This is the first Cross, awesome view of San Jose below.
...Recovering from our first good hike in the mountains!
This morning we did the 3 crosses hike just up the mountain from where we’re staying. Thanks to Kenny and Nonnette who showed us how to get here earlier in the week. Again the GARMIN was invaluable in getting us there and back again.
Got to the starting point (an Italian restaurant) shortly after 8 am, we wanted to get going early because the forecast was hot and sunny (so much for the rainy season so far). You’ll see by the pics in the album that we started at a pretty high elevation, our ears popped a few times on the drive up to it.
The hike to the first cross was relatively easy but it was dry and dusty going and the path, well it varies from wide and not bad to narrow, sandy and lots of loose rocks so you have to really watch where you’re going.
When you look up and see the crosses at the start, they don’t look that far apart but boy, the hike between 1 and 2 was challenging. The hike gets quite a bit steeper and the path, well it was “fun” and even by 9 am you could feel the heat baking you. The views from the 2nd cross were pretty amazing.
From the 2nd cross you could see the 3rd one but the hike to it was killer....very steep. People told us that there were individuals who mountain biked this but we just couldn’t see how.
At the 3rd cross we took a good half hour break to enjoy the view and “dry” off in the breeze for which we were very grateful. Checked our location on the GARMIN and the elevation it showed was 2032 m. or just a bit more than 6600 ft. Yeah, we were way up there! No wonder it was a hard hike up!
As we were sitting there, we saw a guy on a bike ride up the path we had just hiked up...unbelievable! And they just kept coming..... probably 15 or so INSANE individuals on mountain bikes. Terry and Tracey you two would have fit right in! :-) They biked right up to the base of the 3rd cross and the comments from the riders were as follows “Holy shit” and similar comments in Spanish...no doubt!
We ended up talking to one of them that spoke pretty good English and the bunch of them do this once a year. Took them just about the same amount of time to ride to the top as it did for us to walk it. But, as the guy said, they had to carry their bikes thru some parts and on some parts of the path, they’d have to try it a few times just to see if they could do it. Like I said, crazy!
They’re definitely into the extreme sports around here, even just riding on the normal roads is extreme given their potholes and traffic.
When they left, they were having a bit of a competition to see who could get down from the base of the cross to the open space below without stopping, then they just left and it looked like they were going off the cliff. Wild to see!
The views from 3rd cross were well worth the hike, especially the side opposite from where we came up. Not sure my pictures did it justice but I tried.
Hiking back down was a lot faster than going up but just as treacherous. Good thing Dave made us those bamboo hiking/walking sticks (and yes fellow Goju enthusiasts, they work quite well as a Bo), because they sure helped stabilize us going down. We still slipped around a quite a bit on the loose rock and sand though....our poor knees! No idea how the insane bikers made it back down but they did, we saw proof in their tire tracks on the way down.
Definitely going to go back and do that a few more times before we leave here since it’s so close.
Sure hope our legs don’t cramp up tonight!
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