Hiking by moonlight

I've hiked Mission Peak in Fremont quite a few times. We used it as a training hike when we were preparing for our Yosemite Half Dome hike several years ago.

The hike itself is 5.6 miles with an elevation change of 2200 feet. It's steep and not easy!

On a typical summer day, Mission Peak becomes so hot during the hike that you might feel as if you're an ant under a magnifying glass. Lots of people (my husband and I included) usually hike Mission Peak early in the morning to avoid this issue. (On those days, we start hiking at 6 or 7am! Ugh)

But it's now winter in the San Francisco Bay area, which means colder temperatures and sometimes rain, so heat is not an issue now. (For those who've never been to San Francisco, contrary to what you may have seen on tv, not all areas of California are sunny and warm year round.)

Last week, I hiked Mission Peak under the full moon with some friends. It was a great hike but definitely COLD! At the start of the hike, the outside temperature gauge in my MINI Cooper said it was 51 degrees.

Before starting the hike, I layered up with my: Lululemon workout tank top and long sleeve shirt, ski jacket, gloves, Lululemon hat, long johns, and long workout pants. As you can tell, I'm a little crazy about the Lululemon brand....and for good reason: everything I've bought is high quality! I love REI, but I actually prefer Lululemon's workout clothes over those I've bought from REI. Probably Lululemon's only drawback is that their products are a little higher priced (but again, higher quality too!) than that of a similar item from somewhere else. For those wondering, my long sleeve shirt is really a Run Hills Pullover II from Lululemon, which looks like this, only mine is an aqua green color. I know I'm starting to sound like an advertisement, but their clothes are great!

Anyway, enough about my exercise fashion--back to the hike! I hiked a little of the way with my ski jacket on and then found I was getting too warm and had to take it off, so I hiked a lot of the way in my long sleeve shirt. Mission Peak's summit is usually colder and windier than the rest of the hike and last week was no exception. I have no idea of the actual temperature at the summit, but it was windy. One of the hikers was waiting at the summit for at least a couple of hours...her face looked a little wind burned when we got there. When we reached the top, I had to put my ski jacket back on and also put an additional ear warmer on top of my hat. My hands got cold after only a few minutes at the summit, so I even broke out the Hand Warmers that I found earlier tucked in with the rest of our ski gear. Those took a few minutes to heat up, but once they did, I was glad I'd brought them! About halfway down Mission Peak, the inside of my gloves felt like they were on fire (ok, not really, but they were hot!). Did I mention how COLD it was?! I checked the outside temperature gauge again as I was leaving Mission Peak, and it said 41 degrees. (The temperature dropped 10 degrees in about 3 hours!)

Even though it was cold, it was a great hike. I felt a little insane when we were starting the hike from the parking lot, but at least I was in good company. The friends that I hiked with went quite a bit faster than I think I normally would have, which made the hike challenging for me too. So would I do a night hike again? Definitely! (But maybe I'll wait until February or March when the weather starts warming up a little bit.)

Incidentally, the weather turned a little cold in the last couple of days, and this morning there was snow (yes, SNOW!) on the tops of some of the nearby mountains, including what looked like Mission Peak. Most or all of the snow that looked to be on Mission Peak had already melted by this afternoon, but what a shock: one week--hiking; the next week--snow!

(I didn't receive any compensation from Lululemon for mentioning their workout clothes on my blog. I'm just another satisfied customer.)