Black Mountain Backpack outing

Monday: (02/01) I went to Los Altos Taqueria in Mountain View and got us all Huevos Rancheros for breakfast. I spent most of the rest of the day cleaning out some of the junk in my shop. That wasn’t the original thought. I planned on starting to install the forms in the arbor. It was still rather muddy but I have a couple of days with possibly no rain so I thought I'd start. I needed to get into my shop and, because of the high winds, I locked the shop door. I couldn’t get it unlocked today. I needed to enter the shop via the second door. But, there was nothing but junk and wood scraps in the way. I cleared it out and disposed of some of it , reorganized other stuff. I filled the garbage bin with a bunch of the scrap wood. I only kept the bigger, better pieces. Lou provided some flan that she made for lunch. For dinner I had a chilli relleno bowl.

Tuesday: (02/02) Cloudy but no rain today. Some showers last night. More activity down the street. Moving the last of the equipment out this morning. Breakfast from Happy Donut, my usual sausage egg and cheese English muffin.

Wednesday: (02/03) Granola and a banana for breakfast. Pizza from Chicago Pizza for lunch. Mexican food from the freezer for dinner. Busy day watching the construction site and tinkering on the computer. A mostly sunny day. I rechecked my backpack load for tomorrow's hike.

Thursday: (02/04) I was up early and headed off after breakfast just after 0700 hedging out through Barron Park and along the Bol Park Trail to the Arastradero Trail and up into Arastradero Preserve, Foothills Park, Los Trancos preserve, and into Monte Bello Preserve to Backpackers Camp on top of Black Mountain. It was a sunny day but very windy and cold at the camp. I arrived at 1420 but spent most of my time in my tent.

Friday: (02/05) I was back on the trail just after 0700 and explored a side trail on top then headed down via the Black Mountain Trail through the Rancho San Antonio Trail. I exited at the Rhus Ridge TH then walked back home. I was back home by 1230. A nice 26.9 mile hike with 3248 feet of elevation gain. Nice hike except for the wind at the camp.

Saturday: (02/06) I worked on installing the form for the edging in the arbor. I also made a run to Ace Hardware for some screws for the forms. Waffles and sausage for breakfast. Spaghetti with meatballs for lunch. Chinese from Lucky Chinese Bistro for dinner.

Sunday: (02/07) Leftover Chinese food for breakfast. I responded to my jury summons. I have to call noon Monday. I worked outside on the concrete forms for the arbor. I ran out of wood stakes so I headed off about 1530 to get more. Lou made chicken salad for lunch and we had tomato soup and toast for dinner.