Hiking Sunol Wilderness - Vista Grande Overlook

Last Sunday, 2nd August, we 9 people hiked Sunol Wilderness. This was my second hiking and a beautiful and scenic one. From Bay Area Bangladeshi Hikers Group it was the third hike. As per Hasinur's information the details are given below.

Hiking Trail: Sunol Wilderness - Vista Grande
Distance: 6.1 miles, Loop
Hiking Time: 3 to 4 hours
Elevation Gain/Loss: +/- 1600 feet
Difficulty Level: Difficult





In a weekday before this hike, we guys went to Union City Sports Authority and bought half pant, t-short, cap and shoe. I liked my Columbia hiking shoe very much and Shahriar also picked the same brand.

We reached the Sunol Regional Park at 7:15 AM and started the trail at 7:45 after waiting for Nitol, Gajendra and Nitol's Indian colleague. They came in a separate car and parked we missed each other as mobile network doesn't work in that area. So they took a different trail in the same area and finished before us.











To see the picture of the hike, please have a look here - http://picasaweb.google.com/ashikuzzaman/Hiking2SunolWilderness#

I was a little tired during the first one-third as it was steeper considering the mission peak trail. However, after that I got geared up and by the time we finished the trail, I thought the trail was too small. It was a more than 6 miles trail that we cover in a little more than 3 hours. Mostazir Bhai was saying, "we are in the middle of nowhere". Hasinur was like, "I wan't to eat Kachchi Biriyani here" and also "this is so beautiful, i want to sit down here for couple of hours, you guys go ahead". It was really beautiful and a real hiking place. Before we reached the Grande Vista Overlook (kind of top of this place), a group of aged people with two scary dogs met us. They were pro hikers and we talked to them a bit about hiking in Half Dome. The dogs looked as string as mountain lions and were barking & circling around us. One of those actually touched its teeth in my hand and my water bottle. As a result, after coming back home, I first had a shower before going for my routine Tandoori House lunch taking Shusmita and Ahyan with me.

Our next hike will be at Rancho San Antonio Hike the day after tomorrow. Tonight is the holy night of Shab-e-barat.

Last few days, I finished Isaac Asimov's The Naked Sun the second in the robot series on Detective Elijah Balley. I also read Humayun Ahmed er prem er golpo which I liked very much and Chokhkhe Amar Trishna which I didn't like at all. This makes me feel that Humayun Ahmed writes short stories even better than his regular stories barring Misir Ali novels which are unparallal and is as dear to me as Satyajit Roy's Feluda stories, Asimov's Science Fictions. However, I finished a book with great satisfaction morning today suggested by Ashafaq. This is Shahaduzzaman' short stories and I would suggest anyone reading his books. One of the short story was transleter in English in the Daily Star and you can read it online here although you won't understand his writing strength from the translation. However, I still think he doesn't possess the magical touch yet to make the reader full of emotions like the way Humayun Ahmed does. But different and interesting writings for sure. I am now looking forward to manage his poshchimer meghe shonar shingho, another book of short stories as suggested by Ashfaq again. Shusmita thinks Kushol and Atonu are the think tank behind collecting this kind of books for reading.

Ashfaq had his second son born safely and we went to see the new baby in Palo Alto hospital as well as his house.