Peak Trifecta

I went for a big hike today. I've been up Mission Peak a bunch of times, and I've always been curious about the the transmission antennas on the peaks to the south. In looking at the map, I knew that the peaks had names -- Mt. Allison and Monument Peak. Mt. Allison is 200 feet higher than Mission Peak. From the Google Maps satellite view, I could see that there were trails on these other peaks. So I set out to make a route.

This morning, I parked at Ed R. Levin County Park in Milpitas and started up the Agua Caliente trail. From there I took the Monument Peak trail. Along the way I saw a few people having a great time hang gliding. There were lots of cows on this trail, and they were less inclined to moooooove away than the cows I'm used to.

Monument Peak was about 3.5 miles from the parking lot. At the top were a bunch of microwave transmitters and a HUGE TV transmitter -- about 600 feet tall.

It's a pretty quick hike over to Mt. Allison. Again, microwaves and a couple big TV transmission structures and assorted equipment. What really struck me about this place was that there were street signs and addresses, in what seemed to me to be a very remote area.

From Mt. Allison, it was about a 20 minute hike up to the top of Mission Peak. From that angle, Mission Peak looked AWESOME! So peaky.

Only when I started up the incline to the Peak here did I encounter another person. For the 3 hours prior, I didn't walk past anybody! There were probably 25 people at the top of Mission Peak.

I sped down the peak, getting to the Ohlone parking lot in about 45 minutes. I called Arti, and let her know that I had "landed". I walked up Mission Boulevard, got some frozen yogurt (so good after a long hike!) and walked down to the Park & Ride lot next to the McDonald's at 680.

Total distance was 10.8 miles. I would totally do it again. Maybe this time the other way.

<div class="dipity_embed" style="width:640px">
  <iframe width="640" height="480"
    src="http://www.dipity.com/zs/Peak-Trifecta/embed_tl?"
    style="border:1px solid #CCC;"></iframe>
  <p style="margin:0;font-family:Arial,sans;font-size:13px;text-align:center">
    <a href="http://www.dipity.com/zs/Peak-Trifecta">Peak Trifecta</a>
    on <a href="http://www.dipity.com/">Dipity</a>.
  </p>
</div>

Here's a map with photos that I took along the route...