the dogs in the Santa Susana State Historic Park.  Started at the top of Santa Susana Pass at the Rocky Peak exit off Hwy 118.

On 11-20-11 Tom, Jim and I set out to cross from Mentryville (near Stevensons Ranch in Pico Canyon) to Santa Susana Pass (Chatsworth) in the Santa Susana Mountains; a 14 mile route with a few cross-country ridge segments.  Poor visibility in a heavily vegetated cross-country segment forced a turn-around after 5 miles.  Our route was just shy of 10 miles (only part of my GPS track uploaded).

I did an overnight backpacking trip with one my buddies.

This is a difficult section of trail.  There were several areas where we had to navigate over and around car sized boulders.