I wasn’t sure what I was going to do for Memorial Day weekend 2024 until almost a week before.

I needed to test out my new tent before my long July trip. It’s a Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 Solution Died. I decided to try it out since occasionally there are fabulous sights on both sides of my tent. I also can get in and out easier since this tent has doors on the sides of the tent like my Fly Creek HV UL1 & UL2 tents. I needed to knwo if the extra 4 ounces were worth the luxury.

I’ve done it several times, but decided to do the Ohlone Wilderness Trail down near Sunol California in the south bay.

So, I headed out mid-day and took BART and a Uber to the Mission Peak Trailhead. It was a hard climb up this trail, but didn’t feel as bad as the last time I had done this particular part of the trail.

After reaching Eagle Springs Backpacker’s camp, I setup my tent and saw the first big difference. The dual vestibules and dual doors made the size of the tent look much bigger than the Fly Creek. If I didn’t need to use one side, I could always not stake that side out. It would depend a lot on the weather. And squeezing into a narrow space may be a lot harder. Time will tell.

I had dinner and spotted a bobcat lower down in the camping area. I wasn’t sure at first that it was a bobcat since you don’t see those too often. But it’s movement we very cat-like and coloring wasn’t right for a coyote. To big for a house cat as well.

Then I headed to the top of Mission Peak to hopefully see the sunset.

The overcast skies had other ideas. While I did get some nice views and a little color, the clouds moved in before the sun would actually set. Still a nice start to the hike.

In the morning, I woke up to a tent that was soaked on the outside. Inside was nice and dry. This campground tended to fog over or get cloud cover overnight, so while it didn’t rain, my tent looked like it did. The site I had put my tent in has a huge tree over it, so I got a lot of dew dripping from the tree overnight and into the morning.

I should have chosen one of the sites that didn’t have much tree cover.

Ah well, I packed my gear and headed East on the Ohlone Wilderness Trail. I was only going to the Sunol Backpackers Campground. A big drop down and then a climb up. It was a nice, but uneventful hike.

I setup my still soggy tent and enjoyed the view from the Oak View site as the tent did dry out over the afternoon. I also had a nice view of the sun setting over the hills to the west.

In the morning there was some light from the sunrise, but I didn’t have a direct view. At that point, I had a choice to continue East to the Maggies Half Acre campsites or go back down to Sunol and get a Uber back to Bart.

That day would have been easy, but the day after was a very long hike to Del Valle Regional Park. The last time I did this hike, I had to hike another 2 miles to get a cell signal to get a Uber.

Since I was satisfied with my tests of my new tent, I decided to forgo the rest of the trip. It was a quick hike down to Sunal and I was home before Noon.

A good trek overall.