Camping on Black Mountain

I was hoping to watch the evening's rather beautiful sunset as we hiked the two miles up to the campsite but we ended up watching it as we drove up Page Mill Road. The last bit of light faded as Amy and I hoisted our packs and started on the trail. Thankfully my brand new, unwrapped from the package in the parking lot, Tikka Plus headlamp (batteries included!) was up to the task.

As I scanned ahead for the trail and the reflection of any eyes peering back at us, I informed Amy what to do if we happened to run into a mountain lion (make lots of noise and fight back if attacked). Around the next bend I stopped Amy to point out a set of eyes a short distance off the trail ahead. Then a second set of eyes turned towards us as I barely made out the shape of their heads. Oh deer.

Further on we rounded another bend to see about 20 sets of deer eyes looking back at us from the hillside across a dark ravine. I figured the odds were against us for seeing any mountain lions with this many deer casually snoozing in the open. Oh well.

The campsite was hard to miss with the payphone beside the trail. Dropping our packs in the dark and with no rush to set up camp we quickly tore into our fresh deli sandwiches from JJ&F Market. Oh yeah.

Now that that was taken care of I figured we should maybe be concerned about Alice, Jared and Bryan finding us. None of them had ever been here and there were several junctions on the trail to the camp. We didn't have to go very far back before spotting their bobbing headlamps.

No campfires are allowed in the preserve so we fired up our stoves for some nice warm cups of hot chocolate to go with our E.L. Fudge cookies. Yummy treats, lights of the bay below us, the stars above, good company and good laughs. Amazing what a 20 minute drive and a two mile hike can give you.