A new year, new challenges.

I always try to do a big hike to end a year and a big hike to start a year.

This New Years, that was complicated by my left foot injury and rain.

A LOT of rain.

While it wasn’t planned to be my last hike of the year, the rain ended up making my Briones Ridge Loop hike on the day after Christmas my last hike. It can be anywhere from 4 miles to 10 miles depending on what route I take to return to my Jeep.

I have new orthopedic insoles that I’ve been using and slowly increasing my mileage on my day hikes. So, doing the Briones Ridge is a good trail to use that would allow me to cut my hike short if my left foot started to hurt.

The start involves a steep climb up to the ridge, but after that the trail just dips up and down as it meanders along the ridge line.

Pretty overcast, but occasionally there were some nice things to see. In the end, I came down from the ridge on the Seaborg Trail. No particular reason to cut it short, just didn’t feel like doing the big loop over Russell Peak.

About a mile later, my foot did start having some discomfort, but not pain. So I finished with 8 miles that day, with some discomfort during the last mile.

Still healing.

Work and rain kept me off the trails until New Years Day. Due the huge amount of rain we had gotten, my desire to hike at Mt Diablo was not a good choice. Some of the trails at that State Park turn into mud and are a bear to hike through after a lot of rain.

While we need the rain, I’d prefer it during the work week. 🙂

So, I ended up going to the Nimitz Trail that crossed the ridge from Tilden Park to Wildcat Canyon park. Since it was paved for 4 miles from Inspiration Point, this was my ‘go to’ trail after there has been a lot of rain. And it also had a lot of nice views of the Bay and Mt Diablo.

Not too much elevation change over that 4 miles, but enough to get some exercise. Once I took a break at the bench at the end of the pavement, I turned around and returned the way I came.

There were some more trails that I could hike in this park (such as down into Wildcat Canyon itself), but like Mt Diablo those trails tended to get a bit muddy after a lot of rain.

The best part of the day was that I never had any pain or discomfort in my left foot. While that was an improvement over the hike at Briones, this hike didn’t have any steep ups or downs.

But every little step helps.

For 2023, I am planning on going back to Japan for the first time since 2016. This trip has been delayed three years due to the Olympics and COVID-19.

I’m hoping to do some hiking in the Central and Southern Japan Alps. I had done some hiking in the North part of this range of mountains, so these will be new treks for me. Not sure yet if I’ll do Mt Fuji this year, but there are two other trails I haven’t hiked up or down on Fuji-san, so that could be a nice excuse to climb Fuji-san for the third time.

I also have some left overs from last year I could end up doing: Finishing my PCT Section I and K Hikes, do the little Agnew Meadows detour that PCT takes away from the JMT, and maybe doing PCT section G from Walker Pass to Crabtree Meadows (with Mt Muir, Whitney, Russell, and Williamson as possible climbs at the end).

As always, shorter hikes could present themself including a Winter backpacking trek. We have plenty of snow, but I have to wait for some clear weather and good trail conditions.

Here’s to a very exhausting 2023!! 🙂