Labor Day Outing

Believe it or not, sometimes I partake in activities other than riding my bike! I took the opportunity yesterday on a Monday (day off the bike) which was also a day off work (Labor Day) to go on a fun outing with Greg and Murphy.

We decided to beat the heat and go up the hill to Angeles Oaks (an easy 30-40 min drive or so from our house). I learned from riding up in Big Bear Sunday (Joy's B-day!) with Joy, Matt and Trevor that the thunderstorms would start up right around noon (I am sure Joy and Matt will give some good updates on that outing! My clothes are still drying from that one!). So we planned for around a 2 hour hike before getting deluged with rain/hail/wind/lightning.

We ventured up San Bernardino Peak Trail which I highly recommend! It was beautiful singletrack and we really enjoyed it We are trying to plan an outing to complete the whole climb. This time of year we would have to start hiking around 5 am to make the summit before storms develop. So we might camp part of the way up the night before and summit early. We could also go with Trevor's style of a total green solution: ride MTB from Redlands, stash it at the trailhead, hike all the way to San Gorgonio Peak, hike down, ride back to Redlands and Gourmet Pizza Shoppe for grub.

Murphy was a champion. For his first real off-leash hike, he was great about staying on the trail and not venturing too far ahead of us. He definately wanted to lead the way! He had on his trusty backpack which makes him feel like a real working dog. It definately made him more thirsty hauling that pack up the hill!

It was a really good exercise for myself and Greg to test Murphy's obidience. To our surprise, he did not chase after a single squirrel and responded when we called him to come back to us. Also on the way back down the hill, I was a bit slower than Greg (my knees/legs aren't used to descending like that!), Murphy was behind Greg, in front of me. He would periodically stop and look behind to make sure I was still there. It was a really great experience for us and we definatley want to go do more hikes as a *family*. The thunderstorms rolled in forcing us to head back down, but we got a solid 2 hour hike in. My legs/glutes are feeling it big time today. It was a pretty steep trail and felt fine at the time. Guess I should have stretched before we got in the car!

Beautiful views so close to home