Hawks and Hills

After two weeks of no walking and no socializing because I was in tech for two nights of one acts in rep and working on a plot at the same time, I made plans on Feb. 2nd to go for a walk with someone who I had not seen for a while, mostly because she lives far-ish away.   I picked one of the more southern parks, Pleasanton Ridge so that we could meet in the middle.  I got arrived about 15 minutes early and thankfully so, because the directions that my phone gps gave me were crazy wrong.  I was told to drive up a gated private road, funny how that didn't work out too well. With the help of a map I figured out how to get to the parking area.  I called Amanda, to tell her where about the gps being weird and she was kind of lost thanks to her gps telling her to go a differently weird way, so I got her going in the right direction.

Check it out! A Cattle Gate.

While I waited for Amanda, I walked around the parking area and took a few photos:

Oak trees.  So pretty!

Artsy Oak Trees.

 

 

 

 

 

I sat at a picnic bench with the map, thinking about trails and I started to notice all these hawks flying around.  When I was little I lived close to a little natural history museum where they had local live animals and they would do demonstrations.  I loved the live hawks because they were so pretty and soft.  Yet they were hyper aware of their surroundings and they were dangerous. The handlers had to wear heavy leather gloves to protect their hands from their sharp talons.   Even more exciting was the time that we got to dissect the pellets that they pooped.  They were full of little bones, but so clean. 

Can you see the hawk? (Funny how my phone won't zoom in far enough.) I think I probably saw 10 different hawks just in the parking lot. They would take off from the oak trees, fly around and then fly back to the oak trees.

I love the way the hawks find the air flows and just float around without moving their wings. 

View from the trail. This park is hilly.  Thankfully, we met a nice man who told us to go on the more gradual inclined trail rather than the steep switchbacky trail we were going to hike on.  The weather was amazing. Both Amanda and I had to take off our layers and I was thankful I brought my sun hat to protect my face from the sun.

 There are cows grazing at many of the regional parks right now.  Such a good use of the land and helps with the fire preparedness.

 

 More cows!  We were so close to these guys.  I was a little nervous that they would be hostile, but they just walked away and stared at us as we walked by.  We walked along the Sycamore grove trail and the Oak Tree trail.

A storm knocked over this giant tree. 

I love how this park felt totally different than the other parks I had been too and Amanda and I had a great time catching up.

The Verdict: I would totally come back.  There were a ton of trails we didn't walk on, including walking past the olive grove, or up into the Ridgeline trails.  Plus there is a huge section of the park (where I think the gps was trying to take me), that we didn't even get into where there is a creek.  Plus the hawks were awesome.